At a recent meeting, Lee Rayfield, my fellow bishop in this diocese, shared two metaphors of transition from the natural world that had struck him from a book he was reading by Howard Friend. The transitions were from tadpole to frog and from caterpillar to butterfly.
Howard Friend compares the marks of the tadpole’s development - which is visible, organised, orderly and uses the basic structure – with the marks of the caterpillar’s transformation - which is hidden, disorganised, chaotic and abandons the basic structure. Change management gurus call the former incremental change and the latter step change.
In his book, Friend applies the metaphors to transitioning congregations, saying we generally go for developmental, incremental change rather than transformational, step change. His view is that both are necessary and that the art of a leader is to blend the two.
Certainly, transformational leadership is rarer. Some will be grateful to God for this! In the church, largely through plenty of practice, we have majored in leading incremental change. Such gradual change has almost become instinctive to us. But can these two metaphors be mixed? My gut feeling is that this is highly unlikely. Will a group that has become accustomed to tadpole development ever permit butterfly transformation? On the whole, it seems unlikely: the risk of destroying the organism feels too great (unless that’s your goal!).
What does this say to us about emerging church development?
February 5, 2007 at 9:24 am
I found this interesting! The first thing God showed me at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit last September was an image of a chrysalis. As a Biologist, my thoughts ran to what actually goes on in that stage. What was a limited, crawling creature is completely broken down and put together in a new way, hidden from sight of everyone except it’s Maker. Then, after a necessary struggle, it emerges as a beautiful creature that can fly where it likes and drinks nectar, the sweetest of substances, and reproduce! Who can say that this isn’t a good thing! It fits with a previous vision I had of a cow eating grass in a field. What was good in the past is broken down and changed and passed out of the body to give nutrients to aid new growth.
I think the emerging church is like that, that the original organism is broken down and re-arranged in a completely different way to give new growth.
One of the things I’ve been looking at is the growth (or lack of) in long-standing existing STRUCTURES of ‘doing church’ and examining the phenominal growth of the ‘free’ churches around the country and the charismatic Anglican churches. It seems to fit this imagery quite well. Any comments?
February 6, 2007 at 4:12 am
As Barbara touched on, the struggle of a caterpillar is neccasery. I can remember watching a documentary a while back which showed that if a butterfly is assisted to escape from it’s cocoon it will not be properly formed and unable to fly.
I wonder if that translates into the metaphor? If you push someone or a congregation into a transformational change could it create a damaged outcome?
It seems to me that it is often individual that get frustrated by the wait of incremental development, especially if they realise they cannot force those around them to engage in transformational development without the risk of damage. Is this why some people then encounter personal transformational change and then move on?
I personally feel that is what has happened with me. I used to feel frustrated that the others in my congregation were not changing fast enough. With the support of my church I was then sent to pioneer a new project in a part of the world and culture that has never had a church before. Over the course of a few months, thoughts and ideas that had been dormant were awakened and things with the project are going very well. However, the temptation is to go back to my old congregation and expect them to take the leap too. And it can be frustrating that it actually wouldn’t be the right thing for them to do.
Just more questions there really. But I think it’s more important to ask the right questions than get too focued on a specific answer.
Thanks Mike. Your blog is great.
February 7, 2007 at 10:18 am
Does the fact that we can’t see the change that occurs within the chrysalis with the naked eye really mean that it is chaotic and disorganised? It may be a step change that is transformational and abandons the original basic structure but it is also a change that was emodied (enfleshed if you like) in the original. Whether we prefer intelligent design or survival of the fittest theory (or neither) the butterfly is in some sense the intended outcome, the destiny of the caterpillar as it is only as a butterfly that it reproduces and survives.
cf the church?
March 15, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Either way the transformation from tadpole to frog or caterpillar to butterfly is a journey of wholeness to be as perfect as God intended. I think some of us will be tadpoles and some of us will be caterpillars, however we have spent alot of time kissing frogs, so for my money bring on the butterflies!
March 24, 2007 at 9:58 am
One aspect of change is that it is not necessarily so evident to those closest to it. I have 3 daughters and while I am conscious that they are growing up physically (and hopefully spiritually and emotionally), I cannot necessarily see the precise physical changes day by day. Yet when their grandparents see them they will say “look how much you’ve grown” as they are slightly removed from their growth. Human nature is often only to compare with the most recent memory but if you take a step back you are more likely to see the changes. We have been at our church for 5 years and it is a very different congregration and style of worship to when we arrived. While there are dramatic changes occasionally, most change is gradual and goes unnoticed by those involved in it most closely. To return to the growing children analogy it is only if you mark their height on a wallchart periodically that you will percieve the change clearly. Likewise if you think back to your church a year ago it may have changed more than you thought!