Some suggestions for applying a Fractal Theology to our congregations and our lives.
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| A fractal tree based on the sending out of the 12 & the 72 |
1. Always ask why.
Never plan anything just on the basis of ‘what are we going
to do?’ Always include the question ‘why are we doing this?’ Ask if the two
parts fit together. This is how we keep root and branches connected and how we
know if the pattern of our actions reflects something of God. (John 15:1-11)
2. Recognise that we teach by our actions
We teach by our actions, so the way we share our message
speaks as loudly as the message itself. The Church we grow will learn all the
good and bad habits of its leadership, and probably more deeply than the words
that are spoken. So always compare the message being shared with the method of
sharing – if the two are telling a different story then the message will be
affected. (John 15:12-17)
3. Check if your message is true.
If the message of faith being shared is at odds with the world
around, then ask why? It may be because the world around needs to change to
respond to the message or it may be that your message needs to be corrected. If
the created world reflects God, then it is not all sin out there, and all good
in here. The message we share may well challenge the behaviour of people around
us and how people see the world. Yet it should not be at odds with reality, and
should equally offer challenge to ourselves. There is only one creation and all
its internal patterns will be self-similar, not made from separate designs.
(Romans 1:20)
4. Make actions as specific to the context as possible, but make the reasoning universal.
Presume that if something is true in one place, then its
reason for being true is true everywhere. If it is true at one level of
organisation, it is true at all levels – even when it does not appear so. God’s
plans are universal, but they may appear very differently in different
situations. Where there are things that seem true in one place and not in
another, it is because we are looking at the outward expression of that truth,
not the inner reason. If the inner reasoning does not match, then a mistake has
been made. Contrary to the beliefs of most congregations, every village, town
or city is both equally unique in outward expression and equally similar to the
others in terms of the underlying reasons. (Acts 17:22-34)
5. Recognise that nothing is complete.
Fractal patterns can never be perfect in this world and even
within the biggest computer, its shape cannot be calculated to an infinite
level. So everything we do is moving towards that perfection, but never gets
there. This is not a mistake; it is part of God’s design. Therefore, we should neither
despair at our lack of perfection, nor should we pretend that anything is as
good as it could be. Being incomplete reflects creation and shows that we are
alive. (Heb. 7:19)
6. Recognise that the Bible contains fractal patterns.
The scriptures offer stories, parable, sayings and
instructions that speak about God’s inner reasoning. These outweigh the
importance of Biblical rules based on the outward behaviour of people, or the
outward expressions of those inner ideas. The outward behaviour rules are more
tied to the situation, they are less perfect and less universal. This idea is
clearly expressed in Matthew 22:37-40. In these verses, Jesus talks about our love
for God, and our love for others as if it should be the central fractal pattern
for all our theology. This is also what God seems to be telling us through the
prophets when we hear about a law that is written on our hearts. It is also at
the root of many disputes between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees are
able to twist the rules of outward behaviour to their own advantage, whereas
Jesus wants them to look at the inner reasoning that is true and just for all
people. (Jer. 31:33, Rom. 2:15, Heb. 8:10, Heb. 10:16)
7. Recognise that numbers tell a vital part of our story, but we need to learn to read that story properly.
Congregations should
never simply be measured on the basis of how many turn up on a Sunday morning.
Small numbers do not necessarily mean a congregation is failing, but stagnation
at any scale is self-similar to death. Sharp decline may tell us that there is
a problem, but not what the problem is. It is an outer expression of an inner
issue. Not all growth is good; a congregation that grows rapidly from, a flawed
message, a message shared in an unethical way, or an organisation that is not
prepared, can become like a cancerous growth. Good growth is about the
transformation of individuals and communities towards being more Christlike.
Measuring this is not simple and cannot be done by just adding up numbers of
people. Rather it is done by recognition of patterns and counting the ways in
which those better patterns are being expressed. (Ex. 33:13, Job 21:14, Psa.
67:2, Psa. 139:3)
8. Events work well with big numbers, but discipleship only works with small numbers.
(feeding the 5,000 Luke 9:12-17, calling the 12, Luke 9:1)
Luke’s Gospel shows Jesus to be using a pattern of leadership with a ratio
of 1 or 2 to 12 (sending out of the 12 and 72, Luke 9:1-6 & 10:1-20). 2 to
12 as a ratio for discipleship keeps relationships close, stress low and keeps
leaders safe in pairs. That ratio can be repeated at many levels of scale in
our organisations.
9. Put things in perspective.
Fractals have levels of scale or iteration and in Fractal
Theology it is sometimes useful to think about how we might break information
up into useful levels of iteration, such as local, national, global. As a
Methodist, I often think about the levels of Connexion, district, circuit,
congregation, member. It is useful to ask whether the fullest iterations of
church coincide with those levels or somewhere in between them. Also, this
method might help us to put bits of theology into hierarchies of iteration. Not
necessarily to say one is more important than the other, but to ask which ones
are dependent on others and how they relate to each other. It is for example
useless having a theology of how we treat church building assets if we don’t
have a theology of the environment. A well-maintained chapel on a dead planet
is of little use to anyone.
10. Put things in Balance.
Congregations can easily get out of balance. It’s easy to
spot when a congregation is mostly elderly, mostly young, mostly women etc. It
may not be so obvious just by looking that a congregation may have become mostly
introverts, mostly practical workers, mostly evangelists. There are several
ways of making those kinds of division, but it is useful to pick some
categories and find a method of assessing a congregation’s balance. Knowing
that there is an imbalance doesn’t solve the problem, but it will help explain
some problems and will help a congregation to look for ways to reset those
imbalances.
11. Learn to be embrace the abstract.
Christians are often committed to a life of practical
service, and rightly so. But in any healthy Christian community there needs to
be people who can think about the ideas behind the practice; to think about the
underlying reasoning and ask the questions that busy practical people don’t
have time to ask. More importantly, we need to give them time to be heard.
Those who struggle with the abstract often mistake simple for simplistic.
Simplistic is easy but often wrong, simple is usually the result of much deep
thought and observation. Avoiding elitism and being accessible to all is deeply
Christlike, but mistaking that for wilful ignorance and reverse snobbery is
dangerous and disturbingly common. Not everyone can process all the information
and ideas needed to be able to map out fractal patterns. However, we can all
train our instinctive sense of what is beautiful, to recognise the shape of
patterns that echo God’s call to love and justice for all humanity. (John 1)
12. Be prepared to adjust your thinking.
Sometimes we encounter people from other cultures, religions
and even from our own, who see the world differently. It is the same created
world and its truths are universal. Others may have seen something from another
perspective that may help enrich our view. The question should not be ‘who is
right and who is wrong?’, but rather ‘what underlying truth connects these two
differing perceptions?’. (Luke 10:29-37) (Matt. 2)
13. Be prepared to adjust your plans.
Sometimes the results of what we do, are not what was
planned. This may be because our pattern is wrong, but it may also be because
there are many variables that we don’t understand. People tend to assume that
the connection between a plan and its results is a straight line. Fractals
remind us that most things exist in a far more complex state of chaos, but if
we are paying attention, we can see patterns within the chaos. It would be
impossible to understand how every variable affects the outcomes of our plans,
but what we can do is observe the effect of adjusting little things. Perhaps
more importantly we should become more aware of the difference between surface
adjustments that suit particular people’s preferences, and changes to the
underlying reasons. (Josh 6.)
14. Be prepared to expand your Universe.
Not only are there people out there with different religions
and ideas, but there is also an entire universe out there with a vast amount of
stuff that we don’t yet understand. There are many scientists working to better
understand our universe and it is vital that our theology does not deny science
or try to create divisions between these aspects of the truth. If Christ was
there from the beginning of creation, then our view of salvation and our
understanding of the universe should also be understood as part of one single
pattern of action by God. A good Fractal Theology should be one that prepares
us to live way beyond the narrow traditions of our past, but knows how to learn
the universal wisdom gained from those traditions. (John 1)
