Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Learning from Ants: The Possibility of Missionary Swarms
1. Its members would daily live by common purposes and principles. A swarming mission structure would be built by people who agree to pursue a singular, multifaceted vision whole-heartedly. They would spend time at the beginning getting everyone “on board” with the purpose and values, so that later they can decentralize leadership and authority as much as possible by trusting people to make the right decisions.
2. Its members would prize cooperation over command or coordination. Without leaders, collective action must be cooperative rather than coordinated. Mission swarms must empower people with tools—like the ant pheromones—to cooperate and partner with each other.
3. Its members would focus on rapid reproduction. Right now, according to David Barrett and Todd Johnson, births are the primary cause of growth of the Church.4 This is not enough to make a difference in the unreached world. We must increase the number of converts (disciples) we make. We must strive to increase the reproductive rate of our churches through conversion, conscientiously removing every barrier in the way.
4. Its members would be rapidly incorporated in to the work. We must increase our own ability to rapidly train disciples and get them started making disciples as well. This may mean, as much as possible, getting away from four-year schools and seminaries. Apprenticeships, mentoring and coaching will be key tools. However, we should not get rid of four-year schools altogether. Established higher-education schools provide centers of advanced learning and research which can be invaluable.
5. It must join together to form super-colonies. A swarming mission must be able to connect small mission “colonies” in specific cities, tribes, provinces, countries, regions and globally into super-colonies focused on expansion. It must become diverse, incorporating the cultural giftings and resources, in order to meet the challenges we face. It must have a significant amount of grace for each other’s cultural and professional differences and methods.
6. Its members will refine their macro-planning while dramatically improving their micro-planning abilities. There are many “big-thinkers” and “visionaries” in the Christian world. I have sometimes been labeled as one of these. What is interesting to me is that ants do not have big thinkers and visionaries. There are no strategists, no researchers, no surveyors, no planners—or are there? Isn’t every ant a researcher—of their area? Each ant uncovers its environment and communicates its discoveries to its near neighbors. Ant research is less like a scientist mapping the human genome and more like a radar set for a plane. They very quickly “strobe” their environment and react to the immediate vicinity. A swarming mission can and should utilize macro-research; however, we need to vastly improve our micro-research and communication ability. We need to take advantage of both the big picture trends and the immediate field realities.
7. Its members must increase their ability to measure. Everything having to do with our daily ministry work should be measured and reviewed: recruitment, training, deployment, support, strategies, execution and so on. For example, if we are seeking mission applicants, then we need to know answers to questions such as: What is the ideal application for each position? Where are we recruiting these applicants? How many applicants did we get? How many were accepted? Of those that were not accepted, why did they “fall through the cracks”? How might we improve this in the future? Measuring and analyzing every single step will help us increase the quantity and quality of our work.
8. We must increase our accountability. This is one area where we are better than ants. Bugs generally do not have accountability partners. If an ant wanders too far from the nest, it dies. The nest as a whole does not seem to weep much or miss him. Humans are different, and we need to put strong systems in place to help each other be accountable for the plans we implement and the way we work.
9. We can use technology, but we should not dependent on it. Technology can empower people. It enables individual people to do more with less effort. However, we must not become dependent on technology—incapable of doing any work without it. The more our ministry requires technology, the less our ministries can be passed on to others who lack sufficient technology. This limits the speed at which swarms can expand.
10. We must be committed. We need to increase our commitment to reach the unreached and labor against our desire to build our own empire. I am not saying we should not plant new colonies—we must. These may be vast structures, every bit as complicated as a skyscraper or a pyramid. They may have vast storehouses full of resources. They may contain media centers, printing presses, Bible schools, bookstores, medical research centers, micro-enterprise banks and every other thing we can think of. But at the end of the day, our goal is not to build state-of-the-art nests, but to make ant-makers. We would do well to keep this in mind.
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