Documenti di Didattica
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Dr. William R. Wilkie Copyright 2009 Copies cannot be made & sold without permission 471 W. Long Lake Drive Harrison, Michigan 48625 (989) 539-1928 wwilkie at netscope.com
All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. No portion of this book may be reproduced mechanically, electronically or by other means without permission of the publisher.
Invisible yet...
Acknowledgement to Contributors
Feel free to SHARE this e-monograph with anyone who you think might benet from it or quote it in the public media. Thanks to Carol Davis and others who have encouraged us regarding our somewhat unusual perspectives on professionals in the workplace. Professionals need to become integral by eliminating the idea of the sacred and secular. All work can be holy and signicant! Our extended families believe that God is on the move as it relates to the career and professionals recognizing that their work is holy. We have ample anecdotal information to see patterns that often last a lifetime. God is on the move. To give life to Oswald Chambers prayer, May God be as original with you as he as been with me, we would encourage you to submit ACTION ITEMS that would be included in a collection on our web site at www.movments.mappingafuture.com. Thank you!
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Preface
Man tends to respond to symptoms! Invisible yet... God wants to deal with causes/origins! Where will you invest your time?
The tower of Babel story in Genesis 11 teaches us that ...nothing they plan to do is impossible for... (NIV) anyone who can get a group of people to have a common denition of terms (language) and share a vision. If this principle is valid for both the Christian and non-Christian, then success with a new program does not necessarily make it a movement of God. What are the criteria that we should be using to determine whether a new idea is actually a movement of God?
Table of Contents
Christianity transforms... Causality & Origins University InstituteLab 1.0 #1 Ordinary Believers #2 Causality #3 Neglected Truth #4 New Institutions #5 Blessing to the Nations #6 Invisibility & Influence 1 3 5 8 13 17 19 21 23
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Hart, in a complex but heartening analysis of Violent, sudden and calamitous revolutions are Christianitys rst 500 years, lays claim to the fact that ...a movement need not be large, but the ones that accomplish the least. While they only sufciently substantial to attract attention, may succeed at radically reordering societies, to inspire condence in its members or dismay they usually cannot transform cultures. They in it enemies. may excel at destroying the past, but they are generally impotent to create a future. The We, in post-modern America, seem to have lost revolutions that genuinely alter human reality at the deepest levels--the only real revolutions, sight of the counter-intuitive claims of Christ in that is to say--are those that rst convert minds a elitist, hierarchical and brutal pagan society. David Hart suggests there were three changes: and wills, that reshape the imagination and reorient desire, that overthrow tyrannies with 1. Man made in the image of God (dignity), the soul. Christianity, in its rst three centuries, was a revolution of the latter sort: gradual, 2. Men could have the divine live in them and subtle, exceedingly small and somewhat incho- 3. Charity as the key manifestation of God in us. ate at rst, slowly introducing its vision of divine, cosmic, and human reality into the culture These new values lived out over the centuries around it, often by deeds rather than words, and laid the foundation for Christianity to literally simply enduring from one century to the next. transform the Roman Empire in ways that even Davis Hart the Apostle Paul could not anticipate. Atheist Delusions, page 183 What counter-intuitive thinking could create a movement of God over the next 3-5 centuries?
Christianity transforms...
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California 1656 A.D. What does your world-view look like?
Causality / Origins
In 2001, Ralph Winter began to seriously examine Satanic evil. From his perspective, evil is both an affront to God and a hindrance to the spread of his fame and glory. As Winter observed major global problems that are dragging down the human race, he was both challenged and frustrated. Challengedas he began to develop theories about how Satans work is distorting creation right under believers noses. Yet frustratedit was hard to nd Christians who cared enough to give their lives and careers to combat them. He was convinced that committed believers should be ghting evil at any and all levels.
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Normally, we think of this kind of warfare in mainly spiritual terms, dealing with sin in peoples lives. And, we deal with those in mainly spiritual ways by praying, teaching or giving counsel. Winter would say we should go beyond all that. If something is attacking peoples view of Gods goodness and glory, we should counter-attack by guring out what is happening at, for example, the biological level (or the macro level for poverty). We need to nd a way to correct it. We shouldnt stand by and suggest that if God wanted to, he would take care of it. See page 15 below or www.ralphwinter.org
Dynamic Mentoring:
The tool is analytical, examining the life place that will inuence all dimensions of 21st century experiencerural towns and urban cities. Exposure to GRID 8, an ethnographic instrument, provides a transferable analytical tool for each locale. You will especially explore why some cultures are progress-prone and others are progress-resistant.
The Profile:
The pathway is inter-relational, laying out the pathway for intercultural discussions for solving life problems. You will learn how to coach others cross-culturally. Through exploration of a moral/spiritual educational model, you gain mentoring competencies to assist those in the global world capable of worldview and lifestyle change.
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Social Change:
Life-View to Life-Voice:
The pattern is central, providing the pattern for transcendental transformation regardless of the professional arena of international service. A 1st century model is examined for its 21st century relevance. Three central, integrated phases, give an entry/exit strategy for holistic global involvement.
The precepts are integral, comparing the perspectives of the planets 5 basic worldviews. The 7 Questions of humanity asked by all peoples, across all times, in all culturesare explored in the light of the 7 Answers of God, from a Judeo-Christian perspective.
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2. Does it address underlying CAUSES as well as symptoms? 3. At the core is there a BIBLICAL NEGLECTED TRUTH? 4. Does it CREATE NEW SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS that meet an emerging need? 5. Is it a BLESSING to both individuals and communities? By denition, a real movement of God is dangerous to the ESTABLISHMENT. The foundation must be solid before it becomes visible or it will be destroyed. 6. Can it be kept INVISIBLE for 5, 10 or even 20 years? Then you have an opportunity to turn your world right-side-up! However, you may also have to move from success to signicance and on to insignicance. You can access PDF les for each factor at www.movments.mappingafuture.com .
Networking Contacts
Project Ideas
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Career Options
WWW Sites
Books
Articles
Essay Themes
Notes
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EMPOWERING TEENS
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Each person should remain in the situation which he was in when God called himalthough if you can gain a better situation, take it. (I Corinthians 7.17-24) This was the unusual view of the world that turned the 1st century A.D. upside down.
space was their worshipspace, the place where they prayed to God and helped those around them. For those of the 1st century, their market place was their ministry place. They did not wait for an ordained person to show up. In their thinking, they themselves were the ordinary person God has raised up to be his hands of Those 1st century historyservants saw their blessing to those around themand the agents career as the context of their character develop- of change for the transformation of the culture. ment. They recognized their life station for what it can bethe matrix for life investment and a The fractal lifestyle pattern of earliest Chriscontribution to humanity. It was a life-situation tianity can be seen in what I reference as the base for a pro-active, entrepreneurial attitude, Four Os: (1) they offered their lives personally, rooted in the mindset demonstrated by Jesus. (2) they opened their homes generously, (3) they And the Jesus that those early followers knew operated their businesses with integrity and (4) was the One alive by his resurrection and with they were one with God spiritually. them for active encouragement to do right and They offered their lives. Having received life help others. itself from the living resurrected Jesus, the earliest followers offered themselves as living In the mode of the ordinary, their work place sacrices. was not some vampire against their vocation, but the vehicle of their vocation. Their workThis was accomplished through deep personal
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In the J-zone (the Jesus-zone), integrity ushed out corruption, honesty replaced deception, and reliability became the currency that Christians traded in. Work by employees became marked by excellence and wages judged as fair became the norm by employers convinced that they themselves had an Employer they answered to They opened their homes. It is a well-document- on the Day of the nal audit. ed fact that the homes of the earliest generation Finally, they were one with God their Father. Christians became conversation hotspots. The intercessory prayer of Jesus seemed almost instantaneously answered at the new moveWith conversion, every home became a viral ment seemed to carved out fresh lifestyles of social transformation recruitment center, for wit, purity and compassion, and justice. It was every home became a missionary base. They as though they had a force shield about them opened their homes to the new song, the new protecting them from the corrupt, tempting, and worship and the new adoration point of their taunting culture that surrounded them, while lives, so that every home space became a transforming them within that culture. sanctuary space. worldview transformation by the renewing of their minds and the recalibrating of the walk of their moral and behavioral lifestyles. Thus they daily proved out what was good, pleasing and acceptable as every life aspect came under the scrutiny of the living Jesus. Also, they operated their businesses in a new way. Turning to the God of truth turned them into people of truth, and that alone impacted economic activity. They were in their societies, but they seemed, strangely, almost not of their societies (see John 17). Their personal, intimate and daily oneness with Jesus, who had rescued them from
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themselves, was a strange attractor to others, drawing others in owing numbers to join the new movement of fresh living. Thus, all those in the 1st century who saw themselves as Gods people, in all the life domainstechnological, political, economic, social, educational, culturalengaged in doing good deeds and sowing good seeds, creating good will and sharing good news. It was the generation that French intellectual Alain Peyrette says was a burst of spiritual and social transformation, unparalleled on the stage of world history. Indeed, 1st century ordinary persons accessed Gods creativity and ..discipled the nations... by
Discipling individuals: transforming attitudes and behavior. Discipling institutions: re-purposing values, practices and policies. Discipling nations: creating new institutions with appropriate values, practices, policies and structures when the old institutions no longer work.
And that is what the 21st has become: the place for the ordinary personthe technician, the political leader, the business person, the social activist, the teacher, the artistto be the providential vector point of God. Ordinary personsthe providential vector points for making this all-too-often forlorn and fractured planet, a more spiritually-ourishing and friend-engendering place: historyservants, in the westward ow of the providential historystream, at this awesome turning point of the generational historyshift.
Tom Wolf, D.Lit., is International President and Professor of Global Studies of UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, New Delhi As well as providing for-credit education for USA universities, UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE convenes, connects and collaborates in educational experiences around the core question of the 21st centurys global conversation: what is the best way to live life on this planet? This is an excerpt of a speech given in 2006 at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. See www.universityinstitute.in for a complete copy.
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a symptom or a cause? I am sure of one thing. God has sufcient resources to ght poverty. However, I think that he is interested in ghting the cause of poverty not just raising more money to deal with the symptoms of poverty.
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Ralph Winter recently published the statement Causality is a key factor in movements of God. below on page 11. Ralph Winter, an externally focused person over the last half of the 20th Causality has been a subject of conversation century, was a controversial gure. As a since Aristotle; however, it does not seem to CALIFORNIA TECH INSTITUTE graduate, he have shaped the churchs current behavior or had many innovative ideas about how to do discussion in a world of limited resources. Even WORLD VISION moved beyond world MISSIONS. Most took decades to be accepted. relief to economic & social development He died recently but over the last eight years because they saw the need to go beyond symptoms (orphans) to the underlying causes. became focused on the ORIGINS of EVIL and DISEASE. He appeared frustrated in his attempts to challenge young professionals to As we examine and decide on new projects, engage. He is dealing with CAUSALITY BUT ask yourself the following question. Does AT THE MICRO LEVEL (disease). this project address a symptom or a cause? For example, the need for money to ght poverty is important. Is the need for money
We must also, as Winter actually did in the past, deal with CAUSALITY at the MACRO level, e.g., poverty. What is the underlying cause of poverty that we should declare war against: 1. original sin (selshness) and/or 2. a viable economy that provides jobs to sustain a family? Or maybe it is both.
Signicant Questions
Does the 21st century need Kingdom Professionals who are experts in a eld and dealing with causes not just symptoms? Can the nations again see the power of God to restore if we ght evil at its origins? Can lay professionals really restore the GLORIFYING OF GODS NAME to its proper place? Would it produce movements of God that are sustainable for 50+ years? What should be the key elements of a domestic and international program that builds relationships with GATEKEEPERS of the nations? What might a CAUSALITY LAB look like?
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Many honest souls, both on the mission eld and also in our secularized world, are not dramatically impressed by a God that cannot be bothered to conquer and exterminate the evil bugs that cause disease, but can mainly only offer a ticket to heaven. Declaring war on disease may be the only way to restore the full power of true evangelism. Why? It may readily be that young people on the mission eld (and here at home) will grow up and ask the embarrassing question, Why dont Christians have a theology for attacking the very roots of disease? Why merely give intravenous liquids to babies dying from dysentery without dealing with a contaminated water supply? Why deal with water contamination and not concern ourselves with eradicating the pathogens that constitute the contamination? Why, NOW THAT WE KNOW WHAT TO DO are we not doing it, in the Name of Christ?
Oh God, when will we be as involved in glorifying Your Name as we are in attracting people to eternal life? How can we go on believing that all the pestilence and disease and suffering in the world is exactly the way God wants it to be, as some have told me. Is Your reputation at risk as long as Your people pay relatively little attention to destroying the works of the devil (I Jn 3:8)? Can we launch an even more powerful form of evangelism if we actively identify with Your concern for banishing diabolic pathogens? Satan triumphs when there is a lack of awareness of his presence, of his deeds. His greatest achievement, according to my pastor, is to cover his tracks. He has apparently done that so successfully that, to my knowledge, no pastor, no TV evangelist, no theologian has ever spoken of the need for believers declaring a global war against Satanically devised disease pathogens. Missionaries have been outstanding in the conquest of leprosypartly because the Bible happens to mention it by name. But what about malaria, which is ten thousand times worse? I cant, you cant, no one can solve such problems overnight, or perhaps even before the return of Christ. But what if, in the meantime, Gods reputation is at stake in the absence of our publicly declaring His concern and identifying with that concern to conquer and actually eradicate evil parasites and bacteria and viruses in His Name?
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What difference did these two neglected truths make to the economic development of Western Civilization (Europe and America) in addition to the spiritual development? Do you think Luther understood the long term impact of the Biblical Work Ethic? Several years ago, I listened to a PBS interview with a prominent economist who had analyzed the difference in the standard of living between Europe & American compared to Asia & Africa in the late 20th century. His conclusion was that Martin Luthers work ethic had increased the productivity of average workers three tenths of one percent per year. That is a very small amount per year except when you compound it over 400+ years. The Biblical Work Ethic, a neglected truth for over 1000 previous years, made a profound difference that affected the prosperity within as well as outside the Church in the 20th century.
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I am looking for other examples of Biblical neglected truths that have had a profound inuence. Do you have any examples of emerging NEGLECTED TRUTHS that might become a sustainable movement. For example, in my interactions with young people, I wonder at times whether the Biblical Work Ethic has not become again a neglected truth that is impacting on the prosperity of America. Time Magazine in mid 2008 ran an interview with the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. www.rockfound.org They had just completed polling of 18-29 year olds and discovered that a majority thought that they would NEVER have a better standard of living than their parents. This was the rst time in 50 years that this attitude dominated this age group in polling.
Rockefellers leadership and other observers had already concluded that the American Dream or SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH AMERICAN WAS DEAD. 1. Owning a home 2. Good job for a lifetime 3. Benets 4. Retirement The Rockefeller Foundation had committed in 2008 $70,000,000 to fund a series of experiments with various organizations who were trying to write a new 21st century CONTRACT WITH AMERICA. $70,000,000 is a lot of money to give the emerging generations the motivation to engage. What might an OLD NEGLECTED TRUTH for the 21st century look like? See the next page for an Christian alternative.
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Should the American church articulate a COVENANT WITH AMERICA or even better a COVENANT WITH THE NATIONS? Gods covenant with the nations started with Abraham in Genesis 12, ...your heirs will be a blessing. That is us. So what might a COVENANT WITH THE NATIONS include if we articulated it every week or month to the emerging generations. Examples of the outputs from our covenant are
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Because we also think in terms of organizations, institutions, communities and on occasion even nations, why did Christ use the term NATIONS 1. You will have purpose and a global adventure rather than INDIVIDUALS. True, some as you bless the nations. people interpret it as people groups. But that 2. God will provide all the resources necessary is still more like a community or nation than it to accomplish HIS mission. is an individual. So why would Christ use 3. God will meet your daily needs. nation not individual? 4. It may not include a home, job or retirement but it will...
God is not just a God of individual sychology. When you read the OT, it is much more about NATIONS than just individuals. In fact, the nation often suffers because of the actions of individual decision makers. Our God is a God of Nations Psychology as well. But what does this mean when he commands us todisciple, baptize and teach them to observe all that I commanded you. If we go back to the Original Commission in Genesis chapter 1:28 to multiply, ll, subdue and have dominion, does it shed new meaning on why Christ used the term NATION. Our description is, Leave Gods world a lot better than you found it. When you read Genesis 12 and the covenant that leads to Abrahams heirs being a blessing to the NATIONS, it also gives new meaning to teach them to observe
Historically, when Christianity is on the move, we have eventually concluded that discipling existing institutions is necessary but not sufcient. Then the Followers of Christ have looked to the most logical alternative, create new institutions, e.g., health care systems in the early church because of IMAGE DEO and public education in the U.S.A so people could read their Bible. Our discipling model includes: Discipling individuals: transforming attitudes and behavior. Discipling institutions: re-purposing values, practices and policies. Discipling nations: creating new institutions with appropriate values, practices, policies and structures when the old institutions no longer work. When God is on the move, it usually leads to new institutions to meet unperceived needs.
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includes a covenant type relationship with God paralleling Abrahams relationship with God. It included more than just the spiritual. The material needs of Abraham were addressed as well. Is blessing fundamentally an extension of Genesis 1:28 and our responsibility to nurture, care for and leave this world a better place than we found it? But practically how do we bless the nations? Evangelize and Plant Churches? World Relief? Micro and Macro Causalities? William Carey in the 1800s, the father of modern missions, took the steam engine and printing press to India. He also created educational institutions and translated the Bible into various Indian dialects.
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After decades of effort, William Carey actually helped initiate a new law that protected the rights of Indian widows. Previously, they were burned with their deceased husbands. Timothy Richard, a contemporary of Hudson Taylor in China, worked with the Chinese gatekeepers on major famine disasters that occurred periodically in China. He was instrumental in prevention as well as minimizing the effects of periodic famines. Some observers believe that Timothy Richards contribution led Chinese leaders to continue issuing visas to foreign missionaries like Hudson Taylor in the 1800s.
Who are the lay professionals in the 21st century that can relate to the gatekeepers in various nations?
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What are the disciplines or areas of expertise that could be a blessing and also give professionals access? Should the American church encourage the next generation to pursue specic careers? Can ordinary lay professionals become the Timothy Richard of the 21st century because they possess the mindsets and skillsets required to interact with national gatekeepers? What are those required mindsets? What are those required skillsets?
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Halberstam gave an illustration of a New York Banker who was offered the Secretary of States job and turned it down. The Kennedy staff was perplexed. However, the banker indicated that he would take the Under-Secretary of States position. He then went out and hired the best P.R. person in Washington, D.C. In their rst meeting the banker told the P.R. expert that his job was to keep the banker invisible. He wanted to attend as few rubber ducky dinners as possible so that he would have more time to inuence the policy making process of the U.S. Government. John Templeton of the Templeton Foundation had a complementary principle regarding implementation. When you are ready to take a new idea public, go to the small towns and medium sized cities rst to get articles printed and achieve greater public acceptance. Then, when it eventually hits the national publications, people in the hinterland will already identify with it.
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Jim Collins, author of Good to Great & the Social Sectors also contrasts leadership styles on this issue in short two minute audio statements at www.jimcollins.com 1. A hypothesis: Legislative leadership could dominate the 21st century. 2. The solution is not to be more like a business.
Christ appeared less interested in visibility and more interested in Gods timing.
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You might ask your staff about your leadership style for being GREAT. Talk with your staff about a Biblical view of visibility, inuence, control, power, etc.
Humanly speaking, we want to move Whether you prevail or fail from success to signicance. depends more upon what you do to yourself Spiritually, when God has set in motion a new than what the world does to you. Jim Collins movement, is it often about our being invisible and even insignicant rather than signicant? We need to be constantly aware of the dangers associated with the wholesale transfer of secular I dont know about you but I did not really business strategies to a Christian non-prot commit to being insignicant when I gave my environment. The early history of Young Life life to the Lordship of Christ. That transition might also prove an interesting case study on has been difcult & painful! What about you? this subject.
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Their work-place was their worship-place and they did not separate the world into the sacred GlobalSHIFT 5.0 is emerging fast if not here! and secular.
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Campaign or Movement
Campaigns are valuable contributors to the
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on-going shaping of every society. However, most campaigns are short lived. They may last a few weeks, months or even years. Few campaigns survive multiple decades. Cross Section Ventures, www.crosssection.com, is a very sophisticated and competent creator and manager of campaigns. Recent successes include 40 Days of Purpose and The Polar Express.
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Bill Wilkie, a faculty member & Special Assistant to the President at Michigan State University, joined the W. K. Kellogg Foundation staff from 1973-75. From 1976-82, he entered the automotive industry world as Executive Vice President of Multifastener. A After serving as President of Rockmont College in the early 1980s, he owned an executive r recruiting boutique in Grand Rapids, Michigan
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If you are a lay professional who senses that to be an inuential 1st Follower...one who helps shape a sustainable movement..., I must also be invisible if not insignicant, please contact us at wwilkie at netscope dot com or 989.539.1928