Have you ever asked yourself what the Apache Nation has in common with Al Qaeda?  Or why people would rather turn to Wikipedia than to Encyclopedia Britannica for information?  Have you ever wondered why Napster, YouTube, Skype, Ebay and other recent movements have had such phenomenal success?

Decentralized organizations are changing the face of business and the world.  Decentralization is also bringing about a global reformation that is reshaping Christianity as well.  Some recent books on the subject that have really helped me are: Winning by Jack Welch, The Starfish and the Spider: The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations by Beckstrom and Ori Brafman, and Revolution by George Barna.

Centralized organizations are traditionally top- down hierarchical structures. There needs to be someone in charge , levels of management below with laborers at the bottom who do the work, but are not required to think.  If you cut off the head, it dies.  That is what happened to the Incas and the Aztecs.  Spanish conquistadors killed the emperors and conquered the entire empire in a matter of months.

Decentralized organizations have no head; they are a flat neural system.  A typical decentralized organization for example would be an Alcoholics Anonymous group or peer-to-peer file-sharing internet users.  Self-organizing groups of people with a common cause or interest that can emerge, expand, multiply or die spontaneously, without red tape or authorization “from above”.  Ordinary people, organized into immensely powerful groups.  An example of this kind of power was demonstrated by the Apache Nation who successfully defended themselves against the

Spanish, French, Mexican and US forces for over two hundred years.  The Apache Nation was comprised of small antonymous groups that could adapt quickly.

Decentralized does not mean lawless however, although they don’t have the same rules that govern traditional organizations they do have norms (values, ethics, codes) that are the backbone of the group.   The members who start or join a group, own, embrace and even enforce these norms themselves.  This is exactly why norms become more powerful than rules.  For example EBay does not inspect the products they sell.  They let the buyers rate the sellers.  Buyers trust other buyers much more than slick propaganda and corporate advertising.

Over the last two years SOF has been invited into other Central and South American countries but we didn’t know how to get there without greatly increasing our expenses.  Using the concepts of decentralization we have completely redesigned the ministry flattening it out creating something similar to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous).  The new structure allows ministry’s services and products to be adopted and used by people all over the Spanish world.  Decentralization is allowing us to move fast and expand quickly without incurring increased cost which means your donations are going further than ever to help people. The bottom line – more people are hearing the gospel, being taught the Word of God and receiving ministry.

We have also taken the same concept and used it to start a house church movement called Calvary Chapel.  It is only four weeks old and we already have three churches!  People love the idea of having church in a house with other families.

Rocky J. Malloy