futuristguy

Index to Sections in the “Cultural Interpretation and Ministry Contextualization Curriculum Project”

• Background to the Project
• Components in the Project
• Milestones
• Updates 2009
  
• Forthcoming Studies, Projects, and Presentations

Summary: This page offers an overview and detailed information for people who are interested in my curriculum project on cultural interpretation and ministry contextualization. I began this project in 1995 and expect to complete the editing of the modules in 2010. I am also hoping to begin beta-testing some of the modules and facilitating series of film studies locally by then.

Background to the Project

My dominant learning styles drive me to observe and analyze details, discern patterns in these datasets, and project these trends toward possible or probable consequences. Also, my multidisciplinary academic background encourages me to take in broad ranges of material to be as comprehensive as possible. It has become a natural way of life for me to process experiences through dialog with friends and through writing. That is why I have produced nearly 1 million words in this project so far.

Aptitude tests I took in high school indicated that my strongest career possibilities should come from pursuits in these areas in this order: engineering, physical sciences, biological sciences, business, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Huh … well, there is no accounting at times for God’s providential intervention. If I’d stayed more with the science side of things, I suspect I’d now be involved in something holistic, like urban planning and sustainability. Instead, what I ended up passionate about – studies of paradigm and cultural systems, studies of the future, and church planting strategy – basically turned that pyramid of career possibilities on its head!

In a highly unexpected “providential package,” I’ve seen in retrospect that just about everything I have studied and experienced provides a natural base for integrating multiple disciplines into the highly interdisciplinary studies of culturology, strategic foresight (i.e., futures), and organizational development.

Instead of sciences, my college training was in linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language. These studies often dealt with issues of cross-cultural communication and underlying sources of conflict other than differences in languages. I also had course concentrations in sociology, economics, and political science/public administration, with a smattering of just about everything imaginable – from calculus and music education methods, to computer science and high Gothic culture.

Since college, I have done significant periods of self-study on international human rights movements, social dynamics and “parallel cultures” in Soviet-era communist countries, approaches to counseling, holistic health, learning style theory, creativity theory, organic systems, and complex systems. Alongside my studies were the periodic practitioner experiences since high school, such as an ecology internship, and volunteer leadership in community agencies, church ministries, and political activities.

In 1995, I began more intense studies on the influence of “identity subcultures” in people’s values and lifestyles. I had already spent several years seeking to understand various transformation influences going on at a national and international level – what we would now be calling the global paradigm shift. From studies of subcultures, I moved seamlessly into studies of generational dynamics and was part of the early years of what began as “GenX Ministry,” which became “Postmodern Ministry,” which became “Emerging Church,” which is becoming “Missional Movement,” and who knows where it will go next …

I also began my involvement in church planting during the mid-1990s. The difficulties typical of trying something new, whether in an indigenous or new-to-me cultural setting, forced me to pay attention to methodological models of “being/doing church.” I progressed toward a role as church planting/ministry strategist. It seemed that every few years, I’d find myself working at deeper levels of analysis. Things rarely worked perfectly. And actually, I usually had to try to understand why I was in a situation where sincere leaders just could not fit with the cultures they wanted to reach, or could not seem to make the paradigm shift needed to accomplish what they said they wanted to do in their church.

Components in the Project

All along the way, I kept writing historical documentation and articles and strategy reports and futurist analyses and ministry profiles of whatever I was involved with. I came to see that there were significant gaps in how we typically train church leaders in North America. So, I began turning my writings toward “immersion learning curriculum” that could help leaders with both conceptual and practitioner skills in interpreting culture, contextualizing ministry, and transforming society. The “immersion learning” part meant creating a range of activity-based tools and experiences that contribute to the training process – such things as:

• Original assessment tools to help people identify and understand their learning styles, cultural background, potential for cultural fluidity, best roles in ministry teamwork that involves cross-cultural work, etc.
• Case studies with their real-world scenarios and decide-for-yourself strategy issues, to help develop discernment and decision-making skills in both individual and group leadership environments.
• Group activities that force to the surface people’s differences in information processing styles/learning styles, critical values, theological assumptions, strategy and structure preferences, methodological models, and cultural lifestyles – and then facilitate reflection on discerning what differences are biblically critical and which are not, and what to do about them.
• Film studies that offer armchair opportunities to observe, analyze, and interpret realistic situations of personal and cultural conflict, and consider potential for providential “redemptive purposes” beyond the conflict.
• Original visual media (e.g., film, video games, 3-D and 4-D graphics presentations, posters, graphic novels), concrete media (e.g., board games, trading cards, toys), multimedia (e.g., completely searchable document system with hyperlinked glossary, wiki, graphics, PowerPoints, etc.), and simulation games – each with their appeals to people with different dominant learning styles, but all giving an opportunity to understand how “culture” is transmitted through everyday objects and experiences.
• Field work exercises and experiences to increase learning readiness by showing how much more we need to learn, and to give apprentices the chance to apply their conceptual frameworks and culturologist skills at increasing levels of sophistication.

This illustrates the main reason why I have not yet sought to publish this material. This is an entire system for culture and contextualization, not just a book (or two or five or eight!). Also, to publish certain parts of it spoils the possibilities for learning. Students from certain backgrounds and learning styles will be prone to mistakenly assume they can “get it” about culture and contextualization simply by reading about it. But cultural conflict and its resolution cannot be figured out strictly by exposure to concepts; the culture shock and emotional frustration it causes needs to be experienced to be truly understood.

For the sake of maintaining the integrity of this material as a learning system, I have foregone publishing at this time, other than what is in my blog. However, the time is nearing when it appears the system will be ready for more beta-testing. By the end of 2008, I will have written 1 million words on topics, case studies, assessments, media, and simulation games related to cultures, context, futures, and strategy. By the autumn of 2008, I expect to have completed the majority of the “download” phase, and will then begin the process of editing the materials into modules. I am hoping to complete the project in 2010 , in celebration of 15 years invested in producing an integrated, interdisciplinary training system for leaders serving in the new global paradigm.

Thanks for your interest. Please check back once in a while to see if I’ve posted an update report or new milestone postings on the status of my “Cultural Curriculum Project”! In the meantime, I am begin to look for potential beta-tester protégés, and partnering organizations. If you are interested, you can contact me by posting a comment on this page; that will automatically notify me of your email address and I will contact you from there.

Milestones

The purpose in sharing detailed information on milestones along the way for this project is to show the extensive nature of the work already done, in terms of paradigm analysis, cultural interpretation systems, ministry contextualization systems, and related components (e.g., media, film studies, case studies, field work).

Ongoing since the early 1980s – Serve as reviewer, editor, and/or project manager on book projects and dissertations. I have done so with at least 10 non-fiction book projects. (Subjects: biblical perspectives on gender identity, sexuality issues, and transformation; surviving domestic violence; men’s issues; HIV/AIDS ministry; women married to men in ministry; discipling people from backgrounds of alternative religions and spiritualities; and core concepts for basic personal discipleship.) I have also been editor and/or project manager on 3 D.Min. project reports (church planting, cross-cultural ministry, and hip-hop ministry), 2 Ph.D. dissertations (postmodernity and church planting; the leadership principles of agrarian writer Wendell Berry), and 1 international campaign project on literacy programs for women in developing countries.

Ongoing since mid-1990s – Mentoring next generation leaders, both men and women, singles and couples, especially those in their 20s and 30s.

1989-1997 – Served on the board of directors for CASA (no longer in existence), a referral and resource network for ministries to people affected by HIV/AIDS. I also set up their referral system, edited their newsletter, and wrote or edited their library of resource articles and bibliographies. In 1996, I led the planning and implementation process for creating what apparently was the first American seminary-level training for academic credit on ministry to those affected by HIV disease, at Golden Gate Seminary in California.

1991-1995 – Worked on the staff of Exodus International as their resource and publication specialist. I researched and taught on many issues related to the “recovery movement.” These included Christ-centered transformation from gender identity and sexuality disorders; misogyny and misandry (the hatred of women and of men); and moving ministry system focuses from intervention toward those already addicted, to interception of those at risk, to prevention so people are not at risk.

1995 – Began studying the formation and influencesof “identity subcultures,” started teaching on these subjects in 1996, and produced my first case study overview in 1997.

1995 – Began serving on church planting teams, gradually becoming more involved at the level of strategist. Since 1995, I have since worked with various teams that pioneered 5 church plants, 3 student and young adult ministries, 2 non-profit agencies, 1 regional ministry network, and 1 international ministry network. I have also served on a local cultural studies team (1994), a church-planting strategy team (1997-2000), and several focus groups for potential church plants.

1997 – Produced a first draft of a seminary training curriculum/system, based more in narrative, biblical, and historical theology than in systematic theology, and integrating conceptual frameworks and practitioner skills for relevant strategies for cultural contextualization.

1997 – Produced first draft of a proposal to create a subcultures studies center.

1997-1999 – Wrote a series of 7 case studies in “postmodern ministry,” as it was then being termed. This included a 300-page documentation and theological analysis of a year-long intentional Celtic-style community in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco. Also wrote a series of documents on generational dynamics, the unique potential of redemptive purposes for so-called “Generation X,” biculturalism, and how values from identity subcultures migrate into mainstream culture.

1998 – Engaged in an intensive week-long training in basic futurist skills. On the second day, the trainer said that it was clear I was already using these skills intuitively, and that he was more helping me to put words to what I already “knew.”

1998 – Wrote my first attempt at getting a Christian book published on topics related to culture and paradigm shifts. This book proposal was entitled, Will Wearing a Nose Ring Make Me Relevant? And Other Mysteries of Ministry in a Postmodern Era. No publishers at the time (or for the next 5 years) were interested, but I eventually realized that it simply was not God’s providential timing for this material to be published. In retrospect, talking with publishers’ representatives about my book proposal gave me an opportunity to engage some of them on issues of culture shifts, and that was important to have done.

1999 – Coauthored a proposal for a futures studies program/center.

1999-2000 – Worked on understanding of organic systems as an extension of ecological principles of indigenous plants and the “terroir” of context, using the case study of vineyards.

1999-2001 – Supplied tutorials and follow-up by email on postmodern/postChristendom cultures and ministry to half a dozen missionaries in Europe. Their mission agencies did not yet have substantive resource materials on these topics, and I was not yet blogging.

2000 – Updated a previous document on systems approaches to life-dominating problems, and taught an application of this method to transgenderism as an “emerging bioethical issue for the new millennium” at the International Bioethics Conference.

2000 – Reported on the Environmental Roundtable Summit, sponsored by the Marin Conservation League. This unique all-day event featured a review of the past and brainstorming for the future by noted local ecological pioneers. Marin County has one of the best environmental records in the U.S., including such notable achievements as the first county-wide curbside pick-up of recyclables in the U.S., started in 1980. It is also home to the team that produced The Last Whole Earth Catalog series in the 1970s, and instigated WELL, the first non-governmental internet bulletin board, in the 1980s.

2000-2001 – Wrote the conceptual design for a seven-level simulation game for church planters to develop increasing sophistication in use of strategic concepts and practitioner skills for cultural interpretation and ministry contextualization. Wrote an initial draft of the first several levels of the game and ran several beta-test versions in 2001 and 2002.

2001-2002 – Drafted “Marin Century,” a 100-year plan for a sustainable, multi-generational mentoring system for discipling Marin County, California. This is reputed to have the lowest percentage of active Christian population of any county in the U.S. – somewhere between that of Japan and Taiwan. It also is home to a significant number of highly recognized paradigm shifters, so this has been an epicenter for studying the creation and exportation of the new “global culture.”

2001-2002 – Developed conceptual and practitioner materials on the use of concrete media and immersion learning experiences in church discipleship and training systems. This included forms and formats for analyzing various types of concrete media, visual media, and multimedia.

2002 – Developed materials for “Cultural ReCon” and led this process in Austin, Texas. Cultural ReCon was designed “to catalyze a learning community among church planters and leaders who wanted to learn how to put together a multiperspective reconnaissance team to crack their local cultures and create ‘postmodern-positive’ Kingdom-culture contextualizations for the gospel.” It included basic culturology field work through field trips in the community.

2002 – Developed the primary conceptual framework for analyzing and interpreting cultural systems, using four “pure type” cultures based on information processing styles: analytic, synthetic, symbiotic, and analogic. This system allows assessment of a given individual’s or social group’s relative position in a three-dimensional representation of all cultural spaces. And the underlying theory then allows for determining probable issues of cultural bridges and barriers between any two points in that three-dimensional space. This means people who desire to work cross-culturally could identify the “cultural distance” between themselves and their culture of interest, discern accordingly how suited they are/are not for working in that setting, explore the specific issues of culture shock they can expect, and make an informed decision on whether or not they choose to enter that culture. Since this cultural theory includes the target goal of “Kingdom culture” (what God intends as universal principles for every culture that is transformed by Christ while still maintaining a unique and distinctive cultural fingerprint of where they came from), that means you could “triangulate a trajectory” among an individual who serves in an indigenous or cross-cultural situation, the culture he or she works within, and Kingdom culture. And, when you take this three-dimensional model into a fourth-dimension, you can simulate the effects of global culture change over time as to which underlying pure type cultures are in the ascendancy and which are in decline internationally.

2002-2003 – Created a “think or sink” study guide for worship leaders to consider contemporary changes in cultures and paradigms, and what that could mean as possibilities and pitfalls for church ministry in general and worship experiences in specific.

2003 – Participated as a panelist at the WabiSabi event in Austin, Texas. Wabisabi is the Japanese idea and ideal of bringing together two items or essences that seem contradictory, but which actually enliven each other when they co-exist in dynamic relationship. Wabi represents younger and fresher, the more rustic and innocent. Sabi represents older and wiser, the more repaired and experienced. WabiSabi was described in promotional pieces as “a collaborative event attempting to bring together those involved in both the established and emerging church. The purpose is to explore ways that the established and the emerging can together understand and discuss options as to how to expand upon the kingdom and bridge the gap that separates the church. Whether you consider yourself a wabi or a sabi, there is place for you at this event.” This was a key meeting for what eventually led to the Doxology art exhibit in 2005, the “Houston Network” meetings of 2006, and the launching of the Tessera Learning Trail in 2008.

2003 – Worked on materials differentiating definitions and criteria for “success” in the prominent church paradigms in conflict today: conventional-attractional church paradigms (Traditional and Pragmatic Evangelicals, as described in detail in Robert Webber’s book, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World) versus in missional-incarnational Kingdom paradigms (“Holistic” or, as Webber terms them, Younger Evangelicals).

2003 – Completed training as a Level 2 assessor of church planter candidates, using the Ridley Church Planter Assessment system. I have served as an evaluator of communication skills for at least 20 candidates in church planter assessments, and as an interviewer of at least 3 church planter candidates (extensive interviews of 3 to 4 hours each).

2003 – Developed first draft of a system for understanding evangelism within the four “pure type” cultures of the cultural interpretation system I created a year earlier.

2003 – Assisted in the early stages of strategizing a regional network of services for personal transformation, and for outreach to people influenced by alternative spiritualities and religions.

2003-2004 – Developed first drafts of a series of cultural fluidity assessment tools, based on the cultural analysis theory I created the year before. Some initial testing was done and the first drafts revised, but they are not yet ready for beta-testing.

2003-2004 – Participated in a year-long residential community experiment/experience in Austin, Texas. Although this was not as formal as an “urban monastery,” it did involve figuring out how to live together in a very diverse household of 7 people ranging in age from early 20s to late 40s, plus a cat and a dog.

2004 – Wrote a conceptual design for studies on concrete media, visual media, and multimedia, including consideration of accessibility issues for people with various learning styles and differing levels of ability/disability.

2004-2005 – Served on the board of directors for innerACTS, a resource and training provider for ministry to youth and young adults dealing with tough personal issues. Leaders of innerACTS use a Holistic paradigm perspective where discipleship involves journeying with people as we interact with and minister to them, instead of the conventional “professional/expert model” that requires the counselor to remain personally and socially distant from the client. See Tough Stuff: 12 Comprehensive Sessions on Growing Through Life’s Deepest Pains by Wendy Coy for what this approach entails.

2005 – Participated in “Doxology,” an international art exhibit in Houston, Texas, featuring large enamel-on-metal renditions of London-based artist Rob Pepper’s “Conscious Reflex Drawings.” These very perceptive, peripheral-vision line drawings were done from paintings, stained-glass windows, and statues in U.K. cathedrals. I wrote descriptions of the techniques and artwork, and wrote various materials for the related art installation and website.

2005 – Conducted studies to understand the critical differences between conventional and missional approaches to ecumenism/partnership in ministry. This was sparked by a series of conflicts I observed between representatives of conventional churches and those of “emerging” churches. I sought to understand the differences in theology, paradigms, and cultural styles that were leading to what seemed to be irreconcilable differences.

2005 – Wrote materials that evaluated how to expand the Alpha course series on basic Christianity to be more inclusive of people from Holistic paradigms. Those of a Holistic paradigm embrace experiences and then reflect, while those from rational skepticism of Traditional and Pragmatic paradigms tend to stand back and analyze before embracing. For instance, Alpha is known in part for its slogan that “no question is too simple.” To become more inclusive, to this should be added the more Holistic paradigm version, which is “no question is too complex.” Around the same time, I updated my initial outline on how to teach many key topics in the Alpha course, using The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films as source material for illustrations.

2006 – Updated the material on “interpolators” – people who have developed an integrative, interdisciplinary, intercultural perspective. Interpolators tend to be culturally fluid, and thus can serve unique, strategic roles in helping facilitate dialog, reconciliation, and transformation among individuals and groups who find themselves in cross-cultural conflict. This study is important to cultural transition and transformation, as we see in both Old and New Testaments that God raises up bicultural, multicultural, and intercultural people at critical points in history to catalyze or facilitate radical changes in cultural trajectories.

2006 – Participated in the “Houston Network” meetings, and in early 2007, completed a 150-page case study on this international network ministering in post-Christendom countries and cultures.

2007 – Completed a 125-page case study on a church congregation divided along the lines of Pragmatic versus Holistic paradigms more than along generational lines, with leadership attempting to catalyze a transition to a more Holistic and systems-oriented approach to church strategies and structures.

2007 – Contributor to the first Wikiklesia Project, Voices from the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution, edited by Len Hjalmarson, John La Grou. My chapter was on “Dune, Density, and Polymathology.” All proceeds from book sales are being donated to the Not For Sale Campaign, dedicated to ending human slavery in our time. The chapter abstract gives the reason for this entire futuristguy blog: “Some people are destined as polymaths – those who absorb and integrate information from diverse fields of study, and become philosophers. Such a generalist leaning may come ‘hardwired’ in at birth via DNA and learning styles, or perhaps by ‘software’ programming responses to spiritual and cultural formation experiences. Either way, polymaths should follow the God-given muse to pursue new approaches to processing life, and not feel self-limiting or peer pressure to be only ‘The Theologian’ or ‘The Practitioner,’ since they will likely play those roles and so many, many more.

“Since we tend to be ahead of our time, one way we who are polymaths can extend our impact through generations is by the equivalent of downloading our inherently complex hearts and minds into a virtual platform. For instance, we could create sort of a time-capsule of our journey to Christlikeness so those who come after us can data mine our hypermediation as sources for ‘Kingdom Culture’ meditation. It is a stewardship thing, really, and I would suggest we should feel neither shame nor guilt for producing something dense, but only partially polished and with tantalizing whisps of incomplete ideations woven throughout. Think Frank Herbert and Dune. Think J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth. Think Thomas Jefferson and preparation for writing the U.S. Constitution. Think Beatrix Potter, lichens/symbiotic mycology, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit … What kind of interdisciplinary legacy might we leave for those intrigued enough to explore the virtual voice that survives us, whether we are polymath-philosophers are not?”

2007 – A compilation of work to date indicates there are about 4,000 pages of material – some of it clearly not usable, but important for its place in the process of developing the concepts.

2007 – Participated in the Missional Order gathering sponsored by Allelon in the autumn of 2007, and continued with involvement in various smaller activities since then.

2008 – Contributed background history, analysis documentation, and brainstorming ideas for the launching of the Tessera Learning Trail. This international network for mutual mentoring is the result of many providential connections over a long period of time, and such catalyzing North American events as WabiSabi (2003), Doxology (2005), and the “Houston Network” meetings (2006), as well as numerous formal and informal gatherings, festivals, and ministry visits in Europe, the U.K., and Australia in the 1990s and 2000 decade.

2008 – Produced an extensive series on the personal and cultural dynamics of spiritual abuse. This includes conceptual and theological studies into what makes people susceptible to being abusers, abusees, enablers of those who perpetrate abuse, and resisters of those who abuse. Film studies provide real-world scenarios to consider different dynamics of abuse in non-church contexts. The book, Finding Authentic Hope and Wholeness: Five Questions That Will Change Your Life, by Kathy Koch, Ph.D. of Celebrate Kids, Inc., serves as the conceptual framework for exploring underlying issues for personal transformation.

2008 – Worked on the geometric and mathematical modeling required to translate my cultural analysis system and related theories into something that can be turned into three-dimensional digital models, show how various combinations of cultures could conflict or composite, and demonstrate how the entire system of cultures globally is changing over time. (This part of the system is a very long-run project.)

2008 – Posted extensive materials on paradigm profiling; cultural observation, interpretation, and analysis; balanced “cultural engagement” (contextualization and counterculturalization); organizational development; and paradigm shifting. The vast majority of draft material for the Cultural Curriculum Project has been produced. Remaining tasks include: creating assessments, small group resources, training exercises, and simulations; editing mountains of text into usable modules; and fusing it all together in some kind of hypermedia or multimedia format.

Updates 2009

2009 – Participated in the Instigators for the Missional Tribe site, launched on Epiphany in January 2009.

2000 – Posted an extended series on Basic Questions on Cultures and Kingdom. It is found exclusively on my Missional Tribe blog.

2009 – Most of my blogging for 2009-2010 will be on a private blog for the Missional Futures Study Group. This two-year project is designed to help me finish editing a book series that distills the Cultural Curriculum Project into a minimal list of topics, skills, and case studies from cultures and media. It captures the essentials of how to build a safe intercultural connection space that both welcomes people from all kinds of backgrounds while focusing on biblical transformation of individuals and cultures. At this point, it looks like a set of four (as-yet-unnamed) interlocking books that integrate the basic systems for creating an “intercultural connection zone”:

• Conceptual Frameworks – 30 theoretical perspectives for interpreting seven intersecting domains related to understanding people’s identity and to functioning missionally: humanity, individuality, community, organizations, cultures, ecology, and futures.
• Practical Frameworks – 15 practical ministry skills that apply across many types of situations in one or more of these seven intersecting domains.
• Fieldwork Manual – detailed processes and procedures for conducting team-based cultural observation, analysis, and interpretation, for the purpose of cultural transformation for a more preferable future.
• Media Manual – illustrating the conceptual perspectives, practical skills, and fieldwork processes and procedures by means of movies and other story-based media.

2009 – Here is a list of tentative page updates, blog posts, and series that I may embark upon if time allows:

• Complete additional posts on these series: why certain methodological models conflict with being missional, Willow Creek’s Reveal book, and Kingdom Leadership after Lakeland.
• Fill in definitions on the Glossary page and update the Films in Futuristguy page.
• Blog a series on basic skills of strategic foresight and futuring.
• Blog a series on plausible futures of the missional movement, and what we can learn from utopian and dystopian films. Also, blog about why I believe the missional movement must reconstruct its underlying premises and expand its theological integration point from missio dei to a much broader narrative theology framework.
• Continue posting occasionally on topics related to reconstruction after we’re done with deconstruction.

Completing the Cultural Curriculum Project: Assessments, Simulations, Hypermedia (after 2010)

• Finish creating a suite of about 20 assessment tools for personal discovery, team building, and cultural engagement. These are all based in my own original perspective on culturology, and will integrate into the introductory series of books due to be completed by the end of 2010.
• Integrate the curriculum modules with original media and make available in some yet-to-be-determined form of hypermedia/multimedia format.
• Pursue studies into game theory and simulation strategies for use in leadership development. Complete and beta-test a seven-level simulation game for application of cultural engagement and social transformation.
• Complete and present multiple film study series on themes of theology, personal transformation, and cultural transformation in films based on: Jane Austen novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Philip K. Dick stories, post-human and cyberpunk genres, Marvel comics, The Golden Compass/His Dark Materials, and the portrayal of four generations across long-time and newly-immigrated racial groups in American culture.
• If I survive all that, who knows – maybe I’ll pursue a master’s degree in strategic foresight or organizational systems design and development …