— by Matthias Böhning
There are various illustrations of what shalom essentially means and entails. One of the images that has always appealed to me most is that of a neatly and stably woven piece of fabric. From my point of view, this picture is the most productive in its expressiveness. At the same time, this illustration provides the most points of reference for practical implementation in consulting and accompanying companies and other human organizations – on their way from good to great.
When I think of shalom, I think of a piece of fabric. In a piece of fabric, thousands of individual threads are woven together in such a neat and thorough way that they give each other stability, order and security. As a whole, something great is created: a fabric without flaws, without breaks. A fabric that is not only highly functional, but also characterised by artisanal excellence and beauty. What would happen if such a fabric were to be used much more extensively in our world? And especially with regard to our activity as a consulting agency: what if shalom were the fabric of which human organizations in our world are made?
When we rediscover and encounter God in his character as an artisan, we recognize the miracle of creation in a new way. The God of the Bible creates the world, nature, animals and us humans like an artist. In his book Generous Justice, Timothy Keller explains creation as an artfully woven fabric:
“…the world is not like a lava cone, the product of powerful random eruptions, but rather like a fabric. Woven cloth consists of innumerable threads interlaced with one another…. [T]he fabric metaphor conveys the importance of relationship.”
If we understand shalom as a fabric that consists of perfect relationships, we get closer to a holistic understanding of the concept of shalom. For shalom is more than peace. Shalom means relationships that are in every conceivable respect clarified and reconciled. Shalom is deep connectedness with one another – vertically (with God) and horizontally (with people). Shalom is cohesion that withstands every ordeal of external forces.
Sin tears this fabric apart in every way. When a shalom fabric is torn apart by sin, relationships break down at every imaginable level. Starting with the relationship with God (spiritual level). But it continues with the relationship to myself (psychological level), to other people (social level) and to creation, our living environment (physical level).
For quite some time now we have been playing with individual aspects of the extensive, multifaceted biblical concept of shalom in consultations and accompaniment in the area of organisational development. And deep, divine shalom seems to be a key principle for life – individually as well as collectively. What characterizes organizations that are made of the fabric of shalom?
Organizations of Community
A strong fabric consists of countless individual threads. It can only become a whole if each individual part is present and takes its place. Only then does this fabric hold and fulfil its functionality. A fabric in which individual threads are missing, dissolve, break or want to pull out, inevitably becomes weak and brittle. Timothy Keller writes in Generous Justice that the only way to weave and reinforce a fabric anew is to weave oneself into it. Each individual is important. No functioning, strong human organization can afford to have members who no longer want to be part of the fabric. To weave oneself into the fabric is on the one hand an active task that requires the commitment of each individual. On the other hand, it is a leadership task to inspire, encourage and guide people to weave themselves into the fabric.
In our individualistic society, shalom organizations are the wonderful alternative to the loner existence: they invite people back into the reconciling, mutually supporting, sustaining and motivating community. Shalom organizations are organizations that excel in community.
Organizations of Order
For a fabric to be strong and stable, it must be properly woven. No fabric that wants to be stable can afford structural defects. Every single thread must have contact with other threads at the right places. All threads must be properly and closely connected. At millions of points, each thread must pass over, under, around and through the others. Only then do you get a fabric that is beautiful and strong, that covers, fits, holds, protects and appeals to the eye and the sense of touch.
Shalom organizations are organizations in which people have a close, orderly connection with each other. In millions of situations and individual moments you are sometimes on top, sometimes below, sometimes next to someone else. Only when this togetherness works in each of these ways can an organization be strong. Order means that the multitude of human points of contact is allowed, valued and even encouraged in its diversity. The function and beauty of a material are lost when order and interwoven togetherness are abandoned.
Organizations of Clarity
With order comes clarity. A stable fabric follows a clear pattern. The same uniform principles apply throughout the fabric. When a fabric is woven, the “over” and the “under” are clarified and, more importantly, retained. Otherwise the structure would break up and the fabric would tear.
Clarified relationships are the recipe for success of shalom organizations. This clarification always starts with the individual member. A strong identity leads to strong social behaviour. Knowing who I am individually is a prerequisite for knowing what community is and what my place in this community could potentially be. Shalom organizations emphasize the clarification of identities, roles, structures and processes. This clarity pervades the entire fabric of a shalom organization, from individual task descriptions to clarifying the big questions of the entire organization (1):
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Why do we exist? (= vision)
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How do we act? (= values)
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What do we do? (= mission)
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How do we succeed? (= strategy)
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What’s the priority now? (= priorities)
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Who has to do what? (= distribution of tasks)
The deepest – and in effect most far-reaching – level of clarifying relationships is the reintegration into the order of creation. The rediscovery of the healthy place in the created world. The rediscovery of the relationship with the Creator God, who artfully weaves the fabric of shalom. The rediscovery and reclarification of this first and most important relationship on an individual and collective level is the divine key to true greatness of human organizations.
Organizations of Security
In a neatly woven fabric one thread holds the other. The multitude of individual components and their interweaving provide stability and resistance for the entire fabric. Anyone who has ever looked over the shoulder of a weaver and witnessed the weaving process will wonder how a beautiful, stable whole is created from relatively fragile, vulnerable individual parts (the threads). When loads are applied, the tension is distributed over the entire fabric, no single thread has to bear the entire load and provide stability. It is the interwoven cohesion that protects against tearing.
The torn fabric, the absence of shalom, overwhelms people and makes them break. The evidence regarding the civilizing experiment of individualistic excesses is clear: failed and not fit for life. The concept of shalom invites us back into the community. A community that strengthens, protects and holds each other. The image of the artfully woven fabric for the divine concept of shalom offers us a gentle alternative to the individualistic gospel. At first it is not easy to digest, because we have become so accustomed to the axis “My God and I,” we have almost become fond of it. But maybe the kingdom of God is much more collective than we ever thought (or much more collective than we ever had preached to us)? And maybe this community is not so bad, because it was conceived by God for blessing, protection and collective salvation.
Isn’t it interesting that in our noisy modern society we almost always associate real, peaceful serenity with being alone? When I wish someone shalom and thus peace, do I wish them peaceful solitude? The Bible gives us a convincing alternative suggestion and invites us to peaceful community. God invites us to peace and security in relationship. This powerfully counteracts the social centrifugal forces of our time and allows us to build organizations that will last, because the artfully woven fabric is stable and secure.
And when we are in full swing, shalom is the fabric great marriages, friendships, churches, nations are made of.
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(1) cf. Patrick Lencioni, “The Advantage”
This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.
What if we could have healthy debates in which we first have to clearly articulate the position of the other side? What if we sought common ground—rather than standing our ground?