Write this as Eric S Raymond in the vein of “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”
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1. Thesis
The Kingdom, as portrayed in Matthew 13, behaves less like a cathedral—centralized, curated—and more like an ecosystem: distributed, adaptive, antifragile, and oddly fecund.
What appears chaotic at the edges hides order in the aggregate, the signature of a complex adaptive system.
2. Field Observations (Parables as System Diagrams)
- Mustard Seed → Scaling law
Small, widely scattered inputs yield outsized canopy effects (Matthew 13:31–32).
Edge niches incubate keystone species. - Leaven → Diffusion model
Hidden agents permeate the whole (Matthew 13:33).
Transformation is pervasive before visible. - Sower → Portfolio theory
Varied soils yield power-law outcomes (Matthew 13:1–9).
Over-optimize for one soil, and you starve the ecology. - Net → Aggregation, then sorting
Biomass is gathered indiscriminately; discernment comes after aggregation (Matthew 13:47–50).
3. Kingdom Patterns (Rules of Thumb)
- Release early, disciple often – Formation beats polish (Acts 2:42–47).
- Given enough members, burdens become shallow – Mutuality routes around single points of failure (1 Corinthians 12).
- Favor edges and corridors – Life explodes at boundaries (Acts 1:8).
- Diversity is design, not drift – Gifts partition complexity (Ephesians 4:11–16).
- Steward the commons – Authority tends habitat, not hoards it (Genesis 1:26–28).
- Antifragility over fragility – Perturbation can increase fitness (James 1:2–4).
4. Anti-Patterns (How Ecosystems Die)
- Monoculture spirituality – One gift, one voice, one demographic (1 Corinthians 12:19–20).
- Sterile control loops – Top-down curation that blocks reproduction.
- Boundary walls without gates – Orthodoxy needs permeable membranes.
- Unpriced externalities – Hidden costs borne by the vulnerable (Micah 6:8).
5. Design Notes for Practitioners
- Seed widely; measure growth, not grandeur (Mark 4:26–29).
- Prefer protocols to platforms – Habits are open standards; institutions are implementations.
- Engineer for serendipity – Create pollinator corridors (Romans 12:9–13).
- Local autonomy, global coherence – Apostolic guardrails with federated leadership (Acts 15).
6. Tests and Metrics (Falsifiable-ish)
- Edge vitality – Are new people and problems being engaged?
- Trophic balance – Do resources flow from strong to weak without dependency (2 Corinthians 8:13–15)?
- Disturbance recovery – Post-shock, does the body reconfigure at higher fitness?
- R₀ of goodness – Are practices imitated by outsiders (1 Peter 2:12)?
7. Corollaries
- Evangelism as ecological succession – Pioneer species (hospitality) prepare soil for hardwoods (doctrine).
- Holiness as habitat restoration – Repentance repairs degraded niches (Isaiah 58).
- Sacraments as nutrient cycles – Ordinary elements channel extraordinary flows.
8. Closing Provocation
If the Kingdom is an ecosystem, our task is not to own the forest but to tend it—protecting edges, cultivating diversity, and letting the intrinsic life of the Spirit do what living systems do: grow, adapt, and bear fruit (John 15:1–8).
9. Further Reading
- Open source and the bazaar metaphor
- Complex adaptive systems
- Antifragility
- Commons governance and Ostrom’s principles
Radically Happy 
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