Incarnationally or Organizationally?

My ponder for the week: can we truly live incarnationally when we are organizationally-bound?

Funny to think about it since in my work I have been a big promoter of "organizational development." In Cambodia my job was to help grassroots movements organize themselves better so they could function more effectively and efficiently in the vision/mission they felt called to. While I was convincing on the the outside that this is what these groups needed and this was what Cambodia needed, inside I had my doubts. There is something precious, vivacious and dynamic about grassroots level movements that often dies off if forced to conform to organized systems . . . the systems consume too much energy. Depending on the amount of energy the group has to expend, systemizing small movements could actually mean their death. My question deep down was, "how important are indicators of effectiveness and efficiency?" and ultimately, is "organizationalization" really "development."

Systemizing a grassroots movement could prolong eventual death, because donors love organizational development and will fund grassroots projects as long as they can meet organizational expectations. The sad thing is that the grassroots groups I worked with believed that finding a good donor would sustain their work. Money was the solution to all problems.

The truth was that their verve and vision is what would sustain them. Their energy and commitment is what made the difference in the lives of people they touched. I suspect that in most cases, the most sustainable "development" came from people living within grassroots communities who maybe didn't even have an office, but worked out of their homes and looked for local resources to support their projects or outreach. This form of community-based initiatives can be more holistic because it is less likely to be confined by funding schemes or hierarchical bureaucracy.

So I wonder what role organization has played in the Church. Have we become so over-organized that we are not able to live out our missional call? Are we able to live incarnationally in grassroots ways when we need to expend so much energy to mobilize and sustain large groups of people in congregations. And what happens to our witness when we need to constantly attend to maintenance issues?

The incarnational life of Jesus had so much time for the one-on-one, left such a small ecological footprint on the Earth, lived from day to day without a planner and an organizational flowchart and a budget and yet made such a transformational impact in the society where he lived. His disciples lived and worked with a simple job description of "follow me" and even broke the rules of the Pharisees. They sat with people, broke bread with people . . . and all kinds of people! For the most part, they had time and resources and energy for that calling. What an example!

We talk about New Testament living . . . what would it really be like to live in the New Testament Christian Church. How much organization and money and energy did it take to maintain corporate gatherings? What impact would have been lost had the church skipped the grassroots-level movement. What would be the impact if more of the time and energy we expend on maintaining our buildings and systems and budgets would be freed up for just sitting and drinking tea with those around us. We could sure buy a lot of tea for the cost of a day's worth of maintaining our Church system. Indicators of "mission accomplished" may look different too. Living incarnationally takes a different mind-set. I wonder how much our culture prohibits this kind of living, and at the same time, could really benefit from it.