Local Associations and the Power They Exercise
I’m drawing on my experience as a community development worker to consider ABCD’s six categories of community assets, and the second is local associations. You can find the full list towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?
I note that ABCD adds to local associations “and the power they exercise”. It is easy to experience the power local associations exercise as a liability. So, I’ll start with what can go wrong and go on to explain how their power can be an asset.
Where Does Their Power Come From?
Associations are essentially powerful and the power they exercise is through human minds. The Old and New Testaments identify this power as spiritual power. Angels and demons are not, as most people seem to think, independent beings living in some spiritual realm. They are manifestations of human organisations.
A healthy organisation has a healthy angel and an unhealthy organisation has an unhealthy angel or demon. If you are interested in exploring this further, try Walter Wink’s trilogy of books about the Powers.
The ancients understood the power of organisations in the sense that they empower or possess their members. A healthy organisation strengthens its members and enhances their lives but an unhealthy organisation can be demonic.
How Do Things Go Wrong?
I have seen this many times where the original aims of the organisation are a given and its members cannot see the reality they are in. They genuinely believe they are working for the ends they started with but they no longer know the truth of their activities. When challenged their response will be aggressive, because reality has to be kept at bay to maintain their vision.
Churches are prone to this and if you believe God is on your side, it is immensely difficult to jettison that delusion. To do so is, it seems, to stop believing in God; it is atheism. Atheism of course has its own demons. Not believing in them doesn’t mean they go away!
OK angels and demons may not be your cup of tea (they’re not really mine) but it is helpful to understand what they were before Medieval theologians and Hammer’s House of Horror got hold of them.
So, associations lose power through
- being unable to square their beliefs with the reality they encounter
- internal conflict, often enhanced when control of money comes into play
- losing sight of the original vision, when recruited to the cause of other organisations, sometimes called mission creep.
Mostly organisations that lose power in these ways become unable to do anything significant. I’m sure much of the violence we see is such unhealthy activity of nations or organisations.
What Does a Healthy Association Look Like?
- It stays in touch with its own story and is confident about its identity
- It responds to the reality it encounters. (I believe the neighbourhood I live is in brilliant but I am aware it has many problems)
- Members do not stay in the same jobs but take on new roles and new challenges, they look out for one another, see my post about residents’ skills
- It is known by its fruits, the constructive work it is able to begin and complete.
Use comments to describe experiences you have had of healthy organisations. How do they differ from unhealthy organisations?