Читать книгу Church for Every Context - Michael Moynagh - Страница 75

Unpacking this, complexity theorists often use the term ‘attractor’ when describing self-organization.13 Put simply, an attractor can be understood as something that attracts support. Systems are organized around an attractor, which are ways of doing things that over time have gained support. Emergence occurs when a new attractor, a new way of organizing, gathers enough support to challenge successfully the existing pattern of organization, an old attractor.

Before the new one replaces the old one, the two attractors compete for a while. During this period, the system is no longer stable, dominated by one attractor, one pattern of behaviour. It has been destabilized by the early appearance of an alternative approach, the new attractor. The landscape looks confusing and individuals are uncertain about the future.

Three outcomes are possible. The old attractor wins, or the new one does or the system slides into chaos. In the first and second, once one of the attractors has prevailed, the system in theory returns to stability. In practice, in our fast-changing world another attractor is likely to be on the horizon, offering a new challenge, so that the system never feels completely at rest. In the third outcome, the system slips into chaos because the rival attractors tear the organization apart – perhaps (hypothetically) fresh expressions exit a denomination en masse, leaving it seriously weakened.

Theorists describe how one attractor replaces an existing one in various ways.14 A common notion is the ‘edge of chaos’. This is a situation where the old and new attractors are in competition with each other – the system is unstable. The outcome of the rivalry is unclear. The system could lapse into chaos, or one of the attractors could predominate and the organization head toward stability. A system is on the edge of chaos because it is on the stable side of the boundary between stability and chaos.

Parts of the UK church could be described as approaching an edge of chaos state. Fresh expressions of church are beginning to challenge the status quo, but whether and how the denominations will reorganize is unclear. Will the structures accommodate new types of church?