In “Where are we going” we illustrated the chief problem: global population is increasing, and with it the number of unevangelized individuals, but the rate of evangelism is not keeping up. In “What will it take to make a difference” (see also the and $0.99 Kindle edition–grin), we discussed how many workers would be required—on the order of 43,000 teams, or 150,000 workers.
The idea is simple: each of these 43,000 teams would mobilize 100 local ministries that would each reach 1,000 people over 10 years (very conservative!). Thus, the 43,000 teams likewise represents something like 4.3 million local ministers.
Ever since those two articles, I’ve been writing about the idea of “swarms” because I believe we simply need too many workers for any single agency to do it. (And besides, theologically, I don’t think it’s a good idea for any single agency to do it—we need to work on this task together, as the unified Body of Christ.)
Swarms, as I’ve described them, are simply loose decentralized groups of multiple partners—agencies, individual missionaries, churches, local workers, etc.—who share a common vision and have a specific and measurable “plausible promise” to fulfill the vision. They seem to me to be an ideal platform for seeding a church planting movement. Here’s what a CPM-starting swarm would look, in my view.
1. Vision:
a) the whole swarmish group shares a common vision for a specific people group or people cluster. They articulate a common “plausible promise” for the group: for example, “to seed the start of a church planting movement by 2015.”
b) the group adopts several values. These could be based in part upon the 10 Universals of church planting movements articulated by Garrison and others (prayer, evangelism, intentional church planting, Scriptural authority, local leadership, lay leadership, etc). It’s important to see these are values, and neither specific behaviors (tactics) or processes (strategies).
c) the group defines specific behaviors (tactics) which could be done by anyone in the group to fulfill the promise. For example, they might create a prayer guide for personal prayer, start an e-group to share prayer requests, create a prayer calendar to share with donors and friends, get the group featured in international prayer campaigns and prayer guides, post a prayer profile on Joshua Project’s website, etc. Each of these things are specific behaviors that fulfill the value of prayer articulated above.
Remember: the point of action is not to do busy work or to define our value based on how busy we are. We are not even typically responsible for fulfilling a vision—only God, for example, gives a church planting movement. The point of action is to do our part in the process, which God calls us to do. Action is obedience to the Lord’s command of making disciples of the nations.
d) the group collects these behaviors into repeatable processes which can be done by the group in future years, or by future generations of the group, or by other groups that share the same vision. For example, the process of updating a prayer guide and distributing it each year is a repeatable process. The process of sharing Scripture portions or holding a Discovery Bible Study or launching a seeker’s group—these are all repeatable processes.
Different groups among different peoples will have different behaviors and processes. The process of conducting a Bible Study Group among an oral-based culture will be vastly different than conducting one among a literate people. Some processes will take place in coffee shops and others under trees. Be adaptable!
e) the group measures the results of its behaviors—not for the sake of claiming credit or glory, but simply to find out what works and what doesn’t. If you are spending a lot of time on one particular tactic or behavior which doesn’t work in your context, it’s likely not that CPM as an overall strategy is wrong—nor even that a value (e.g. prayer or abundant gospel sowing) is wrong—but rather that the specific tactic doesn’t work in your context.
2. Community:
a) the group is open to and intentionally seeking new members who share its vision and values. It has specific “on ramps” or methods by which new members find out about and join the group.
b) even though the swarm gets very big, the group is organized in smaller groups that meet together using simple structures. Most of these small groups will likely not be very much bigger than about fifteen people. These “mini-swarms” within the larger swarm will likely have a certain amount of specialization, but need to have “hub” connections to the larger group.
c) the group always operates within its local context. Every resource that it “co-opts” or offers, it places into the local context—local languages, local idioms, local cultures, local situations. In fact, each small group within the swarm likewise localizes, experiencing life together locally.
d) the group’s members are constantly sharing with each other, letting each other know what’s happening in their daily life and in the fulfillment of the promise. This might be through email, or a secure Facebook page, etc.
e) Each small group is connected to the larger swarm through one or more naturally sociable people who maintain multiple social connections to multiple groups. These “hub connections” keep small groups from becoming insulated and tribal, and bring new resources and encouragement into the group.
3. Collaboration:
a) each individual member and individual small group is completely autonomous and able to make their own choices about which actions they will implement to achieve the promise. However, by choosing to be part of the swarm, it is understood that they are taking responsibility to do something, and so the group as a whole is implicitly asked to gently hold their members accountable to act and to avoid apathy.
b) each individual member and small group is understood to be pre-emptively given permission to do any behavior which the swarm espouses. Waiting for “yes” is slow, so the swarm doesn’t wait. When problems crop up they typically represent “bugs” in a process which must be dealt with—far less often do they represent some kind of permissive or moral failure on the part of the actors. (There are probably a few actions which must be approved first; these should be clearly indicated.)
c) influence and leadership within the swarm is based on reputation, not rank, rights or authority. Some individuals will have clearly delineated roles and responsibilities, but a role in an all-volunteer swarm never equates to a right of command. Reputation is the most important factor.
d) the swarm will generally choose strategies to implement on the basis of consensus—which is not the same as majority rules. All-volunteer swarms which have strong communities spend a great deal of time building agreement in their ranks: unity that demonstrates love is the priority.
e) the swarm will place a premium on workflow that fosters collaboration: many people working together in the same place at the same time, or many people working together in the same place at different times, or many people working in different places at the same time. Shared work builds relationships and “with enough eyes all bugs are shallow.” Swarms will often choose tools and systems that are perhaps less capable for the simple reason that they are more collaboratively-enabled.
f) the swarm won’t mind if people outside the swarm fulfill the promise. In fact, that makes it easier. So swarms will make it possible for non-members to participate in projects, and give away resources to others if it will raise the likelihood that someone, somewhere, will be part of abundant gospel sowing or prayer or the like.
g) the swarm will encourage members to be curious: to constantly be seeking and monitoring for things that will represent new opportunities to achieve their vision or challenges or threats on the distant horizon. Most swarms function very frugally—“on a shoestring,” as the American saying goes—and so they need plenty of advance warning of threats.
4. Openness:
a) likewise, because swarms are always cheap, they are always seeking free tools. Luckily, there’s a lot of them out there.
b) the swarm will likewise try to help set some standards that will help to foster activity among their chosen people group. They might, for example, create a standard stock library of photos that are security-cleared, or they might contribute to an existing standard source of information (e.g. Joshua Project), etc.
c) They will always, always, always encourage people to take, co-opt, and re-use whatever resources they create, in many other forms. The point is to distribute tools widely that will lead to the fulfillment of the vision—not to make money from their sale.
5. Adaptability:
a) the swarm is always seeking to improve and fix any problems with any tool or process that they have created. “Continuous improvement”—the diligent focus on quality—is a way to reduce costs and make sure that tools are just used, and used frequently.
b) the swarm is always seeking innovation—by encouraging people to tweak, adapt, mutate, change existing tools and try something new. They will encourage innovators to swap notes on new things they’re doing with existing tools, and see if others can use the same thing.
c) the swarm will try to help sponsor new research into their people group and its related clusters and countries, pushing the boundaries of what is known to seek new innovations in areas that are unknown.
d) the swarm will position itself for the unexpected, trying to maximize both its strength and flexibility to endure unexpected difficulties and rapidly take advantage of new opportunities.
6. Influence
a) the swarm will undoubtedly be in an area that few others are in (since few workers are among unreached peoples). So it will find its “niche”—and then labor to be the very best it can be in the area. Its gets into a place of very little competition in order to avoid threats that could destroy it during its initial, weak, vulnerable stage.
b) swarms love small beginnings. They seek “small early wins” for processes which can be encouraging—and especially for processes that can “scale.” They avoid aggressive expansion that overextends, and instead seeks steady expansion that grows exponentially over time.
c) swarms always strive to “scale up”: “more” is “different”. They hunt for behaviors where success breeds success, and what is learned from one stage amplifies what is possible in the next. Swarms look for the power of multiplication and exponential growth.
d) swarms influence other groups through actions that are viral—by successes that, when noticed by others, can be quickly reproduced. They don’t mind giving away tools and encouraging others to use them. They want to infect others with the desire to see the promise fulfilled.
e) at long length, the swarm can even become a cultural influence within the people group or the country itself—when the group sees the swarm really loves them, and seeks to bless them.
7. Multiply
a) the swarm does seek to grow in size—but only big enough to keep its promise. There’s no need to become another empire. Swarms aren’t about seeing how big they can become, but about seeing the vision fulfilled.
b) the swarm does seek to multiply and reproduce itself—to pass on its vision, its dreams, its promises, its values, its methods, its processes, its tools—to other groups that will take on some of its DNA in themselves. The swarm itself may not last forever—probably won’t—but the vision and the tools can far outlast it.
You can see from this short outline how a swarm can foster a CPM. Swarms don’t have to be organizationally-based. They are built on the lines of relationship. So you don’t really need anything today except a vision, a few ideas about how it might be fulfilled, and some people who are keen on the idea. If you’ve got those, you’ve got the seed of a swarm. Hang out at a coffee shop and talk—and who knows what will germinate!