To Centralize or Decentralize…Is That Really The Question? By Tim Catchim

Karl Weick, in his book Making Sense of the Organization, says, “…whenever you have what

appears to be successful decentralization, if you look more closely, you will discover that it was

always preceded by a period of intense centralization where a set of core values were

hammered out and socialized into people before the people were turned loose to go their own

‘independent, ‘autonomous’ ways.”*

Weick is pointing out an important ingredient here when it comes to organizing for missional

movement. As much as we would like to see the church scattered into every cultural pocket of

the city, we cannot successfully de-centralize for mission until we first go through a period of

centralization where the necessary foundations for movement are embedded within the

community.

This is exactly what we see taking place in the life of Jesus, the revolutionary founder of a global

movement. For 3 1/2 years Jesus centralized a group of 12-72 people around himself so that he

could effectively train them in the foundational practices of movemental life and leadership in

the kingdom of God. During that time of centralization, Jesus modeled for them what

discipleship, community and mission really looks like. When it came time for the disciples to

launch out into a decentralized mission of disciple making and mission, they had the necessary

training and tools to lead the movement.

C comes before D There is a certain order we need to pay attention to here. You can’t see the kind of movement

we see in Acts without first passing through the gospels. And you can’t make it through the

gospels without passing through discipleship. The reality is, Jesus did not expect the 12 to know

how to be or make disciples, live in community, or be on mission with God until he had

modeled and trained them to do it.

Trying to catalyze a decentralized movement without laying a good foundation of discipleship is

just trendy new-speak. In fact, if you try to decentralize without first going through a period of

centralization where the core practices of being and making disciples along with living as an

extended family on mission, you will not end up with movement at all. You’ll end up with a

fragmented group of disillusioned people with no point of reference for how to move forward.

To put it another way: Decentralization before discipleship equals diaspora.

Decentralization after discipleship equals movement.

Imitation as the Missing Link Most churches find themselves stuck in a stage of centralization, but it is not the kind of

centralization Jesus has in mind. Instead of centralizing around the core practices of being and

©2015 Tim Catchim. The ideas and information in this document are the intellectual property of Tim Catchim and are not to

be shared, copied, sold, etc. with other parties without expressed, effective permission.

making disciples, and living as an extended family on mission, the church often centralizes

around teaching and information. In this model of centralization, discipleship and mission take

a back seat to the centralized gatherings that are primarily focused on preaching and the band.

If there happens to be any mission minded leaders in the bunch, they typically challenge the

church to go and do mission, but in essence they are wanting people to spontaneously go out

and do mission on their own initiative.

The only problem with this approach is that people tend to do what you do, not what you say.

So if you give only give them information, then challenge them to do mission, they will most

likely equate mission with giving people information…about the centralized gathering where

you receive…that’s right….more information.

The missing link in this informational approach is discipleship; specifically, the principle of

imitation. In order for me to learn how to be and make disciples, and live on mission, then I

need to be invited into a relationship where I can have access to someone who actually lives it

out in front of me. I need a model to imitate.

My friends at 3DM use this triangle to illustrate the proper relationship between information,

imitation (discipleship) and innovation.

It starts with information, then leads to imitation, and finally opens up to innovation.

Centralization takes place during the first two phases. Decentralization takes place as you move

towards the edge and innovate with new efforts at discipleship, community and mission.

The order is really critical if you want to see a sustainable movement of discipleship, community

and mission take place. Those who take the time, like Jesus, to centralize around a process of

discipleship will, at first, seem to be going too slow. It takes time to create a new culture.

©2015 Tim Catchim. The ideas and information in this document are the intellectual property of Tim Catchim and are not to

be shared, copied, sold, etc. with other parties without expressed, effective permission.

However, if we want to see a decentralized movement like the one we see in the book of Acts,

we will need to see a centralized movement of discipleship like we see in the gospels. There is

just no way around this.