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This possible configuration of church suggests a fifth characteristic of the emerging attractor. In today’s network culture, church will increasingly be characterized by criss-crossing ties. Not least, ‘corridors’ will intersect with regional FEASTs and local ‘coalitions of the willing’. As is already happening, networks of churches will encourage considerable movement – members leaving one gathering and joining another, for example – as individuals and groups access networks and travel along them.

Emergence theorists believe that when new levels of organization come into being, they exert ‘downward causation’ on the levels below them (Goldstein, Hazy and Silberstang, 2008, p. 105). If church reorganizes along mixed-economy lines, corridors of founders and other new forms of organization will change behaviour throughout the church. Already we are seeing hints of this. One person commented about her local church, ‘Introducing fresh expressions two years ago has really changed us.’

Recombination/self-organization may involve

 the mixed economy;

 corridors – networks of fresh expressions that clear space for new churches within the denominations;

 regional and local cooperation, such as FEASTS and ‘coalitions of the willing’;

 ‘temples’, ‘synagogues’ and ‘tents’;

 downward causation – new levels of organization change the levels below.