Building Resilient Church Leadership Through Nested Communities
Nestedness is a structure in which similar versions of the same spe-cies occur iteratively as a means of protecting biodiversity. One way to visualize nestedness is to imagine a series of islands radiating out from a primary one. That main island has a rich and diverse expression of species, flora, and fauna—from large to microscopic. Then, imagine the next island out—it will have some of the species of the main island but is smaller and has additional special features due to its unique size and topography. The third island out is even smaller, and it also replicates some aspects of the first two islands, with a little variation of its own. Nestedness allows for resiliency of species because, if there’s a catastrophic event on the main island, all is not lost because of what has occurred on the subsequent islands emanating out.
Resilient Church Leadership Requires Influence
Functioning well in a nested organizational ecosystem necessitates certain kinds of administrative capabilities: influence, response to change, and adaptation.5 As those tasked with stewarding people, resources, and projects through a process, administrators primarily express these capabilities. We’ll look at the early church as a snapshot of incredibly successful nestedness, observing how the apostles shep-herded these communities.
How the Early Church Modeled Resilient Church Leadership
One of my favorite scenes to visualize from Scripture is the mo-ment after Jesus ascended, the disciples just standing there, squinting at the sky, hearts pounding, looking at each other, befuddled at what they had just seen. I doubt any of them jumped in immediately with “Okay, fellas! Here’s the four-step plan of how we are going to get this great commission off the ground!” They had been given their short-term plans: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for what my Father promised, which you heard about from me” (Acts 1:4), but the rest of it had yet to be unfolded.
The complex task of bringing the gospel to all the world was ut-terly dependent on the apostles being filled with the Holy Spirit, who would empower and lead them in this endeavor. After Peter’s initial sermon on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand believed, there was a time of learning, community organization, and formation: “They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fel-lowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They engaged with each other and with the leaders, and began the process of working out what they had accepted to be true about God. There were miracles and opposition, all of which were evidence that, even though Jesus was not bodily present, his power and love abounded through the presence of the Spirit.
After this period of time where initial converts were taught and formed in this new way in Jerusalem, it became apparent that the movement needed to expand outside of the city confines. Persecution was part of the reason for leaving—on the very day when Stephen testified so powerfully about the historical witness to Jesus, significant harassment, trouble, and torture broke out (Acts 8:1). The apostles kept Jerusalem as their home base for a little while as others spread throughout the area (Acts 8:1). Communities of learning and forma-tion sprang up throughout the region (we call them churches). The apostles visited them regularly and even communicated via letters, addressing concerns and encouraging them to faithful obedience.
While Scripture does not directly address the administrative capa-bilities of the apostles (although administration is a gift of the Spirit), we can see that the foundational building blocks of administration in a nested organization are present (influence, response to change, and adaptation).
When silos are removed, seeing as much of the whole as possible is vital. Accompanying comprehensive sight is the need to develop appropriate influence. In Acts 8, Philip was directed to leave home base in Jerusalem (his previous silo) and head down toward Gaza, whereupon he met the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip explained Scripture to him, baptized him, and then was skirted away to Azotus. Philip’s posture was to just go where the Lord sent him to bring the good news of the gospel, wherever that might be. He understood the over-all mission, and the willingness to go wherever that took him fostered significant influence in his ministry.
Responding to Change Through the Holy Spirit
According to Nicolai J. Foss and his colleagues, leadership in an ecosystem requires a “wide lens” or a “holistic, system-level perspec-tive beyond the boundaries of one’s firm,” as well as prior experience upon which to build.6 These two arms demonstrate a challenge, par-ticularly when a response to change is warranted. It’s not enough to simply be a visionary and to see that hoped-for reality coming out of a vacuum, but context and experience are vital in an ecosystem when it’s time for a response to change.
Perhaps the most dramatic response to change in the early church was how they accepted Saul, their former persecutor, as a leader after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Ananias came close to this man and taught him, trusting the Lord and Saul that his conversion was real. Saul preached Jesus fearlessly and ended up as one of the key authorities of the early church. He corrected Peter, corrected the Corinthians (among other churches), and presented clear doctrine for acceptance by the church. His apostle colleagues must have ex-perienced whiplash to go from seeing Saul as their enemy to seeing him as their leader. Somehow, by God’s grace and through the resiliency of this newly formed organization, this was a successful response to change.
Resilient Church Leadership Adapts for Kingdom Growth
The church and its leaders not only accepted Saul (who later be-came known as Paul) and adapted to his leadership, but they also adapted to the ever-growing expansion of the church overall. They welcomed gentiles (see Peter’s experience with Cornelius in Acts 10), sent members off on journeys to share the gospel and help establish churches (Acts 13; 16–20), contended with the established Jewish religious leaders and civil leaders (Acts 14; 19–26), clarified the mis-sion of the church (Acts 15), and dealt with interpersonal conflict (Acts 15). While the story of Acts is told as the account of several key leaders, those who joined the movement of Christians mostly stayed where they were, adapting their daily and weekly rhythms, shifting the ways they engaged with neighbors, changing how they related to religious leaders, and perhaps addressing conflict with civil leaders, and more. Church history is replete with occurrences of adaptation for the church, even as it is firmly established in society. May God continue to guide through the centuries.
As organizations continue to develop structures and practices that contribute to nestedness—developing our influence, response to change, and adaptation—we as administrators will contribute to the creation of resilient organizations.
Excerpted from Taking Good Care: Administration as Christian Formation by Jana Holiday ©2026 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.). Reprinted with permission from the publisher.
