Here’s an interesting example of a network strategy at work in history. It was identified by Jacob Huneycutt, an Arkansan studying history at the University of Arkansas. He reported his findings last year in this paper, “A Spirituall Kindome: The Importance of the Particular Baptists’ Transatlantic Network of Voluntary Interdependence and Cooperation to the Success of Baptists in the American South during the Late-Eighteenth Century”
Jacob’s thesis is that the history of Baptists in the South, and their role in the Great Awakening before the Civil War, is generally attributed to “Separatist Baptists”, but his reading of primary sources shows that they separated from the “Particular Baptists” and later rejoined that particular group. The significant thing about the Particulars is laid out succinctly here:
“ …. the success of the Baptist denomination in the American South in the late-eighteenth century was contingent upon the formation of a transatlantic and trans-colonial network by a tight-knit group of Baptists, most frequently called the “Particular Baptists” in England and the “Regular Baptists” in America, who first emerged in London in the 1630s. This highly Calvinistic group of Baptists developed some unique features that were key to their growth. One was an ecclesiology wherein individual churches, while being autonomous, nevertheless were seen to collectively form a “spirituall Kingdome,” being voluntarily interdependent on one another and “walk[ing] by the one and the same Rule…
…The other key feature, which logically flowed from the first one, was their coordinated approach to expansion: employing their view of ecclesiology, they cooperated together to repeatedly send out missionaries and messengers and extend a relatively standardized, confessional Baptist model to new locations. These key features of voluntary interdependence and a coordinated approach to expansion fostered rapid growth, first throughout the British Isles, and then in the American colonies.”
file:///C:/Users/glady/Downloads/A_Spirituall_Kingdome_The_Importance_of%20(1).pdf
If you live in the South and are not a Baptist, you might have wondered why they have churches on every corner. Now you know.
Having grown up as a Southern Baptist I think I can say that most Baptists would not have thought their organizational structure was the most powerful part of their religion. But we were proud of the united effectiveness of our missionary work across the globe.
When I was young the powerhouse of the missionary movement was the WMU… the Women’s Missionary Union. My mother was an active member, and I was the only girl in my little church’s history to become a “Queen” in the Girl’s Auxiliary. That meant you had to memorize a lot of stuff. If I can find a photo of me being installed as “Queen” I’ll add it here.
The Women’s Missionary Union was a denominational network of Baptist women whose job was to raise money for home missionaries (in the US). They held lots of bake sales and craft fairs. One of their projects was to distribute little folded boxes shaped like little churches that had a slot for coins on the top. All Baptist children were encouraged to put their pennies into the missionary box, and on our birthdays, we proudly took our box to church to be applauded by the whole congregation. WMU did lots of money-raising, but those missionary boxes were hugely important to making WMU relevant to the next generation.
It was also the women’s network that interlinked churches all over the South in solidarity to a cause with real meaning to the whole body. The churches relied on the WMU in many capacities, and it was a source of leadership training in a denomination where women really had very little voice.
The WMU as a money-raising powerhouse met a sad end when the Southern Baptist Convention was overtaken by super-conservative authoritarians in the 1980’s who were suspect of women with as much money as the WMU managed. Millions, in fact. The dudes took them over and made them into a social club. I’m not sure of their fate after that, but the missionary work goes on. The focus at the time was to turn the Southern Baptist Convention into a political machine for the Republican Party, at which they were pretty successful. Women in charge of millions was not a helpful look for the planned power structure.
That brings up a point that’s significant to me: the sometimes-hidden nature of networks.
When my father told me the story about the WMU in the 1990’s it was shortly after the WMU had been cut off. He was an employee and then the manager of the printing shop for the Missouri Baptist Convention from the 1960’s into the 1990’s and worked closely with the women in the state WMU office. He thought they were the only well-organized department in the Convention.
I wonder sometimes what happened to the powerful, brilliant, well-organized Baptist women who ran it after the office was closed. I’m imagining their hurt and fury over that treatment. But I can’t imagine that they turned their backs on their churches. I believe (without hard evidence) that they likely took their brilliant capabilities and did something else to serve their communities. It was the Convention’s loss.
This is the way networks operate in an authoritarian culture. Even though the business of the company happens around the water cooler where the networking takes place, the pretense is that the boss makes the decisions and deserves the credit for success. The formal economy inflates GDP to create billionaires, but the informal economy uses networks to feed families. The evidence continues to come to light showing that networks are powerful forces that quietly link communities and help make them into good places to live.
Exactly how networks do that is now emerging as an intriguing science that bears close study and appreciation. Especially by those who advocate for democracy and a world that works for all. What some of us call a culture of peace.