Streams Have More Than One Response to Rocks

So, I've been reading Margaret J. Wheatley's, Leadership and the New Science and been thinking about the theological as well as the organizational implications of what she's suggesting. Today I ran across this quote, "This stream has an impressive ability to adapt, to change the configurations, to let the power shift, to create new structures. But behind this adaptability, making it all happen, I think is the water's need to flow. Water answers to gravity, to downhill, to the call of ocean. The forms change, but the mission remains clear. Structures emerge, but only as temporary solutions that facilitate rather than interfere. ... Stream have more than one response to rock; otherwise, there'd be no Grand Canyon. Or Grand Canyons everywhere."

So I got to thinking, what if this is the model for the way the church is supposed to work--more like a stream than a man-made canal. Maybe our job as the body of Christ isn't to erect rigid edifices and institutions, but to flow. Maybe instead of analyzing and planning we should be more interested in just answering our call, in moving downhill from resources to need and to responding to the call of the Holy Spirit saying, "Look, I need you over here. Stop strategizing and just find a way to get here."

Just a thought. And yes, I really recommend this book.