A few years ago a man named Scully was tempted to move from Pepsi to Apple... he was blown away by the difference in culture. He made this table...
Pepsi he saw as a 2nd wave company and Apple as a 3rd wave (Apple is still the only company to go from scratch to the top 50 companies in the US in five years)... Pepsi board meetings were held round a long rectangular table, the members stood for the entrance of the Chairman, they followed a strict agenda etc. He was approached by Jobbs with the challenge "Do you want to make sugared water for the rest of your career or do you want to change the world' . Scully went. His first board meeting was in a Hotel sat around on the floor in the lounge. Unfortunately Scully tried to change the company to be more like Pepsi, eventually sacking Jobbs... and the company nearly collapsed! Of course we know that Jobbs returned and the company became entrepreneurial again... iPods etc. So is there a lesson here... not to try to move entrepreneurial/Pioneer/Emerging Church into the institutional structure... it might just kill it!
Technorati Tags: Church: Culture: Emerging Church
Cheers Mark. Very interesting
Posted by: Paul Fromont | 27/06/2006 at 00:54
Mark, thanks for this. I find this very stimulating as I am now in post as a DYO - and guess what? The church where i work is sooooooooooo 2nd wave!
Posted by: miz | 27/06/2006 at 07:52
interesting thoughts! but the reality is emerging church in Uk pretty much relies on the fact that it is bank rolled by an institutional structures. In many ways the insitutional structure treats the emerging church/fresh expressions as a new play thing a comical new kitten to be pampered, played with and let out to perform occasionally - and the counter side is the emerging church/fresh expression acts like the stereo typical teenager towards its parents, we are right, you are wrong and we have better toys. How can both sides move on? - dare I suggest, to both sides- humility, discipleship, justice and servanthood would be a good start?
Posted by: suddy | 27/06/2006 at 09:41
Oh Richard... you are sooooo mature ;-) You are of course right in many ways... but... there is definitley something in this entrepreneurship that isn't about 'Fresh Expressions' and 'Old Institutions' but is about operating in an 'adaptive zone' and about releasing gifting. What I was not saying was that Pepsi was wrong in the way it runs its business, on the contrary it is very succesful... just that if you try to change an entrepreneurial culture into an institutional one you are more likely to kill it... and maybe visa versa? It isn't about sides... it never has been for me... yes I may (and believe we need to) deconstruct the modern church; its preoccupations, it's theological obsessions, its missional methodology etc. but it is not about buildinganother 'model' of church but enabling an atmosphere of creativity and freedom for pioneers/entrepreneurs to take risks in engaging with a people who are almost entirely disconnected form Church/religion.
Posted by: Mark Berry | 27/06/2006 at 10:13
Great post Mark - thanks. I think I've even glimpsed the odd flash of 2nd wave behaviour in some ECs, ditto 3rd wave behaviour in the institution...
Posted by: LauraHD | 27/06/2006 at 10:23
Mark: I'd like to point out that the "Suddy" above relates to my bigger, younger, uglier and less subtle brother Tim.....
Posted by: Richard Sudworth | 27/06/2006 at 19:42
Ooops sorry Richard (and Tim)
Posted by: Mark Berry | 29/06/2006 at 00:13