"Ecclesia ought always to be movemental to some degree, or it ceases to be the church that Jesus intended it to be." — Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim, The Permanent Revolution
Luke records a striking detail at the opening of Acts 8. When persecution broke over Jerusalem, the believers were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, and those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went (Acts 8:1, 4). Ordinary believers who held no title and answered to no headquarters carried the gospel to Samaria and Antioch, and in one stroke the Spirit turned the church inside out, sending its energy to the edges, where it multiplied.
Across The Permanent Revolution, The Forgotten Ways, On the Verge and Metanoia, I have been tracing the reorientation this scattering discloses: authority and function flow outward from the centre, a small, strong core of shared values and Christ-centred paradigm holds the whole together, and the capacity to lead grows out of the quality of discipleship. Six structural shifts follow, each pressing urgently on a church whose inherited forms are straining under a world that has moved on.
Movement as the Church's Native Form
In The Permanent Revolution, Tim Catchim and I argue that movement belongs to the permanent identity of the church at every stage of its maturity, far more than preliminary scaffolding. If the church is in essence apostolic, it must always retain and engender forms that align with its missional purpose. Movements are our "most primal form," the shape in which the church has its greatest impact as we move along with the Holy Spirit.
1. Power Flows from the Centre to the Edges
Every member or group in a movement already has everything it needs to get the job done, and what each requires is permission and empowerment to live into that truth. Power and function therefore flow away from the centre to the outermost limits, giving the whole movement a profoundly centrifugal feel. The precedent is Acts. Drawing on Darin Land, we noted that apostolic authority rested on deference and mutual honour, and that its diffusion "resulted in a net increase of authority, which in turn propelled the growth of the church." Here is a kingdom economy that confounds our institutional instincts: authority given away multiplies, because the Spirit is free to act through every member entrusted with the life and mission of Jesus.
2. A Network of Networks
Structurally, movements are composed of many circles, a fractal-like network of networks, each circle an independently functioning network of autonomous and interdependent units. In a fractal the same pattern repeats at every scale, and leadership structures need that same integrity however often they multiply. The Forgotten Ways describes apostolic movement as a networked family of churches with a common focus, freed from the restrictive structures of a denomination. Every leader can fruitfully ask whether the structures they steward could survive being multiplied a hundredfold.
3. A Solid Core with a Changing Edge
Decentralization calls for a strong and living centre, captured in Dee Hock's word chaordic, a fusion of chaos and order: an enduring core that sets strategic direction and guards the movement's core ideas while the periphery extends and adapts rapidly. In On the Verge, Dave Ferguson and I described this as marrying a solid core with a changing periphery, and located its order in shared values. The Permanent Revolutionidentifies the core itself: when Apostolic Genius, the dynamic interplay of Jesus' lordship, discipleship, incarnational mission, APEST, organic systems and communitas, becomes the interpretive paradigm at the centre, it "will guide all subsequent thinking and acting throughout the organization." At the heart of that mDNA stands the lordship of Jesus, the confession from which every other element flows.
4. Leadership Becomes Influence in the Shape of the Kingdom
In decentralized systems, leadership focuses on influencing a community, and in Metanoia I ground this Christologically in the inverse hierarchy of the kingdom, where the first are last and the last are first. It answers to a Lord who washed his disciples' feet and told them to go and do the same (John 13:1–17). Pedestal-style hierarchies breed narcissism and codependence between leaders and congregations, slowly strangling the priesthood of all believers. The movemental path moves leadership style toward equip and engage, structure toward distributed, and decision-making toward relational and rapid.
5. The Leadership Base Grows Out of Discipleship
The reach of any movement is directly proportional to the breadth of its leadership base, and leadership in turn is directly related to the quality of discipleship. Neil Cole's chain traces the logic: "If you can't reproduce disciples, you can't reproduce leaders. If you can't reproduce leaders, you can't reproduce churches. If you can't reproduce churches, you can't reproduce movements."² The Chinese house-church leader known as "Uncle L" held no official learning, office or title, and his influence ran through tens of thousands of house churches, carried by a genuinely spiritual authorizing for leadership.
6. Healthy Institutions Held by a Movemental Paradigm
Institutions have their honourable place, and Metanoia calls for "healthy institutions that are rooted in a strong movemental paradigm," identifying rigid institutionalism as the danger. The Forgotten Ways traces how decline sets in as programming and administration come to sideline vision and mission.² Years of denominational leadership taught me that maintaining a movement ethos is one sure antidote to the always encroaching institutionalism. Every structure, budget and program can then give a clear account of how it releases the people of God into the mission of God.
Questions for Leadership Teams
Metanoia offers diagnostic questions for a cohort willing to sit with them honestly:
Is your structure a "pipeline" (industrial) or a "platform" or “trellis” (more organic)?
How easy is it for someone to be part of your church and participate in nothing?
What are you doing for those you lead that they should be doing for themselves?
Do your structures have room for people to lead as they grow?
These questions reach beneath strategy to the paradigm itself, where metanoia takes place, and the Spirit who scattered the believers of Acts 8 stands ready to scatter and multiply the church again wherever leaders release what has been entrusted to them.
Key Takeaways
Movement is the church's native form. Its structures always serve its mission.
Authority given away multiplies. Diffused authority increases the authority at work.
Fractal networks carry the whole in every part. Each new cell bears the same DNA.
A solid core frees a changing edge. Shared values and mDNA, centred on Jesus, provide order.
Leadership takes the shape of the towel and basin. It releases the priesthood of all believers.
Discipleship sets the reach. Leadership grows from the quality of disciples formed.
Institutions serve when held by the paradigm. A movement ethos guards against rigid institutionalism.
Notes
Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim, The Permanent Revolution: Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century Church
Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements, 2nd ed.
Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson, On the Verge: A Journey into the Apostolic Future of the Church
Alan Hirsch., Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches, and Organizations from the Inside Out