Church for Every Context. Michael Moynagh

been a shift from vertical bureaucracies to horizontal networks.

      Information technology has enabled this networking of scale and specialization. Yet contrary to much business literature, Castells is adamant that technology did not cause the restructuring of organizations (Stalder, 2006, p. 56). Organizations changed to cope with a constantly shifting environment. Once under way, however, the changes were accelerated and enhanced by new technologies.

      The combination of scale and specialization represents a shift from mass standardization to what Mathias Nilges calls the ‘standardization of difference’ (Nilges 2008, p. 30). Whereas under mass standardization scale was used to produce standardized products at prices that more and more people could afford, with the standardization of difference scale is harnessed to produce – alongside standardized offerings – an expanding range of customized goods and services. Consumers increasingly expect organizations to tailor their offerings to the individual’s requirements and circumstances. Scale is personalized.

      The church of course is very different to business and other secular organizations. Even so, in a more customized culture, the local church cannot expect to relate in the same way to all the varied groups in its vicinity. Niche or focused church is a response to these social realities. Focused churches are the ecclesial counterpart to specialized producers serving market segments. Recognizing that one size does not fit all, focused churches accord individuals with different personality and cultural preferences equal respect and opportunity within the kingdom of God. Mission, community, worship and other aspects of ecclesial life take shape around these differences. The resulting richness and diversity point to the richness and diversity of the kingdom.

      Just as other specialist providers network to secure the benefits of scale, focused churches can also work together to make available a wide range of resources for mission and discipleship. Individual churches can concentrate on a narrow set of activities, knowing that support for a fuller Christian life can be found in the larger church. Might the ‘corridors’ and the local and regional networks, which the previous chapter described, provide some of these supports?

      The space of flows

      A key concept for Castells is the ‘space of flows’, which links up places in real time (Castells, 2000a, pp. 407–59). Whereas for over a century places have been getting better connected, what is new is the integration of distant places so they can function as a coherent unit. Locations geographically far apart are linked together, and information is instantly transferred between them as if they are next door.

      Castells argues that this compression of space and time brings into existence a new social space with its own dynamics and characteristics, the space of flows. It consists of the electronic circuits and fast transportation corridors that connect distant locations. It enables the movement of information, materials, money or people. It relies on networks that are tied to a series of points or nodes, such as individuals, organizations, cities and nation states.

      This space of flows has several implications for the church. First, individuals increasingly live in the space of flows. They facebook, tweet, swap music files, talk endlessly on their mobile phones, follow sport online and much else. Church life is following suit. Between face-to-face meetings, members use the Internet to share news and prayers and sometimes study together. By downloading podcasts, visiting websites and more, individuals and groups give to and receive from the wider church. Current attempts to serve people online – churches in Second Life for example – will become more sophisticated and, as individuals learn from experience, almost certainly more fruitful.

Pete Ward argues that the church increasingly takes the form of networks. These networks are constantly formed and re-formed through communication outside the gathering, as well as inside (Ward, 2002, p. 38; 2008, p. 137). Graham Ward suggests that his namesake’s vision is nothing new. Church has always been a network (Ward, 2009, pp. 203–4, n. 32). But the ‘talk, talk’ society, in which people spend longer in more varied networks, is bringing the network aspect of church to the fore. As more ecclesial life takes place in networks, the church has an opportunity to redeem the space of flows – to show what this space might be like if it was under the lordship of Christ.8

      The space of flows and the networks within it do not reduce the importance of geography. Most people are embedded in the places where they live. Networks actually enhance physical life (Castells, 2001, pp. 207–46). Community groups employ the space of flows on behalf of locally rooted projects; mobile phones are used to arrange meetings in a place; teleworking retains the office, but utilizes it in a different way. Likewise, new network churches often gather people who have a place in common – a sports centre, workplace, school or community centre. ‘Local’ churches have a long-term future because for most people everyday life remains local. Thus, just as society is both online and physical, church too increasingly has a network and geographical existence.

      Second, Castells argues that one effect of the space of flows is to fragment localities. Some of the fragments are integrated into new functional units by being connected to complementary nodes elsewhere. The local convenience store is part of a global supply chain. Individuals meet up with their friends from some distance away. But geographical space is fragmented. The convenience store ignores local suppliers. Well-networked individuals may not know each other next door. In particular the elite strata of ‘informational labour’, which inhabits boutique hotels, loft apartments and airport VIP lounges, lacks deep roots in a place. The gated community symbolizes the elite’s presence in a locality, and yet its distance from it.

      By contrast, the poor live outside the space of flows in an existence constrained by geography. Here is a key way that power is exercised in this new society. Networks have a binary logic – you are either in or out. Castells writes of ‘networking power’, which is the capacity of a network to include or exclude people (Castells, 2009, pp. 42). Who belongs to society’s dominant networks and does not becomes a major source of exclusion. This is exemplified by the City of London. It is a node in the networks of financial capital but sits alongside areas of great poverty. Networks create geographical rich–poor divides.

      This breaking up of place creates a new context in which the church can live out the reconciling power of the kingdom. Dual church membership, mentioned in the last chapter, and networks that link focused churches at local and regional levels can counter the trend toward fragmentation. Individual churches can become nodes within networks that tie people together across a locality. Might focused churches increasingly join the fragments of society, while ecclesial networks join the fragments up?

      To be serious about integration, these networks will have to pay close attention to people who risk being excluded. Networks of the like-minded will merely replicate the inclusion/exclusion dynamic of networks in general. To overcome this dynamic, the church must bring something fresh to the network society. Flying in the face of almost everything, from Facebook’s modus operandi to national immigration policies, the church will have to create networks that welcome individuals who are different.

Third, networks enable churches to mobilize and serve the wider society. Networks can address issues that are too large for any one gathering. Martyn Percy is concerned that this will fail to happen. Fresh expressions of church, he fears, will lack ‘thick’ connections to the wider body and to their neighbourhoods. They will be too self-focused to pursue the social good and to build up the whole church (2008; 2010, pp. 67–79). Without discussing alternative views, 9 Percy sides with commentators who believe that personal networks are spreading at the expense of mass membership organizations, such as Scouts and Guides, trade unions and traditional churches, which socialized