Structure and life

Structure and Life

Here are the two core principles regarding structure[1]:

Structure must always come from life.
Structure must always serve to support life.

Everything in God’s created universe has structure. Just look at a leaf and you’ll see beautiful structure. Or look at the orbits of the planets around the sun or the lenses in the eye of a fly. Everything has structure. But it’s always a structure that comes from life and serves to support life.

Consider what Jesus says about wine and wineskins:

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins – and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

Mark 2:22

New wine is not fully fermented, and it will expand in volume as it ferments. Old wineskins are worn out, they have no elasticity, they’re brittle – they’re already fully stretched by their previous use. Consequently, as the new wine ferments and expands, it will burst the old wineskins and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. This is why new wine requires new wineskins. The new wineskin is able to stretch and contain the wine as it ferments.

Thus, the new wine creates the need for a new wineskin – structure comes from life. We don’t just have new wineskins for their own sake or because we’ve always done it that way before; we must have the new wineskins for the new wine.

Then the new wineskin is able to protect and manage the fermenting process of the new wine – structure serves to support life.

In organisational life

As the organisation grows and matures, the visionary leadership and new directions will create the need for particular governing and administrative structures. Structure comes from life.

These structures, in turn, are essential to protect and facilitate the life and work of the organisation and enable the organisation to continue to grow in both size and maturity. Structure serves to support life.

In Acts 6, there is a clear example of this.

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the Twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 6: 1-7

The growth and life of the Church

The growth and life of the Church required a certain new structure – the creation of a team of men who would administer the “daily distribution.” Thus, the structure came from life. The life of the Church determined both the need for a particular structure and the exact design of that structure.

Then, because of this wise structure, the apostles were able to focus on their core responsibilities which in turn led to the multiplication of the Church. Thus, the structure served to support life.

Several other examples in the New Testament:

In Acts 14:23, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in the churches that were already alive and functioning.
In 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, Paul organized giving for the poor.
In 1 Timothy 5:3-16, Paul gave Timothy instructions on how to establish an appropriate program to take care of their widows.

Here are some key observations regarding structure:

The particular structure that is needed changes as the organisation grows and matures. This requires vigilance on the part of the leaders who must regularly reflect on the structure to be sure it’s still needed and that it actually serves life. Too many organisations are still doing things the same old ways without questioning their relevance or effectiveness.
You should have no more structure than what the life actually requires. Keep structure as minimal as possible. Only have what is absolutely necessary.
At the point that your structure gets in the way of life it must be changed or eliminated, or else you will end up with the life of the organisation serving the structure!
Focus on life, not structure! Let the structure come naturally. Some promote the idea that life follows structure and, therefore, we must get the structure right first before we can hope to have mature life. In reality, life comes first – always!

[1] “Structure” here means forms of organisational leadership and governance, administrative systems, rules, policies, etc.