Is the Church a Learning Organization?

The one fad in the business world that might be on the verge of becoming more than a fad is "the learning organization". In short, a learning organization empowers its employees down to the lowest level with a passion for education and knowledge, responsibility to make decisions, a team-player attitude, and the acceptance of mistakes- with the idea being if the whole organization learns from everyone's mistakes, they won't be repeated. This contrasts with the traditional organization that hides mistakes, promotes those who consistently show excellence (and thus hide their mistakes), and doesn't trust their employees.

Is the Church a "Learning Organization"? I've been in some churches where most of the responsibility rests with only a few. I've been in others that seem to play a political game- and thus people are unwilling to admit mistakes. I've also been in the proverbial "perfect" church wherein everyone supports one another and the goal is the growth of the congregation, as opposed to the growth of individuals within the congregation.

I guess the answer may be that some churches are more "learning organization" oriented than others. It would, of course, depend on the individual church's culture, history, its present pastor and church elders. But, as a rule- are churches geared towards being learning organizations or are they traditionally more likely to be traditional, hierarchical, and resistant to growth. Do people use the Bible to prohibit "growth" in the church? Can we question paradigms that have been around forever and are no longer seen as dogma as much as they are seen as unquestioned doctrine? Are we passionate about the search for knowledge in everything we do? Are we really concerned with education- education in a more scientific experimentation-style that requires an underlying doubt about dogma?

I'm really not sure. I would like to think the church doesn't stifle a learning organization-type atmosphere. Surely there were periods in the Universal Church's history wherein this wasn't the case. I would encourage church goers to read Peter Senge's book, The Fifth Discipline- which is considered one of the authorities on Learning Organizations, and then give their opinion on this question. Here's a good link: http://www.solonline.org/aboutsol/who/Senge/