Have You Tried A Little Decentralization?

Which is easier to kill? A starfish or a spider?

Anyone of you who have tried to catch a spider scooting across the wall in your house might say a starfish, but you're wrong!

If you cut off a spider's legs you slow it down.
If you cut off a spider's head you kill it.

But guess what?

If you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one and here's the crazy part... that leg can grow a new starfish.
If you cut a starfish in four pieces it can become 4 starfishes!

You're probably thinking...

"That's a kinda cool fact, but so what?"

There's a new book out called "The Starfish and The Spider" by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. This book talks about the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations.

The authors say that traditional centralized, top-down organizations are like a spider. You take out the head and it dies! The leader leaves and the whole thing collapses.

A decentralized organization which spreads out the power and relies on peer relationships is like a starfish.

You want an example of a more decentralized organization?

Look at a lot of the new "Web 2.0" companies and you'll see examples. Companies like Craigslist, Skype, and Wikipedia all have a lot of decentralized features.

Did you know that the early church was pretty decentralized?

Paul would go and start a church somewhere and pick people to lead. And then what would he do? He'd leave!

Paul shared his authority with others. He taught them, prepared them and then gave them the authority to lead and run the thing! He trusted the Holy Spirit and the person's relationship with Jesus to keep them on track.

What's that mean for you?

If you want to have a lasting student ministry you need to give away and/or share some (I didn't say all) of the power!

When I was a youth pastor I, at first, tried to do everything myself. I did Wednesday nights and Sunday School, events, etc...

Guess what happened?
Wednesdays were good. Events were good, but Sunday School was just ok.

Why? I couldn't do it all WELL!

What I finally did was hand over Sunday School to one of my leaders back then named Ioannis (pronounce "Yanni" - this is him now).

You know what happened?

Ioannis was able to focus all his energy on it and run with it! He didn't have to always ask me if he could do something (centralization). I trusted him and let him go (decentralization).

And the result?

Sunday School was sooo much better!!! Not only that, I could relax and focus on all the other stuff!!!

When I left that group Ioannis and some of my other leaders where there to help run it and work with the new youth pastor.

Try a little decentralization and see what happens!

Email me and tell me what happens! :)