Swarm Theory and the Church

I expect that if asked, most pastors would like to be able to state that their church ran like a well-oiled machine. In fact, churches tend not to behave like well-oiled machines, they tend to respond in a manner that is perhaps best described by swarm theory. From my second hand knowledge of an interesting but underfunded project at work, I was aware of the existence of swarm theory, but until recently I had no idea that this was such an important and pervasive idea. There is a great deal of interest in swarm theory because human behavior in networks (such as the Internet) can often be predicted by the concepts of swarm theory. This sounds like something for me to explore in more depth sometime in the future.

Although we are all aware that human behavior in mobs can be a bad thing, it turns out it can also be a good thing. Sometimes the behavior of a swarm is more intelligent than the behavior of the individual members of a swarm. Scientists have studied the actions of flocks of birds, schools of fish, herds of antelopes, and flocks of sheep. It turns out, for example, when the group is threatened; they instinctively do exactly what they should be doing in order to confuse the attacking predator. How does this “greater intelligence” apply to human behavior? Recently, according to Kevin Kelly, in an experiment 5,000 people with no experience or knowledge of airplanes were placed in front of computers loaded with a sophisticated flight simulator. They were asked to land a jet aircraft. Their commands were summed and averaged to determine the motions of the aircraft. Turns out 5,000 ignorant people were able to land an aircraft as well as a trained pilot.

It also turns out there is still a place for leadership even in swarm theory. In a subsequent more complex experiment, the 5,000 volunteers piloted a submarine equipped with a robot arm through an imaginary sea in search of sea monster eggs. When a sea monster egg was found, the submarine’s robot arm would pick up the egg and store it. At times, when there were no sea monster eggs in sight the participants seemed to get confused and ship became somewhat paralyzed by conflicting commands. The individual running the experiment knew where the eggs were located. At moments of confusion, he would give a short simple command such as, “Why don’t you guys look to the right?” The participants would quickly react and move in the correct direction and load up on of sea monster eggs.

Commands, it has been found, are most effective when they are infrequent and short. Upon reflection, I have concluded that this command and control method sounds a lot like God’s interactions with the nation of Israel during Old Testament times. Every so many years God would send one of his servants, the prophets, to deliver a message that was usually rather simple to his wayward sheep. I believe that is happening in the American church this very day. The impact of large national financial ministries on individual churches all across the country has become so significant that it is being reported in the secular financial press. Recently Laura Rowley reported on three such ministries on her column on Yahoo Finance. Specifically these ministries were Crown Financial Ministries, Dave Ramsey Financial Peace, and Lynn Khalfani-Cox. In spite of their differences, all of these ministries seem to be delivering a simple core message. Get out of debt, particularly unsecured consumer debt, such as credit cards.

If this message is resonating throughout the Kingdom of God, perhaps it is a word for each of us to heed. Of course, check it out against scripture.

Here are two from the NIV:

Proverbs 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Deuteronomy 28:4 (From blessings for obedience)
The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

Deuteronomy 28: 43, 44 (From curses for disobedience)
The alien who lives among you will rise above you, higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.