Moving my Spiritual Design Thinking blog over to medium.com

Just an update that I am moving the content of my Spiritual Design Thinking blog over to medium.com

You can find it here at http://medium.com/@youwan

 I am planning to use this blog for more church related applications.

Sunday Supper Ministry Fair

Here are the slides from tonight's Ministry Fair. Feel free send me any questions or thoughts on the content.

Ministry Fair PDF

New Tech and New Touch

In my research, the utilization of technology as a tool to help express spiritual formation practices reflected the "high tech and high touch" dynamic that futurist John Naisbitt identified. I would take it one step further and say that "new tech" require "new touch" ways to stay connected to the world and with others. In my research, the use of technology as a convenience tool to overcome life's constraints initially appeared to be pragmatic in nature but ultimately reflected the changing practices of citizens of the global information culture. This graphic from the Pew Research Center shows the dramatic increase in technology adoption since 2000.

The spiritual formation challenge is to understand how these "new tech" and "new touch" dynamics affect the current spiritual rhythms and practices of church-going technology end-users in high-tech cultural contexts such as Silicon Valley. The spiritual design thinking model emerged as one attempt to create a new spiritual formation model that was both process-oriented but also culturally and technologically sensitive to the cultural challenges of hearing God's voice in the midst of a multitude of other "voices" that call out to us through a series of notifications, tweets, and pings.

5 Major Themes From Field Research and 1 Significant Observation

Several themes arose as to how church-going technology end-users utilized technology in their spiritual formation practices as well as one major observation that emerged from the field research. I identified five themes as to why people utilized technology into their spiritual formation practices.

1. Convenience
2. Overcoming Constraints
3. Connectivity (to people as well as ideas)
4. Curiosity and Personal Passion
5. Convictions and Sense of Calling

There were two distinct ways in which the theme of convenience was present in the research findings. First, it empowered and enabled the receiving of spiritual input. Examples of this include using Bible apps for daily Scripture reading, listening to sermons from leading pastors via podcasts, and enjoying an unlimited music library using online music streaming services. Second, technology allowed for the ease of personal expression. Evernote was reported as a journal replacement that was convenient due to the ability to quickly type out entries (versus handwriting) and its ability to sync and and be accessible over multiple devices. This accessible was particularly convenient because it eliminated the need to carry around a paper journal and allowed for older entries to be readily accessible from virtually anywhere and in many ways (i.e. smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.).

The theme of overcoming constraints was rooted in many of the challenges that exist in a high-tech cultural contexts such as Silicon Valley. Technology emerged as a helpful tool that could be used to overcome various lifestyle restraints. Examples from the field research include listening to an audio Bible while commuting to and from work or reading from a Bible app in the dark while attending to a sleeping child. Technology enabled end-users to maintain relationships and friendship over different time zones and geographic locations. Social media networks such as Facebook and group messaging apps such as Google Hangouts and WhatsApp allowed for the asynchronous nature of conversations that allowed for the overcoming of time/space constraints. These are just a few example of how technology enabled the overcoming of constraints by allowing end-users to multitask, find work/life balance, and maintain relationships across different time zones and geographic locations.

The theme of connectivity was seen in the ways that the interviewees used technology to stay connected with people as well with current news, information, and ideas. Social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook as well as group messaging apps such as WhatsApp, allowed end-users to leverage technology in order to maintain relational connections with friends as well as build new relationships with others that had similar interests and passions. Social media networks and Internet news was increasing becoming the primary means by which end-users gathered news and stayed informed about the world. This was done in both passive and active ways. Social media networks, such as a Facebook news feed, allowed for the passive and serendipitous exposure to news and information. Active participation occurred when an interviewee intentionally read online news articles with spiritual application intentions in mind or followed a particular blogger or news agency on Twitter.

The Internet played an important role in the empowerment of personal curiosities and passions via technology. The unprecedented access to information found on the Internet allowed for individuals to seek and find thriving online communities of people who shared similar interests and passions. Social media networks such as Twitter, YouTube, and online blogs served as a democratized broadcast platform for individuals to not only express their curiosities and passions but connect with others who have similar interests and passions.

The final theme of personal convictions vastly varied in praxis and yet was rooted in a deep sense of personal calling as well as a deep personal conviction. This sense of conviction and calling manifested itself in two distinct ways. The first is in the “what” these individuals did to express these personal convictions. One interviewee used technology to serve as an online mentor to teens while another used their personal passion and interest in AVL (audio, visual, and lighting) to connect with leaders in this industry via Twitter and in turn share this knowledge within their local church context. Others expressed their personal convictions and calling in “how” they focused on these convictions and passions. Examples included regularly “disconnecting” from technology in order to focus on God or the reading of Internet news articles with the perspective the Kingdom of God in mind.

The notable observation from the field research was actually the omission of any reference to church programs or pastoral exhortations to integrate technology into their spiritual formation practices. This omission points to the fact that these technology end-users were creating new and innovative spiritual formation practices on their own without much guidance from their pastors or churches. This integration of technology and spiritual formation was particularly surprising and resonated with the goal of this dissertation to develop a spiritual formation model that was culturally relevant, technologically informed, and spiritually attuned to the changing global culture and a changing global population.

Research Findings: How Technology Is Utilized To Express Spiritual Formation Practices

My research centered around semi-structured interviews with church-going technology end-users in Silicon Valley. The goal was to study how these church-going technology end-users were utilizing technology to express their spiritual formation practices. I defined "spiritual formation practices" very loosely and it consisted of any personal practice (not necessarily a formal religious practice) that helped these individuals connect to God and others and led to spiritual growth and depth.

I was able to identify 10 different types of spiritual formation practices that were common in all of the interviews. They were a mix of "traditional" spiritual formation practices as well as "non-traditional" contemporary practices that empowered personal/professional growth. Traditional practices were identified as:

1. Fellowship/Community
2. Bible Reading/Devotionals
3. Prayer
4. Journaling
5. Music
6. Retreats/Solitude
7. Witness/Serving
8. Church Attendance/Listening to sermons

The two non-traditional practices were identified as:

9. Reading news and Information gathering
10. Personal and Professional Development

In addition to identifying the various practices, I also wanted to know how technology impacted these spiritual formation practices. Not surprisingly, the ubiquitous nature of social media networks and connected devices such as computers and smartphones allowed these church-going technology end-users to incorporate technology into different aspects of their spiritual lives. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and WhatsApp were used to express, maintain, and even expand a sense of community and fellowship while smartphone applications such as Bible apps and Evernote, group text messaging, online music streaming, sermon podcasts, and web articles were used to augment, change, or even replace other spiritual formation practices. A more detailed discussion of these findings will discussed in the next blog post.

Finally, I wanted to identify some of the negative influences of technology upon the spiritual lives of church-going people in Silicon Valley. Four distinct spiritual formation challenges were identified though these interviews in which technology negatively affected the spiritual formation practices of these church-going technology end-users. These challenges were:

1. Distractions
2. Increased pace of life
3. Boredom/Dissatisfaction
4. Unhealthy dependence on technology

In the next few blog posts, I will discuss some of the themes that emerged from the data that I collected as well as discuss how they relate to the current literature and research that already exists.

The Cultural and Spiritual Context of Silicon Valley

The third literature category was Silicon Valley.

I looked at Silicon Valley from a few different perspectives for the purpose of this dissertation. The first was to get a high level view of the cultural ethos of Silicon Valley. Needless to say, Silicon Valley is acknowledged as the technology hub of the world. I looked at how the unique combination of people, ideas, experiments, and failures along with a spirit of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship (plus a healthy dose of good weather and good fortune) allowed for the seeds of the Personal Computer Revolution to be planted in this geographic area. Vivek Wadhwa, in an MIT Technology Review article entitled, "Why Silicon Valley Can't Be Copied," said that this unique cultural context allowed for an ecosystem to emerged that “supported experimentation, risk-taking, and sharing the lessons of success and failure. In other words, Silicon Valley was an open system—a giant, real-world social network that existed long before Facebook.”

Much has been written about the history, culture, and future of the Silicon Valley but my primary interest was to look at the cultural context of Silicon Valley from a theological and missiological perspective. Bruce Baker, of Seattle Pacific University, was one of the few scholars who attempted to look a the cultural ethos of Silicon Valley from this perspective. He argued that the spirit of creativity and innovation that was evident in Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial ethos came from the imago Dei in human nature. He stated:

We may presume that creativity in general points to God as the ultimate and primordial Creator and as the source of all creativity. The arts and crafts are the most obvious expression of this creative element in human nature, yet these are by no means the only forms of creativity attributable to the imago Dei. Creativity is required to the daily functions of life— decision-making and adaptation to each new circumstance demands some sort of creative response. (Baker, Bruce. 2014. "Silicon Valley and the Spirit of Innovation: How California's Entrepreneurial Ethos Bears Witness to Spiritual Reality." In Theology and California Theological Refractions on California's Culture, edited by Fred Sanders and Jason S. Sexton. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.).

The final perspective that I wanted to look at was how technological advances have adversely affected the spiritual lives of those who live in a high-tech cultural context such as Silicon Valley. Sara Robinson insightfully observed, in an article published in Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/), how the modern push to expand the work week beyond the normal 40 hours a week has its roots in Silicon Valley. Although her description of the "typcial" Silicon Valley worker may be a bit stereotypical, her historical and cultural observation is still worth considering. She wrote:

The first is the emergence of Silicon Valley as an economic powerhouse in the late 1970s. Since WWII, the valley had attracted a unique breed of worker — scientists and technologists who carried with them a singular passion for research and innovation. Asperger’s Syndrome wasn’t named and identified until 1994, but by the 1950s, the defense industries in California’s Santa Clara Valley were already drawing in brilliant young men and women who fit the profile: single-minded, socially awkward, emotionally detached and blessed (or cursed) with a singular, unique, laser-like focus on some particular area of obsessive interest. For these people, work wasn’t just work; it was their life’s passion, and they devoted every waking hour to it, usually to the exclusion of non-work relationships, exercise, sleep, food and sometimes even personal care. The popular stereotype of the geek was born in some real truths about the specific kinds of people who were drawn to tech in those early years.

The scope of my research was not to do a full cultural analysis of Silicon Valley. Instead, I hoped to look at how technological innovation and economic growth have lead to new opportunities as well as new spiritual challenges to residents of this region. The existing research gives a clue to the cultural and spiritual challenges that residents of Silicon Valley face. According to a study by INRIX in 2016, the San Francisco Bay Area suffered from the 4th worst traffic in the world (http://inrix.com/resources/inrix-2016-global-traffic-scorecard/ ) with the average San Francisco Bay Area driver sitting in 83 hours of commute traffic. Traffic is typically a good indicator of a healthy and growing economy, but it can also lead to other ancillary problems such as driving up the cost of living, rising housing costs, and economic pressure. In another study in 2017, the San Jose metropolitan area (the heart of Silicon Valley) was rated as the 5th least affordable global housing market (http://blog.pacificunion.com/bay-area-housing-markets-are-among-theworlds-10-least-affordable/).

I point to this combination of traffic and rising housing costs as factors that adversely affect the financial, personal, and spiritual pressures that many individuals in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is clearly not alone in having these types of lifestyle challenges. But it does serves as a unique cultural forerunner for the rest of the society regarding how individuals utilize technology to manage or potentially overcome some of these cultural pitfalls and pressures. I hope to share some of the points of integration between the three literature categories of spiritual formation, technology, within high-tech enabled cultural contexts such as Silicon Valley.

Existing Literature on Faith and Technology

I am just going to leave some of my favorite quotes from various authors I read and how they influenced my thinking. I highly recommended starting with these books if you are interested in learning more about the intersection of faith and technology.

Elizabeth Drescher in her book, “Tweet if you ♥ Jesus,” spoke of the opportunities and challenges presented by the emergence of new digital social media. She exhorted church leaders and lay leaders to participate in the Digital Revolution (her definition of the emerging culture) by way of “nurturing and sustaining the Christian Church as a force of spiritual and social transformation.”

Meredith Gould in her book, "The Social Media Gospel: Sharing the Good News in New Ways," challenged pastors to embrace social media in very practical ways. She acknowledged that social media could never replace face-to-face, in-the-flesh meetings with people but that they could serve as an “extension of a pastor’s personal presence” as well as ministerial reach.

Justin Wise was particularly helpful in his observations about the role of the local church. He stated:

"It used to be that one would have to go to a local church on Sunday morning to receive religious instruction from an individual, usually a white, middle-aged male in the role of pastor, priest, or reverend. The stated nonverbal message in these environments is classic supply and demand. The pastor is supplying something the congregation needs (religious instruction in a communal setting). It is entirely a one-way street. Pastor speaks, congregation listens (Wise, "The Social Church: A Theology of Digital Communication" 94).

Wise believed that social technologies such as social media and the Internet had changed the role of the church in society from "possessor and dispenser of religious/spiritual knowledge" to a "communal hub that sends and receives members, empowering them for the work of the ministry."

Toni Birdsong and Tami Heim in their book "@stickyjesus" stated that one of the biggest cultural changes was that people were “migrating” more and more online and using technologies such as connected devices to do so. It seemed imperative for the Christian witness to learn to live and communicate their faith in these new locations even if it meant going to “foreign lands with peculiar names like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Plaxo.” Gould likened the fast-moving stream of tweets found within the social media network Twitter as “stumbling into the largest living room on the planet, one filled with often brilliant, sometimes absurd but always engaging, commentary and conversation.”

Finally, I read a few scholars who attempted to address the changes mentioned by Justin Wise. Keith Anderson in his book, "The Digital Cathedral: Networked Ministry in a Wireless World" proposed the imagery of a “digital cathedral” as a new paradigm for understanding the role of the church in this new culture. For Anderson, this idea of the Digital Cathedral was a deliberate shift from the tendency to define “church” as a building or organization. His call was for a more “expansive and holistic” picture of the church that empowered faith and ministry including online spaces and places.

Keith Anderson also wrote a book with Elizabeth Drescher entitled, "Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible." They offered several very practical ways that ministry could occur within this new emerging culture (which they call the Digital Age). They advocated for an embrace of “Digital Ministry” which served as both a ministry philosophy as well as missional praxis. They defined it as, “Digital ministry is the set of practices that extend spiritual care, formation, prayer, evangelism, and other manifestations of grace into online spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, where more and more people gather to nurture, explore, and share their faith today.”

Dwight J. Friesen looked at the changes to our emerging culture through a theological lens. He incorporates and uses the language of technology and ties it back to faith. He said:

"We’ve lost sight of God’s networked kingdom. We need corrective lenses... At the height of modernity we saw individuals; we saw separate organizations and standalone institutions; and we actually thought that when we split an atom, a church, or a marriage, the relationship ended. Today we know that we were mistaken. We are seeing with increasing poignancy that separation and division is not the deepest truth of life. Rather, we are beginning to see that underneath the guise of division is an even deeper connection that cannot be severed (Friesen, "Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks" Kindle Location 250).