The Starfish and the Spider book review

THE STARFISH AND THE SPIDER

A

 starfish has between four and 50 arms.  If you cut one off, the arm can regenerate.  Not only that, but in some species of starfish, like the blue linkia, if you cut off all five arms, you will get five new starfish!  That is possible because of the unique physiology of the starfish:  it is a completely decentralized organism. 

In their book, The Starfish and the Spider, authors Ori Brafmon and Rod Beckstrom contrast the starfish with the spider.   They point out that if you cut off the head of a spider, it dies, because unlike the starfish, the spider is a centralized organism. 

Brafmon and Beckstrom use these two creatures to describe two different types of human organizations. The spider represents the typical Western corporate model, with a CEO and a top-down, centralized hierarchy.  The starfish, on the other hand, represents an increasingly common social structure:  the decentralized organization.

One example of a “starfish” is the Internet.  The rise of the World Wide Web has brought a new appreciation for the power of decentralized social organizations.  In fact, ARPANET, the original computer network that eventually led to the development of the Internet, was created by the United States Defense Department so that in the event of a war (especially a nuclear war) the military would have a communication system that could not be destroyed.  Because the Internet does not have any centralized command location, it is indestructible.

I would argue that the original “World Wide Web” is the church.  Neither Jesus nor the apostles made any provision for a centralized structure:  there is no president or Pope in the New Testament, nor is there any headquarters or ecclesiastical bureaucracy.  Jesus is the only “head” and he has “all authority” in the church (Ephesians 1:22-23, Matthew 28:18). 

This decentralized structure is a great strength.  It protects all of the churches from the domination of any one individual.  It respects the headship of Jesus over the church, which is his body (Ephesians 5:23).  It helps to prevent the rise of man-made denominational structures and hierarchies. And, it ensures that the church cannot be easily corrupted or destroyed, because if one congregation is attacked or corrupted, others can easily spring up to carry on the Lord’s work. 

In keeping with the pattern of the New Testament, the churches of Christ are, and always have been, "starfish" organizations.  Each local church has its own leaders, chosen from that congregation, familiar with the challenges and opportunities of that community, accountable to the flock, responsive to the needs of the people.  There is no distant national or worldwide denominational structure controlling the churches or dictating doctrine. 

Our congregations are connected, but by two spiritual ties:  our common allegiance to Christ as our only “head,” and our heartfelt desire to “love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17).  May it ever be so.

–Dan Williams