Is it a movement?

The trend these days is to call the thing you’re involved with a movement. “Its more than a message (or a group, or an event or a denomination, or a place of business). Its a movement!” But saying doesn’t make it so. Calling a thing a movement doesn’t make it a movement. So … what makes a movement? Taylor Williams and I sat down with JD Walt for an Art of Holiness conversation and discussed the marks of an authentic movement. Here’s the list I cultivated as JD talked:

1. Movements start before they start.
2. Movements start underground.
3. The only secret to making a movement is: Become the seed.
4. Movements move.
5. In a church world, movements are more lay-led than clergy-led.
6. Movements start before they are ready.
7. Movements learn the difference between resistance and opposition (so push against opposition, but receive resistance).
8. Movements see vision (or as JD puts it, if you want to take the hill, you have to see the hill).
9. Movements meet. They don’t happen in a vacuum but in the company of others.
10. Movements seek to meet with God.
11. Movements have a culture about them.
12. Movements rise on centered-set thinking, not bounded-set thinking (but they don’t attempt to be all things to all people).
13. Movements don’t ask you to lower the bar; they just want you to move the barriers out of the way.
14. Movements persist. They are patient with the process.
15. Movements stay on Day One (think of Day One as the day of Pentecost).
16. Movements may be hidden.
17. Movements don’t focus on statistics. They focus on the score.
18. Movements flower in connection. Connection bears creates fruit.
19. Movements make friends.

What would you add to this list? And if this is our definition, would you say the Global Methodist Church is an institution or a movement?