Ray Oldenburg

Organic Community

Church Leadership & Ministry

“Anyone seeking to mobilize people to collective and cooperative effort or to promote organizational growth will find Joseph Myers’s Organic Community an invaluable resource. Whether educated about organizational systems or merely experiencing them in schools, sports, the military, work settings, or voluntary associations, we have all gotten used to and accepted many wrongheaded assumptions that run contrary to the organization’s goals. “Myers acknowledges that his is a different kind of how-to book. As much, or more, it is a how- not-to book that exposes fallacies inherent in common organizational policies and procedures, which are all the more destructive in organizations relying on volunteer efforts. “Myers offers nine tools, not ‘steps,’ the more of which one masters the more results are achieved. Application of even a few of these tools promises substantial improvement. “The book comes out of a small groups perspective and is aimed primarily at churches, but the principles set forth have application in organizations of all kinds.”