World AIDS Day 2009 #2 – Role Models of Advocacy

Introduction: Last year I posted a “vintage” article I wrote in 1992 and revised in 1995, with what was then a provocative title of “Is Your Church HIV Negative?” This year, I continue that tradition in this post with “Barnabas and Ruth: Role Models of Advocacy,” which I wrote in 1993 for use by Christian AIDS Services Alliance (CASA) members. If I were writing this fresh today, I don’t think I would take any significantly different approach. Advocacy is an eternal topic, and although the people groups we may take up causes for will change, the practicality of advocacy will remain. So, here is another article from the CASA Archives.

Barnabas and Ruth: Role Models of Advocacy

© 1993 Brad Sargent

Recently I engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with another man and two women involved in ministry to people infected or affected by HIV disease. Interestingly, none of knew a single person with AIDS when the Lord tapped us on the shoulder and directed us into this work of service.

Why are non-infected people needed in the overall scope of HIV ministry? What unique things can we contribute? How can we be effective ministers, since we were not personally affected (until we met someone infected … then we were among the affected)? These were some of the questions we posed.

“I believe we can be advocates in a way that those infected can’t,” I said. “Not that their work isn’t valid, but no one can say that we have anything personally to gain from doing AIDS ministry.” Then I shared some things I’d learned about what biblical advocacy means.

Barnabas – Advocate for Paul

Since my ministry is named The Barnabas Center for Emerging Issues, obviously, Barnabas is my hero when it comes to role models of advocacy, in addition to Christ, whose role as advocate shows up in such passages as these:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2, NIV)

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by. (Zechariah 3:1-5, NIV)

The most striking example of Barnabas’ advocacy is in Acts 9. Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, came to Jerusalem in search of an opportunity to meet with other Christians. But who among the disciples would believe that Paul really converted to Christianity? After all, hadn’t he been zealous to persecute and kill Christians? Maybe this was just another trick of his to bait them.

How must Paul have felt? Surely he understood the Christians’ mistrust of him. But that didn’t change the fact that he truly was born again and desired fellowship, and that God had designs for his life.

When everyone else was afraid of Paul because of his perverse former lifestyle, Barnabas acted as Paul’s advocate. Barnabas himself presented Paul to the apostles. As Paul stood silently by, Barnabas stated the case for this convert, sharing how Paul had become a believer and then preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus throughout Damascus. As a result of the advocacy of Barnabas, the church accepted Paul as one of their own.

People with HIV disease and their loved ones may feel similarly isolated, gagged by a conspiracy of personal and social silence. Once they work up the courage needed to disclose their situation and seek help, they find it difficult to locate willing servants – “I’ve never dealt with AIDS before.” Will we be numbered among those who introduce such men and women and children back into our church?

Ruth – Advocate for Naomi

As the four of us talked further, I had an opportunity to share a point from the book of Ruth that had struck me during my regular Bible reading time. It occurred to me that Ruth was an Old Testament and feminine counterpart to Barnabas.

Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi, who had felt abandoned by God, showed itself in advocacy. Ruth took the responsibility to glean in the fields to provide for herself and Naomi. She ended up in the fields of Boaz, her kinsman redeemer, whom she eventually married.

This passage particularly struck me as relevant to those of us involved in HIV ministry. After Boaz gave Ruth free reign to glean in his fields:

“She fell on her face, bowed deeply to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why do you show me the favor of noticing me, an outsider?’

“Boaz replied to her, ‘It has been fully told me how much you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of her husband; also how you have left your father and mother and the land of your birth to identify yourself with a people you did not know before. May the Lord reward your kindness; may a full reward be yours from the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come to shelter.’” (Ruth 2:10-12)

When we identify ourselves with others in need and serve them, we in turn receive a blessing – even if they are “a people we did not know before.”

The Harvest of Advocacy

People affected by HIV need a Barnabas or Ruth in their lives – someone who will put their arm around them, accept them as they are, and encourage them to take steps towards allowing God to work redemptively in the midst of their painful situation.

What would the church be like today if Barnabas had not been a “son of encouragement” to Paul?

Where would we be if Ruth had not gleaned in Boaz’s fields on behalf of the needs of Naomi – which led to the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, and their progeny being in the Messianic line?

And who knows what wonderful plans God has in store for someone struggling with such a difficult issue as HIV – if we and others risk what it takes to help them along the way?

~ Brad Sargent

 

World AIDS Day 2009 #1 – Remembering CASA

Today is one of those days that bring up a mixture of emotions, especially as it marks several milestones in my life related to ministry and to mentoring. The ministry milestone is in this post, and I’ll share the mentoring one later.

Today is World AIDS Day, and 2009 happens to be the 20th anniversary year since a planning group of three got together to lay the groundwork for what became the Christian AIDS Services Alliance (CASA). That 1989 design triad included Jeffrey Collins (Love & Action in Annapolis, MD), Jonathan Hunter (from what was then named ARM-AIDS Resource Ministry in Los Angeles, now Embracing Life Ministries in Pasadena, CA), and myself (The Barnabas Center/Open Arms, Spokane, WA). My main role – as usual – was minute-taking and document-making. Someone has to be the superhero sidekick to those who do the hands-on stuff. And, actually, that’s what CASA was about – a national-level resource and referral network for agencies and ministries and churches that served those infected or affected by HIV disease.

In 1990, we held our first Steering Committee meeting, with nine national leaders in AIDS ministry. Most of them were pioneers, starting their involvement between 1984 to 1986 – within just a few years of the epidemic being identified in June 1981. I came later into this ministry, getting involved in 1987, and worked from both a practitioner role and a resourcer for the next 10 years.

I can still recall one of my first-ever conversations on the subject of AIDS. It was in 1987 and I was in a Christian bookstore. I explained to the clerk that I was studying about HIV and ministry. When I asked her if they had any books on this, she looked rather shocked and shook her head, “No.” But then she asked me to wait a moment while she finished up with another customer. Shortly after that, she waved for me to come over to a side section of the store. She whispered to me that she had a relative with AIDS, and that she felt restrained from talking about the situation at either her church or her work, because of comments others had made. I may have been the first Christian she found to unload that burden on.

That’s often how things went in those early years of the epidemic, and it look a long time to get any kind of a balanced Christlike response. The overall attitude of the theologically conservative churches back 20+ years ago was very negative and relatively vocal. So it makes sense that almost all of the earliest CASA members were parachurch ministries. They were independent agencies not because they necessarily wanted it that way, but because they had difficulties finding a church that would host them.

AIDS was then too dicey of an issue. There was too much fear and not enough willingness to act as the Good Samaritan whom Jesus commended. If AIDS was a form of God’s judgment, then weren’t you getting in the way of God’s plan if you helped those who were under judgment? (If Jesus Christ had that attitude, He certainly wouldn’t have incarnated as human to advocate for us and remove the judgment, now would He?) However, over the years, gradually more churches and church-sponsored agencies became part of the referral network – which I see now as a sign that a more paradoxical and incarnational perspective of compassion without condemnation or compromise was taking root.

Not all things are designed to last forever, and CASA was up and running from 1989 through 1997. As a sort of final highlight, different combinations of over 40 CASA leaders from across the U.S. participated in a three-weekend training series on HIV/AIDS ministry. This series was held at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in September and October of 1996, sponsored by the Continuing Education department. As it turned out, this ground-breaking event was apparently the first seminary course on HIV/AIDS ministry in the U.S. to be offered for academic credit. Looking back, those three weekends did more than just solidify the relationships among those ministry pioneers. They were affirmations of “well done, good and faithful servants,” given by a community of their peers and protégés who were there to glean from those who had shifted the paradigm of service.

Not long after that, I was unable to carry on the CASA paperwork, due to extreme burnout from my spending the entire year of 1996 organizing those three conferences. With everyone else basically involved on the front lines of relational ministry, I couldn’t find a replacement for compiling resources, and the network folded by the end of the year. If I were starting up such a network today, I’d just put everything online with a virtual network. But, if it needed to have an IRL (local) team, then I’d try to ensure there was enough duplicate coverage of people in order to pass on the work to others. However, I didn’t yet understand that lesson, and so, CASA came to an end.

With time comes perspective. Now I see that CASA served several purposes in the Kingdom. It connected those who were advocating for some severely marginalized people groups at a time when they often were not welcome in either communities or churches. It offered a library of basic resources at a time when there were few Christian materials available and when almost every book on the subject from a Christian publisher had a very limited perspective, limited print run, and/or a limited shelf life. Much like the missional movement of the past decade, these pioneering saints in HIV/AIDS ministry struggled with how to carry out what God was calling them to do when it was hard to find an actual or virtual community of peers … and the presence of CASA meant there was a virtual forum for supportive conversations in the midst of unsympathetic opinion. Twenty years on, I still believe it was all worth it …

Next Post: Last year I posted a “vintage” article I wrote in 1992 and revised in 1995, with what was then a provocative title of “Is Your Church HIV Negative?” This year, I continue that tradition in my next post with “Barnabas and Ruth: Role Models of Advocacy,” which I wrote in 1993 for use by Christian AIDS Services Alliance members.

 

Post-Thanksgiving thanksgiving post

The first American Thanksgiving was about the Pilgrims giving thanks to God for surviving the trials of the previous season, and tasting the bounty of their own labors and those of their Native friends who joined them. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. And so, I wanted to blog something about what’s happened this past 12 months, partly because I think the title is cool (sort of a word-instead-of-letters palindrome). But, mostly because I know that God and His people are cool – even when things don’t seem so cool.

This has been a hard, hard year since losing my main freelance writing/editing job 12 months ago, due to the downturn in the economy. I’m dubbing this The Year of Writing Dangerously (with apologies for my riff on the relevantly titled Mel Gibson film of 1982). Although I spent a full 6 months seriously ill with some weird kind of virus, in between the unwanted but necessary stretches with 12 to 15 hours daily of sleep and rest, I was able to plug away as usual on my mega-project of a curriculum for cultural contextualization and missional ministry. It seems absurd to have worked on this nearly 15 years, and yet, I plod on because it’s not about applause but about commitment to complete the tasks I was providentially designed for. And frankly, sometimes the backdrop and props for our stories quite simply are sucky. Late 2008 through late 2009 really is in the running for an “award” as My Most Difficult Year out of the last 20, along with these choice selections:

The Year of Couch Surfing where I had to relocate myself 36 times in 13 months (and the longest in any one place was 5 months, which meant 34 moves/removes in 8 months, or once every 12 days). I cycled through house-sitting gigs, short-term rentals at a graduate school dormitory, and staying with very kind friends, because I couldn’t afford an apartment alone on my salary but couldn’t find a roommate, or found a potential roommate but we couldn’t find an apartment in our range, or …

The Year of Church Planting Trauma where I witnessed the “postmodern-friendly” church plant I helped design go through a grand story arc of premature take-off, but then flying high, yet sputtering out of fuel as the planting pastor underwent severe culture shock, and then team members parachuting out when they could no longer take the lack or slack of communication or when the non-verbal messages said things much more clearly and negatively than the verbal ones. Utterly exhausting.

The Year of The Overcontrolling Leader where I had to endure daily a ministry situation under the oversight of an immature man whose life was so out of control that those of us in his charge were the only thing under his control. Plus I had the distinct feeling that I was one of several people he didn’t particularly favor, so we had it even worse. It took another whole year to recuperate from my depleted physical state due to the immense stress I’d endured.

After multiple such horrific circumstances and long-term trials, I shouldn’t be surprised to rediscover the same saving graces that surfaced during my recent experiences: supportive family and friends, a committed and non-judgmental church family to process life with, and a Triune God who always has something good up His sleeve, so to speak, and He has the biggest sleeve in the universe!

Put another way, sometimes we make our greatest discipleship discoveries when we are the most worn down, when we have no props left so/and we give props to God.

Like in The Year of Couch Surfing, where I realized that there are times when God seems to block our path from what is comfortable, to set up a series of “divine dominoes” for His bigger (and better!) purposes. After 13 months of exhausting relocations, I moved into an apartment where I stayed for 21 months – until I sensed I was to quit my job and relocate. Because my landlord was okay with me finding a suitable tenant to take my place, the apartment went to someone who really REALLY needed it exactly just then, and the storyline that followed proved that my being a “providential placeholder” for that person was as much a saving grace for them as the apartment had been for me. Also, I learned more about how God provides generously through the graciousness of His people.

Or The Year of Church Planting Trauma, where it became clear that culture shock in cross-cultural ministry can metaphorically kill a minister and literally kill a ministry. Also, I had to face up to why I’d proven to be a “serial victim,” susceptible to use, misuse, and abuse by toxic leaders. (That is a story for another time. If you’re interested in hearing that tale, leave a comment with what you think were the reasons for my victimization … methinks your guesses and gasps will make the eventual telling much more interesting!)

Or The Year of The Overcontrolling Leader, where I eventually came to the understanding that I had a lot of jagged edges that needed filing off, and this helped prepare me for being less “spiritually serrated” in my relating with others. But also, my presence made it “less bad” for certain other people suffering under this leader than it would have been otherwise – mostly those whose learning styles don’t process linear segmentation and regimentation well.

Some other thoughts coming out of this year and these previous banner years.

For disciples of Jesus, our lives are not our own. Which doesn’t mean we disrespect what God has invested into us and act as if we are nothing, but just that our personal story really is something. And, actually, each of us plays a part in an ensemble piece … like in the movies Grand Canyon, Crash, or Bug (the 2002 John Carroll Lynch one, not the 2006 Ashley Judd one) … because God interweaves our vignettes with one another’s lives. Even if things don’t make sense on the surface of the plotline, there is a Grand and Kind Director moving things along underneath. In that regard, lately I’ve been contemplating this quote again:

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. ~ Václav Havel

Things do make sense in God’s plan. Really! Even if it looks like complete and utter chaos in the moment. (Sidenote: World-class quotes – like world-class literature – deserve multiple readings. After the first few times, we stop reading them, and they start reading us.) I know I couldn’t pre-interpret all God intended for this very difficult period, but do expect that eventually I’ll be able to re-interpret more of what I thought I was seeing in it. And that’s part of growth: revisiting our story to see what patterns and lessons we can perceive.

We need to embrace circumstances of suffering, not try to escape them. This is because God uses trials to test our mettle and refine us like metal. I’m no fan of this lesson, but okay, there it is anyway. And I have to wonder at times how much I act more like a follower of any of several fatalistic world religions on this account, as if God determines all things (so I have an excuse for my passivity) and/or overpowers us (and I have an excuse for my fear of God or anger at Him). Or perhaps a follower of the world religions that emphasize escape from suffering (and I have an excuse for seeking self-comfortability through isolation or insulation from difficulties). Or perhaps a follower of world philosophies that suggest all is ultimately absurd and meaningless except for the meaning we choose to infuse (often giving me an excuse for my frantic activity or even for when I attempt to overpower others, which typically instills fear in them). It’s a far more paradoxical view to consider embracing the circumstances of suffering, and by embracing thereby go through them in order to fill in and fill out the sufferings of Christ (Colossians 1:24).

The dynamic tension between having been made complete in Christ already and being made holy by the Spirit in the here-and-now is resolved by perseverance. For over a year, my friend Gary and I have gotten together once a month for brunch and Bible. Currently, we’re going through Hebrews and – no surprise, given the themes of late – yesterday’s passage was Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10:14 basically states the first part of the lead sentence in this paragraph, and Hebrews 10:35-39 issues the end-of-sentence challenge for us to persevere. Many theologies split this paradox between our perfect standing in Christ in the heavenly places and imperfect state of growth on earth, and pick one over the other – most of them leading to significantly toxic consequences in the lives of their followers. Which is a likewise a story for another day, but the point for now is that God values our faithfulness as shown through our perseverance. This isn’t some legalistic thing about making rules where there should be none, and then following them so we can pat ourselves on the back for being so supposedly good and nice. No, it’s about finding God’s empowerment to live out His purposes for us as unique individuals and as His people of faith.

So, the past year has had its purposes. I sense a new season is coming … and I am thankful for both past and present, and how they have shaped my future.

My prayer for myself and for you who read this, is that we find that space of the Spirit’s empowerment so we can persevere with grace, find the Father’s purposes in our becoming more like Jesus Christ, and both give and live thanks for those transformations. Here’s hoping for a great rest of 2009 and a fruitful 2010!

~ Brad/futuristguy

Coming up soon: Watch my blog starting in early December for a series of tutorials on key problems in how we design our organization. I think these posts will prove helpful, whether for a church, ministry, or project.

 

Forthcoming R&D Posts on Big-Picture Pieces

It’s been a productive last six weeks, and I am very thankful to be feeling better physically. I’ve made some significant progress on the few big -picture pieces needed to transition from the heavily word-oriented R&D posts of the past to something that has a lot more images about The Opal Systems material. I’m finding that it takes more time than expected to build PowerPoint slides, but way less than if I were attempting to draw them freehand.

Also, it’s kind of cool to see how the Spirit seems to be orchestrating circumstances to move things forward. For instance, an international network I’m part of was approved for a grant to produce “The Transformational Index,” a system and process for building strategies and structures that are consistent with missional core values.

And, for several reasons, I’ve had to review past church and ministry situations of toxicity. First, one of the churches involved happened to get a new pastor who has invited my input to help him understand why he’s heard so many accounts about how the church he now leads gained and retained such a sullied reputation from the time it was a church plant. That was highly unexpected, but it’s given me an opportunity to think through what went wrong with the “spiritual and cultural DNA” of that church plant. Second, several jobs I’ve applied for recently require the person who gets the position to address situations of conflict. This led me to review another toxic church I was involved with and the specific processes I used for identifying problems and attempting to resolve the conflicts in a biblical manner.

And then, I spent over a year writing materials about church infrastructure and volunteer mobilization systems for Mobilyzr.com. Now seems to be the time to bring it all together, integrate these experiences, and “get a move on,” as we used to say while growing up in the highland plains of the pioneer West.

Anyway, some of the forthcoming “research and development” segments include:

Organizing our systems and projects and ministries with a quadruple bottom line (community, economy, ecology, and spirituality). Coming off of “The Feast” conference in New York last month, I’ve been intrigued to find out more about the history of how the triple bottom line got a foothold and grew to become a more recognizable concept itself, and how the fourth bottom line of spirituality came to be added in both church and community usage.

Summarize what constitutes toxic leaders and systems. My futuristguy blog already contains the equivalent of an entire book manuscript on these subjects. Time to boil it down to some essentials to use as a touchstone to avoid toxicity.

Methods and models that support conventional forms of ministry but not really missional ones. I’ve addressed some of the following already: traditional, contemporary, seeker-sensitive, staff-led, program-based, “emerging,” missional, and home-based church models. I suspect some of my earlier posts have come off as absolutistic and negative to non-missional (and pseudo-missional) models, but I do actually see each model as having its own strengths and challenges. However, as a futurist, I’ve also written extensively about my concerns on which models I believe will likely either flourish or perish as we continue undergoing radical cultural changes in the next decades. Now is the time to finish the other critiques, and then summarize all of them, before moving on to the positive side of (re)building from a more holistic and missional approach.

Different ways to consider the “trajectories” of our journeys toward missional goals. I’ve identified at least eight kinds of trajectories, categorized based on whether they take us forward to, backward from, or nowhere near our goal; the speed at which they move (or don’t); and how much they are influenced by external forces that expect accountability for actions but don’t (or do) take responsibility for the actions (for instance, denominational forces).

Watch for them, on their way to being posted here soon, in the Research and Development category. They may appear interspersed with other segments that fit into a smoother presentation of the route and influences from where we are in our cultural setting to where we decide to go. They will join with the following series:

• RD0 – Introduction to futuristguy research and development.
• RD1 – Executive summary of The Opal Systems.
• RD2 – 20 Questions for ministry systems that last.

Note: As a reminder, futuristguy is primarily a research and development blog. While I do try to make things as accessible as possible, I’ve focused much of my writing on systems concepts that can get fairly complex. People tell me that my blog makes more sense, the longer one reads it, because it’s a lot of interconnected material that’s often unfamiliar because it isn’t often written about. In fact, I’ve designed futuristguy as sort of a time capsule of why-for’s and how-to’s for when followers of Jesus get tired of deconstructing conventional Christianity and are ready with enough momentum to launch into (re)constructing a different kind of system that they feel takes them forward.

 

futuristguy on Harry Potter, and Harry Potter on futuristguy

So, I’ve just posted a new page on my blog. This one’s a case study in media of and about the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. There are multiple good reasons to give some careful consideration to this series. Whether we love it or hate it, think it’s from heaven or the devil, we cannot deny it has held a major influence in the developing global culture of the 1990s and 2000s. And if it has already shaped our future, we would do well to consider its past.

(Remember that quote on the shaping of things to come from Helen Haste? “In the long run, what counts is how the next generation thinks. How far new ideas permeate culture is not measured just by attitude change during one generation, but by what is taken for granted in the next.” Well, this is assuredly one of those cases where younger generations will take the presence of Potter, Granger, and Weasley as a given.)

Hope you’ll find this page on Harry Potter of interest and check it out, and explore some of the resource links as a DYI (do-it-yourself) study in how Harry Potter media has shaped and continues to shape our futures, and what that could mean for cultural interpretation and missional contextualization. Meanwhile, here’s the introduction to that page as an excerpt to salt your interest. (P.S. I’ll plan to add to the section on insights from press kits and promotional items when I have time to delve into those materials as a fun investigative project!)

And while you’re at it, be sure to check out Brother Maynard’s post on Encountering Harry Potter. Anything The Bro writes is worth the read!

Excerpt – The Introduction to:

Why a “Harry Potter Page” on futuristguy?

The Harry Potter series is to the 30-and-under generations when they were in grade school and high school what The Lord of the Rings was to the Boomers as they hit high school and college age. Each presents a first-wave new-to-them universe where imagination could soar and the authors could implant amazing seeds for gospel conversations, both embedded in the plot and embodied in the characters. Each of them has introduced characters, concepts, and terms into the worldwide mindset that serve as cultural code words. (For instance: Frodo Lives! Gandalf for President. The world has changed. Middle-earth. Hogwarts. Muggles. House-elves. Dementors.)

The first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was published in 1997. Author J.K. (Joanne/“Jo”) Rowling spent five years from 1990-1995 plotting out the entire seven-book series, and writing the first book. From there, it took two years to get published. And then the buzz grew and Mr. Potter became a worldwide phenomenon – literally a globalized literary scavenger hunt for clues in each successive novel for who exactly Harry is, and what the meaning of his famous lightening-shaped scar is. It took an entire decade for the denouement of those questions, where the final chapters and epilogue of book #7 transformed the series from seven episodes into one septological mega-epic. Meanwhile, Harry Potter books have been translated into over 60 languages and sold over 400 million copies worldwide. [The Lord of the Rings has been translated into about 40 languages, with a reported 200 million copies sold by 2007.]

Overlapping with the craze about the books, the film adaptations began in 2001 and are scheduled to complete with the release of two films depicting the massive seventh volume, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in 2010 and 2011. The first five films alone earned a reported $4.5 billion in theatrical release worldwide, making them the largest grossing film series in history thus far. (Compare to next few in line: Star Wars six movies, $4.3 billion. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, $3.0 billion. Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, $2.7 billion.)

The Harry Potter films give a relatively reasonable treatment of the material in the books. In such cases, they can’t be “documentaries of the books,” because these media do not work the same way in our brains. But the films can at least provide a “dynamic equivalent” to translate print into visual. Also, Jo Rowling gave up high royalties in order to have more control/approval on the films. This was absolutely providential so that there is a high level of continuity between books and films in the characters and overall details of the cultures and plots involved.

Beyond the books and films, a very selective range of official Harry Potter branded products were authorized. These include soundtracks, stickers, “potion kits” (i.e., chemistry sets), action figures, plush toys/dolls, photo and postcard books, board games, video games, DVD trivia games, picture puzzles, puzzle books, posters, flipbooks, prop replicas (e.g., wands, masks, Hogwarts clothing, maps), trading cards, casual clothing, lunchboxes, collectible card games, model trains, jewelry, banners, ornaments, bed linens, room decorations, and party supplies.

Different items appeal to various interests and dominant learning styles features – and, as with any story, the availability of such products is part of what reinforces the broadest possible appeal of its characters and plot, and thereby its underlying value system.

With such global saturation of the storyline and products, Harry Potter becomes a “native culture” framework to those who read the books and/or see the movies during their formative years as children and teens. For instance, suppose you described to a Potter fan the employment practices of a business (or church!) as, “They treat their workers like house-elves.” The fan will know instantly that it is an unfair and abusive work situation which deserves to be resisted, boycotted, protested, etc. (Unfortunately, I know of Christian organizations where this terrible reality applies, and once the 20-/30-somethings of tomorrow discover them, I suspect they will be highly reluctant to get involved there!)

Finally, I would suggest that there may be some VERY intriguing applications to the missional life and cultural transformation. (See the section on secondary sources near the end of this post.) That potentially makes the Harry Potter universe a veritable playfield as a familiar-enough case study with parallels for training next generations of Kingdom entrepreneurs, church planters, and social change agents. And ultimately, that’s why it was important to have a futuristguy page on Harry Potter.

For the rest of the story and a set of links for a do-it-yourself study in Harry Potter media, check my case study page on Harry Potter. Enjoy …!