Practicals of Change: Launching into Orbit

Some years ago, when my heart and mind first began to drift towards new missional and discipleship-driven models of church, a good friend of mine and kindred spirit of creativity gave me a book. It was a small book with a cover and name more akin to a children’s book. It was titled Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. What is the “giant hairball” and how does it relate to the church and change? Check this out:

“Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a “giant hairball”–a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past–that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity.”

For anyone who has worked in the church endeavoring to bring productive change, this should sound familiar. Gordon MacKenzie, the author, worked at Hallmark Greeting Cards for 30 years. For all those years, but one, he was the head of a small, irreverent, and highly profitable division called Shoe Box. He suggests there are only two ways out of the hairball.

1. Getting sent away: you are asked to leave
2. Going away: you decide to leave, either to a different hairball or you decide to start a hairball of your own. A few learn to create dynamic, self-regenerating movements.

The latter was my decision and the hope is that we are building such a movement. However, Gordon suggests a “middle way.” Learn to orbit the giant hairball.

“Orbiting is responsible creativity: vigorously exploring and operating beyond the Hairball of the corporate mindset, beyond “accepted models, patterns, or standards” — all the while remaining connected to the spirit of the corporate mission… To find Orbit around a corporate Hairball is to find a place of balance where you benefit from the physical, intellectual and philosophical resources of the organization without becoming entombed in the bureaucracy of the institution.”

I would suggest that this, too, is the key to the path of creative, productive change in the hairball known as the church. What might this look like? First, you need to create your satellite. I do not mean satellite as in “satellite worship” or some other mega-church application of the term. I mean a small body launched into orbit around the hairball. It’s a launch team that will begin to vigorously explore and operate beyond the “accepted models, patterns, or standards” while remaining connected to the church.

Who should constitute the membership of this team? They should be among those with a holy discontent. Note this is discontent, not malcontent. These are individuals with a respect and love for the institutional church while having a passionate desire to see mission and discipleship done more effectively. Once you have identified this subset of people, there are additional qualifications to consider that impact the selection of an effective team.

We will look at those qualifications in our next post.