Tribes and Heretics

another IMN solution…

Keith McNamar —
IMN Field Operative —

Tribes and Heretics:
A Real World Application of Seth Godin’s “Tribes”

—Have you ever been thought of as (or even called) a “heretic”? Rest easy, you may be in great company, at least according to the newest book, Tribes, by bestselling author, Seth Godin.

In fact, if you’ve participated in an IMN mentoring immersion, or are launching a Culture Pub™, or are an artist who is contributing to Voxtropolis®, then it’s likely that you already are a heretic. Maybe the time has come to embrace that label rather than shun it.

photo: pow wow at the HUMAN Event 2007

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I was introduced to the Tribes book when I attended the Catalyst conference a couple of weeks ago. Seth Godin was one of the presenters and he gave a fantastic talk challenging each of us to lead a tribe of people rather than just a church or an organization. And when his talk was finished he did the most remarkable thing: he gave away 12,000 copies of his book for free. He instantly created a tribe by one simple act of generosity.

Godin defines a tribe this way: “…a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” When I think of a “tribe” the way Godin describes it, I see in the IMN™, Voxtropolis®, “M”, the Culture Pubs™ the relationships that capture this essence.

Godin addresses the importance of the leaders not only making their connections to the members of the tribe, but also about facilitating connections between the members of the tribe as well. With tools like “M”, Voxtropolis and the HUMAN EVENT we are participating in the birth and growth of a new tribe which will manifest itself around the world – unlimited by the geographical boundaries that used to define tribes.

photo: the 2007 cohort of the IMN

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Godin goes on to contrast tribes and factories, contending that factories are efficient, profitable, stable and yet ultimately conspire to inhibit initiative and creativity. Hmm, sounds like an accurate description of the organizational church landscape. The tribes, however are, “organizations of the future…filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission.”

I believe the IMN is one of these organizations of the future. Alex McManus, founder of the IMN, has described us as a peripatetic (I looked it up, it means “in motion, journeying hither and thither”) seminary, a collaborative of learning that will be in a constant state of growth and equipping as we journey together on the mission of Christ.

So what does that have to do with heresy? Well, you might say that each time one of us chips away at a long-held assumption about the church or the culture or the church’s role in the culture because we read something at Alex’s blog, “Into the Mystic”, or heard something novel in an IMN session, we are breaking the religious rules of our churches. Godin says it this way: “Heretics challenge a given religion, but do it from a very strong foundation of faith. In order to lead, you must challenge the status quo of the religion you’re living under.”

I think we’re heretics because we happen to have that strong, fundamental (though not fundamentalist) faith that convinces us to push the edges of the organizational church in order to recapture the purity and beauty of the Christian mission. Seth Godin said “no one wants to follow a safe leader.” If you’re here, in this IMN/Voxtropolis/”M”/Human tribe, you’ve got the potential to lead your own tribe out of safety and into the mission.

I loved the way the book closed: “May I ask you a favor? If you got anything out of this book, if you highlighted or circled or Post-it-ed, I’m hoping you’ll do something for me: Give this copy to someone else. Ask them to read it. Beg them to make a choice about leadership. We need them. We need you. Spread the word. Thanks.”

So, first person to email me with your request for the book gets it: keith.mcnamar@gmail.com

What do you think?

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