This may be biting off more than I can chew, and few may be willing to swallow! But quite a few thoughts have been circulating in my mind since I resigned my chaplaincy at Flinders University a few years ago. And it is time to put them into order.
I have chosen to direct my attention to the church, the hardest, most complex voluntary institution to concern myself with. I hope this is not too off-putting to those who have decided to leave religion alone. But that, in itself, is worth exploring, and I think indicative of the need to open a discussion about church.

So here is the start of a fresh writing journey. Join with me if you will!

Provisional Title: Taking Laloux and Li to Church in the Age of TED

Contents

Preface
Introduction

Section 1

Who is Laloux?
What is his contribution?
The paradigms
Illustrating the paradigms today
New principles
Why is his contribution of interest to the church?

Who is Li?
What is her contribution?
Why is her contribution of interest to the church?

Who is TED?

Section 2

What is Church?
What may the church learn from Laloux and Li?
What might a reorganised church look like?
How might such a church reframe itself?

Preface

This book is about translating some emergent thinking about organisation in the for-profit sector to the voluntary sector.

It is motivated by an observable dysfunctionality within institutions, particularly witnessed by those of us whose role it is to try to repair the personal, individual, and social damage.

It is an attempt to contribute to empowering the human community to find ways of organisation that are, in Laloux’s words ‘soulful’. That is, that empower individual and collective human flourishing. 

The scope of the challenge is beyond any one of us. It is complex. As complex as the human person. And therefore, this book can only be expected to share hints at a way forward.

My hope for this book is that it makes a helpful contribution to that ongoing conversation.

Introduction 

Both Laloux and Li identify ‘control’ as the central pressing issue requiring re-thinking.

Laloux establishes some background to how we have come to this. He uses Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm schema to provide a framework. The advantage is that this allows us an overview to understand how various organisational structures emerged – their strengths and weaknesses. It also allows us to see how various organisational commitments survive in various contexts in today’s ‘both/and’ world of uncertainty.

More to come!