Ideology is the glue that holds decentralized organizations together.

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

I don’t fully agree with the above quote from one of my favorite books on organization leadership. Actually, I think it stops one station short of the destination.

One of the questions we face in the local church I serve is one of unity. The question comes up “how are we one church” when we don’t see one another? My answer is that Mission, Vision and Values tie us together. But it not the ideas that tie us together, it is our mutual decision to put them into practice and allow them to shape our decisions. It is not the piece of paper, or in our case website, with the words on them but rather how when we get into rooms with leadership these words point us toward a North Star we can all agree upon.