How do we adapt adrienne maree brown‘s emergent strategy book in a church or non-profit context? To explore this, I’ll be walking through nine principles of emergent strategy.
“Small is good. Small is all.”
In a world that prizes bigness, small is good. In a world where shrinking churches fear dying, small is good. In a world in which we consistently want big to offer options, to manage fear, to hold influence, small reminds that change can happen in the small, the seemingly insignificant.
Small gets such a bad rap.
Yet small means people are known. Small invites personal transformation which can lead to corporate societal transformation. Small brings those leading to the same neighborhood and grocery store as everyone else. Small reminds those who have influence how their decisions impact others.
I love the idea of a player/coach, a figure that knows what is happening on the court as well as has the big picture. I dreamt when I taught high school of a principal who taught or co-taught a course so they would keep their pulse on the life of a teacher and the life of a student. In a small church, the pastor/rector has to be the player coach. They put away dishes, visit the sick, bury the dying, celebrate the joys.
How do we apply this strategy, not just in small context but in large ones, especially religious ones? We remember that it is in the small that we are changed and influence change. We allow the small bits, the conversations and relationships that are terribly inefficient and deeply profound, to shape us as we in turn shape our realities. We stop seeking the big, the multiverse, and tend the garden around us, noticing what is thriving and giving attention to what is around us.
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