Reboot, Revise or Restart: Part II

The Church is always local.  That's not original to me, by the way.  People have been saying "politics is always local" for a long time, and that concept applies to the global Church as well, I think.  Regardless of what the Church is doing in our culture, it all stems from what local congregations are doing in their neighborhoods.

That said, it's still useful to talk trends, so long as we keep in mind that our conclusions are meaningless until we apply them to our church.  And that may lead us in different directions from the larger Church trends.

I guess this is just a short note, but I think it's a key one in terms of what I’m processing theologically right now. 

When we consider revision vs. rebooting vs. recreating, I disagree with some of the authors I'm reading.  I think they overstate the scale of the change needed.  I get it:  they have to sell books.  Books are easier to sell when there is a colossal sweeping change we simple must get ahead of in order to save the _[insert threatened ministry here]_. 

But the church is local.  Some need revision, some re-creation.   As a systems thinker the focus is on discovering what kind of change will bring us to the kind of operation we're called to.  How do we fulfill our local DNA as a church?

So, next time:  what ministry should consider revision?

Revise, Reboot, or Recreate? Part I...

I've just finished a massive syllabus rewrite.  Trust me, it's just as much fun as it sounds.  Parts of it are great fun; others, not so much.  The whole process has been dominated by a single question:  Do I revise this, reboot this, or recreate this?

These are three different approaches for me. 

• Revision is simply changing a few things to make them flow better with the overall course, which stays the same.  Revision isn't very deep.

• Rebooting is going back to a much simpler course structure and reworking a few things from scratch.  It means ditching a part of the course (several major assignments, or the schedule).  This is a step deeper, and often results in a course with significant differences.

• Recreating is a much larger process, starting from a clean slate and beginning anew (core concepts, objectives, texts...the works.)  The resulting course will likely look nothing like the original.

This is a perennial question for me.  I always have a list of things I liked for the course, stuff I would tweak, and things I want to change dramatically.  Sometimes the question is simple.  Sometimes  a majority of the stuff is good and there are a few things I would like to tweak.  Other times the course is such a disaster that I want to start all over again.

Most of the time, however, this is not so simple.  When do tweaks and revisions pile up enough a reboot is in order?  When is rebooting simply pushing the inevitable failure of the course structure back another semester? 

Part of what has driven this question to preoccupy me is the nature of the material.  Specifically the Perspectives text (I don’t' have the full title here with me...it's somewhere on this blog, I'm sure.)

 for our Family Life Ministry course .  Should the local church revise, beboot, or recreate the current approach to ministry in the family? 

The Cybernetic Church?

Systems are taking over my life.  For a long time I've been infatuated with complex adaptive systems theory (cast) and it's impact on practical theology.  As I'm reviewing stuff for my Family Ministry course next semester I'm struck more and more how deeply this kind of thinking can impact the structure of a church.

I'm reading through The Family, which is Dr. Knight's text for Family Systems.  There is an excellent section concerning the difference between simple feedback (leaving a heater on to heat a room) and cybernetic control (a thermostat is set to monitor and implement systemic changes in a loop).  

I'm a cybernetic thinker, so I like this discussion a lot.  I'm also a practical theologian, so I'm always wondering "so what?"  

I'm wondering how I might go about being more intentional about cybernetics in church settings.  How can we function more as thermostats than direct providers of feedback?  What might I do in this upcoming course to talk about this?

Book Devouring

I'm about to begin my twice-yearly book devouring.  I've got a bunch of texts to go over to prep for next semester.  I'm going to try to use this blog as a sounding board for ideas (and since I often talk when I type, it's as fun to watch as it is to read) and such.


It's a self-discipline thing, really.  If I have to keep this up do date, I'm much less likely to cram all my reading into one week. 


First text:  Perspectives on Family Ministry.  More (hopefully) to follow soon.

Punk apologetics

I just finished the book Is Belief in God Good, Bad, or Irrelevant? edited by Preston Jones.  A couple of thoughts have been tumbling in the dryer in the back of my skull since I've finished it.  

Preston Jones is a history professor at a Christian college.  He's also a fan of the punk band Bad Religion.  BA's lead singer, Greg Graffin, happens to have a PhD in zoology, and his dissertation discusses evolution, atheism and naturalism.  Jones sent Graffin an email that sparked a long discussion ranging over a lot of topics but centering on their two faiths:  Christianity and naturalism.

The book is a good read, although there's more relationship building than apologetics.  Jones in his introduction warns those who have studied apologetics that this will likely frustrate them.  It did.  That aside it was really good to see a Christian treat a skeptic with real respect.  Graffin deserves some real respect, too.  He's asking really good questions from a very solid standpoint (I think he overestimates the results of his research, but that's what dissertations are all about, isn't it?).

If you're in the mood for quirky approach to apologetics, check it out.  If you like BA's music, check it out.  If you want bullet points about apologetics or evidential discussions, skip this.

You are your ministry

My graduating seniors have to write and defend a practical theology.  It's a pretty big deal.  I'm doing this with the resonance from the National Youthworker's Conference in my head.  One of the constant themes of NYWC is that you are your ministry.  What makes up your spiritual DNA naturally (and appropriately) spins off into your ministry.

That means these practical theologies I'm working on are either worthless or invaluable.  Each of us has a practical theology, and the work we do in ministry is the largest evaluation of that theology.  What we do is our practical theology.  

These are worthless unless they really represent who these students are incarnate among their communities in ministry, and invaluable when they do just that.

Schedule, shmedule

I just finished the schedule for the YFM retreat tomorrow.  It got me thinking about the power of a schedule.  Once it's on the paper, it look so solid.

The thing is that I've done so many retreats and camps that I know this outline for our time together isn't going to survive.  It won't be on track for the first few hours, much less the whole retreat.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of scheduling.  It certainly helps meet objectives (one of our objectives is hang out together, and we had to schedule a retreat to do that!) and keeps us focused on our goal.

I guess I'm just struck as I look at it on paper by how powerful that little outline can be, and how fragile.