From This...To That

The management writer, Peter Drucker, once described two types of leaders: first is the genius with a staff who builds a platform for themselves by the support of others and second is the one who creates a lasting organization that attracts and builds strong people. In the first, everything depends on the vision and directing of a single person. They are almost always irreplaceable and when they leave or die the organization crumbles. In the latter, the founder has built other leaders and their ability to carry the mission into the future.

Long before Tim Keller passed away this year, he wrote Gospel-Centered City Ministry: The City to City DNA. The last part of the final chapter of this almost 350 page document is about the differences and relationship between movements and institutions. It became, in a sense, his last will and testament for City to City. In it he described not only the activities of the organization but the actual DNA that carries the defining values and distinctives of City to City as both a movement and an institution. He was wise enough to know that City to City could not be strictly one or the other but to survive and serve the mission it would need to be a mixture of both.

“We live in a time when social movements are wildly popular. These days, few people—especially among the young—want to start an organization or institution that makes glacial modifications to its field. Instead, most people want to be part of a movement that fills the streets and brings about change quickly! Many once-trusted institutions are now considered useless at best and corrupt at worst. Christian institutions are no exception from this scrutiny, and some of it is deserved, as there are many stagnant and declining churches, denominations, and organizations. If our goal is to bring the gospel to cities like never before, how are we to reverse this stagnation?” 

To do this City to City needed to keep the benefits of a movement - flexibility, energy, flat structures, and constant adaptability to change while at the same time becoming more institutional. Pure movements cannot sustain themselves for long. They play out in time or blow up.  At some point they must adopt some institutional elements for only when movements recognize the necessity of organization and structure do they have the ability to effect long term change. This does not mean they are doomed to become sclerotic, resistant to change, bureaucratic and self-perpetuating. When movements mature they recognize the advantages of institutions and the value they bring: an appreciation for roots, durability, long-term perspective, and coordination.

‍Routinization of Charisma

Tim concludes that City to City need not be exclusively one or the other. In fact, it cannot be. It must be a combination of the best of both. Leadership must think long term with a structure that is focused on the mission while at the same time keeping the flexibility and energy of the movement. John Gardner in “Self-Renewal” described it as institutions that are organized for continuing renewal. “Failure to face the realities of change brings heavy penalties. Individuals become imprisoned in their own rigidities. Great institutions deteriorate. Civilizations fall. Yet decay is not inevitable. There is also renewal.”

But one thing Tim did not address is what the sociologist Max Weber called “the routinization of charisma.” For a movement to survive it must not only readily accept some of the structure of the institution but also find ways to transition from the charisma of the founder to a new leader suited for the role of directing and organizing the next generation of the mission. These roles are not contradictory nor does it mean the new leader has no charisma of their own - only a different type. It is the ability to lead donors and followers into the next stage of the life of the organization. They do not snuff out the enthusiasm of the movement but give it enough durability and resilience to grow without losing the original DNA. Sadly, it can be (and often is) a disaster or what some have called “the unintentional interim” who lasts only briefly before being replaced. Even worse, it may be someone with no appreciation for the DNA of the organization who then drives it into steep decline and even destruction. 

Choosing to be a healthy and creative mixture of institution and movement is wise - and difficult. It requires constant renewal and paying serious attention to changing realities.It means resisting the inevitable creeping vines of bureaucracies and tempting focus on the systems that strangle the enthusiasm of those who joined in the early days. Finding leadership that can take the best of the founder’s charisma (Weber calls it grace) and make it a vital part of the history but not an idol will always be the challenge. 

If I were to pick a ministry prepared by an extraordinary founder and current leader to successfully do just that it would be City to City. They have moved from this..to that.

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Art by Michael Azgour

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