posted by Gary Lee
100 Men and 4,950 Potential Connections
As we discussed the network diagrams last Friday morning, I could not help but
think of the value of these connections and how the concept of networking is so
important to the ministry of this church.
First, as self-confession, I am somewhat of a geek at heart. Around 1980 I
discovered my first personal computer and was hooked forever. I started out
writing software professionally, stumbled into telecommunications and have had
a very interesting career exploring new technologies, and how technologies
change how we work, play and become part of the global world where today
virtually every major part of the planet is interconnected somehow.
So with my geek-factor in mind, I could not help but think about the network
diagrams Forrest presented with my geek hat on. While these were intended to
show the interconnectivity between people and groups within the church, they
could easily be diagrams of any physical computer or telecommunications
network, and I’ve probably reviewed hundreds of these over the years.
Several communications principles, and the design rules and maxims borrowed
from telecommunications can be applied to the church networks as diagrammed
for our church and its ministry:
The Hub Network Model:
Where we have a limited set of
connections and a centralized hub,
several problems exist:
1) the “networks” (ie: the
various ministries) are limited
in their ability to share
information by the
connection back to the hub.
This hub might be a single
person, group or even the concept of the church as a building and the
center of our church. In this model, if all networks wished to
communicate, or share information or projects, the value of the network is
limited by the few links made available for the solution and the potential for
these links or the hub to be bottlenecks for information to easily flow back
and forth. Think of the hub-and-spoke model for airlines, which works
great when O’Hare and Hartsfield have good weather, and rather poorly
when both (and the NY corridor) are fogged in at the same time.
2) The hub network also has single points of failure which can
potentially isolate groups and / or individuals from the rest of the
network. In communications networks, one rarely designs a single
connection linking networks together. If the single connection fails, the
network becomes an isolated island. As I mentioned in our meeting last
Friday, let’s take the example where one of the end points connecting
through the hub is an individual, whose sole connection into the network
via the hub (aka the church in this example) is the Youth Group. If
something happens to that person at a Youth Group meeting to upset
them, hurt them or otherwise make them uncomfortable, the connection
between that person and everyone else around the church (hub) is
broken. There is just one, tenuous path connecting that person, group,
mission team, etc to everyone else.
The Church Web:
Where we have many interconnections between people, groups, teams,
FUMC, the community around FUMC, local missions, etc, etc (aka: the church web),
several valuable concepts arise:
1) The networks have
greater value as more
interconnections are
made, and more people
can connect together to
share information, answer questions, be a resource of gifts and
talents to others, be a prayer partner, etc. Church becomes less of a
“Sunday morning thing” happening at a “the hub” (aka the church
building), and more of a network of like-minded people and resources that
is impactful daily and weekly at work, school, life, etc.
In the telecommunications industry there is a “law” called Metcalfe’s Law*,
attributed to Robert Metcalfe – the guy who invented a core technology**
that allows all of our computers to interconnect / network today.
Metcalfe theorized that the value of any telecommunications network is
proportional to the square of the number of users on the network
(Memorize that and quote in your next staff meeting – impressive eh?).
In layman’s terms, Metcalfe’s Law states that a network is more valuable
as more and more people use it and become interconnected via unique
connections where they can share information.
*Not to be confused with Moore’s Law, attributed to Gordon Moore, one of the very bright co-founders of
Intel. In 1965, Moore forecasted electronics would double in speed, memory capacity etc. every two years.
So far, it’s held fairly true for every year since 1965.
**Ethernet
As an example, if we have a simple network of two cans and a string, a
single network connection is built between the users of the cans thus
providing value via the one communications path between the two users.
If we can somehow string up a tin-can-network for five people, and each
could share information independently with each other, then 10
independent and simultaneous connections exist between the users. For
twenty users, 190 unique connections could be made allowing for each
user to have an independent communications path for the exchange of
information simultaneously with the other nineteen users***.
To really demonstrate Metcalfe’s law, imagine the value of the mobile /
cellular network. As of the end of June, 2009, over 4Billion 4 connections
were in place around the world connecting people, machines and
networks. And with more and more of these able to exchange messages,
email or access the Internet, soon almost anyone in the world could in
theory exchange an idea, or sell a widget to almost anyone else. The
value of the mobile network is not based on the capitalized assets that
make up the physical network, but the value of the sheer mass of
humanity interconnected via a single web of connections.
In our church, 100 men all interconnected via a church web represents the
POTENTIAL for 4,950 different and simultaneous connections,
conversations, threads of help, encouragement, etc. WOW!!
2) The greater the connections, the less impact if a single link or
connection is severed. As mentioned previously in the hub model, if
an individual’s only connection to the church is worship on Sunday
morning, or youth group, or choir or local missions, and something occurs
to damage that connection, the individual may separate from the church
forever. As the person, ministry, family, and / or network has more and
more links to others within the church community, it is able to sustain
these blows more easily, as “church” is defined by the sum of all
connections for these entities.
I don’t think Mr. Metcalfe had this in mind when he pontificated his “Law” for
communications networks, but it certainly has merit when we look at how our
network of ministries and people can and should be interconnected in the life of
the church. The greater the number of connections which exist between the
men in the church and the church community at large, the tighter the meaning of
“church community” as a concept.
***for you math wizzes who are already trying to deduce the calculation, it’s ((n*(n-1))/2) where n = the
number of people in the network that require connections). For those who are math-challenged like me, just nod appreciably and move on
****Source: WCIS, July 13, 2009
Is our church network two cans and a string? An “Information cul-de-sac”? A
web of connections? What we need and want it to be? Is this something for this
Allies group to tackle? How do we get there?
