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).

Technology's Impact on Spiritual Formation

The second literature category was spiritual formation. Specifically, I looked at technology's impact on spiritual formation in the 21st century. In this post, I will explore at two specific challenges that emerged at this intersection of faith and technology: busyness and worry.

As mentioned in a previous post, technology has simply amplified the number of "voices" that are shouting for our attention and affections through an endless stream of tweets, updates, pings, and notifications. These things can fill the empty spaces of our lives and leaves us feeling scattered, fragmented, exhausted. The problems associated with spiritual busyness and worry is rooted in these things... feeling scattered, being fragmented, and being paralyzed by exhaustion to change.

Henri Nouwen in his book "Making All Things New" stated that that we live within a strange reality in which we are "filled yet unfulfilled" as well as "busy and bored at the same time." Technological advances in the 21st century have only exasperated these feelings. Nouwen was a very important dialogue partner throughout my dissertation (and spiritual life) when he speaks prophetically about the need for a deep spiritual life. He looked at Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:31-33 for answers to the challenges that busyness and worrying pose to the spiritual life:

“31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV)

He identified "worry" as being normative in the 21st century and that a life without worries seemed not only impossible but undesirable. Nouwen pointed out that “worrying” had become a sort of badge of honor or worse, a sign of godliness and responsibility in our current cultural context. He rightly noted, “We have a suspicion that to be carefree is unrealistic and worse dangerous. Our worries motivate us to work hard, to prepare ourselves for the future, and to arm ourselves against impending threats” (Nouwen, "Making All Things New" Kindle Location 63).

Busyness and worry combined with technological advances have the potential to be a lethal combination in people's spiritual and personal lives. The Triple Revolution of the Internet, social media networks, and mobile devices have created the problem of "always being on" in an "always on" world. The spiritual rhythms that are foundational to spiritual formation can become disjointed and lost within a high-tech cultural context that Manuel Castells describes as a "space of flows" and one that is marked by "timeless time." This tension, that is found at the intersection of faith and technology, was the primary pastoral motivation behind my research and studies.

There is hope. Spiritual formation can (and should) be re-envisioned with technological problems and possibilities in mind. Futurist John Naisbitt presented a very helpful paradigm that served as an important framework for my research. He theorized that in a world of technology, people would long for personal human contact. He labeled this tension "high tech and high touch." This tension served as a guide as well as a goal in my research. How can we leverage high tech ideas with a high touch desire to connect with one another and with God?

The good news is that existing research affirms this "high tech and high touch" relationship. Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman argued that the Internet and mobile devices did not lure people away from interpersonal contact (which is often the popular narrative of anti-social people sitting next to each other but staring at their smartphones) but instead increased their relational circles. Barry Wellman, in another study with Hua Wang, found that heavy Internet users from 2002 to 2007 showed an increase of more than one-third in the number of friends seen in person on a weekly basis (Hua Wang and Barry Wellman, “Social Connectivity in America,” American Behavioral Scientist 53, no. 8 (2010): 1148– 1169). It is important to note that it is not an incorrect observation to point out the pitfalls of two people sitting at a table interacting with their phones and not each other (for example, families should ban smartphones at the dinner table) but it also helpful to note, in light of the research, that there is highly likelihood that these two people are interacting with people within their social media networks via these technology mediated devices.

In the next posts, I will explore how some thought leaders have already re-envisioned spiritual formation with the technological cultural changes in mind. I am grateful for their work and look forward to sharing some that were inspiring to me.

Impact of Technology on the Global Culture

There were three literature categories that I interacted with in my dissertation. They were technology, spiritual formation, and Silicon Valley. In this post, I will briefly describe the first of these categories: technology.

In the dissertation, I described how technology created a highly connected and highly participatory cultural context. In describing the highly connected nature of the global culture, I leaned heavily on Manuel Castell's idea of the "Networked Society" as well as Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman's concept of "networked individualism." The later looked at the Triple Revolution as the catalyst to global cultural changes:

"The Triple Revolution— Social Network, Internet, and Mobile— has created a new information and media ecology that is distinct from the past. The process of creating, collecting, assessing, and distributing information is increasingly becoming networked through social processes and is very much tied to the rise of networked individualism." (Rainie and Wellman, "Networked: The New Social Operating System" Kindle Locations 5983-5986)

I was drawn to this idea of "networked individualism" because it argued that the basic morphology or shape of our culture drastically changed due to the impact of the Triple Revolution. Networked individualism stated that people formed the center of their own networked worlds and traditional social units (such as the family, work units, neighborhoods, and even social structures such as churches) diminished in their importance or were entirely replaced. As a local pastor, this captured some of the major changes that I observed within my own church as well as within my own personal life.

In addition to becoming highly connected, I also explored the ways that the global culture had become more participatory. The sociologist Henry Jenkins was very influential in understanding this impact. He described the emerging global culture as a "convergence" or "participatory" culture that shifted the way that we related with one another and the world. Jenkins stated that this culture was:

“one which sees the public not as simply consumers of pre- constructed messages but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content in ways which might not have been previously imagined.” (Jenkins, "Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture" Kindle Location 189)

Eric Von Hippel's idea of "democratized innovation" adds another layer of complexity to understanding the impact of a highly participatory cultural context. He said:

"When I say that innovation is being democratized, I mean that users of products and services - both firms and individual consumers - are increasingly able to innovate for themselves. User-centered innovation processes offer great advantages over the manufacturer-centric innovation development systems that have been the mainstay of commerce for hundreds of years. Users that innovate can develop exactly what they want, rather than relying on manufacturers to act as their (often very imperfect) agents." (Von Hippel, "Democratizing Innovation" Kindle Locations 33-35)

This is where "the rubber hits the road" in regards to ministry. People, in my opinion, are already living and operating as networked individuals in a increasingly connected and participatory culture. Armed with the tools of the Triple Revolution, such as social media networks and "always connected" mobile Internet devices, these networked individuals are actively engaging in their own spiritual formation and not relying on religious leaders like myself to help them. Technology has enabled a new level of "democratized innovation" where spiritual formation is no longer left to the "experts." These cultural changes have introduced both pitfalls and possibilities to the spiritual life. Many wise religious leaders have spoken against pitfalls of technology and its negative impact on the spiritual life. My hope in my dissertation (and now blog) is to explore some of the positive impacts and spiritual possibilities that technology has introduced.

Testing Stage

Stage #5 of spiritual design thinking is entitled "testing"

In this final stage of spiritual design thinking, we test the spiritual prototypes that we created. Because design thinking is a exploratory process, it is important to test out the different ideas that we come up with. This model of spiritual formation is also an iterative process that requires continual thought, action, and reflection.

This stage resonates with the spiritual concept of "taking a step of faith" or more appropriately "living a life of faith." This stage allows for the exercising of faith through actionable steps that lead to action, reflection, and learning.

Prototyping Stage

Stage #4 of spiritual design thinking is entitled "prototyping"

This is my favorite stage! Prototyping is the stage in which ideas are created for testing. The d.school uses this helpful phrase, "build to think and test to learn." Another variation is to "build to test and not build to last."

One of the biggest challenges in life, whether it be in the arena of design or faith, is the fear of failure. This fear of failure is found in all aspects of life and can cripple innovation and spiritual growth. This "failure paradox" prevents people from taking risks and thus prevents people from growing. The goal of this stage of spiritual design thinking is to overcome the "failure paradox" by introducing a new paradigm that encourages experimentation and exploration.

Tom and David Kelley of the design firm IDEO speak to this issue in the their book "Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential in All of Us" (highly recommend). They said, "A widely held myth suggest that creative geniuses rarely fail. Yet according to Professor Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California, Davis, the opposite is actually true: creative geniuses, from artists like Mozart to scientists like Darwin, are quite prolific when it comes to failure – they just don’t let that stop them."

The hope of this stage is to reframe the challenge of the "failure paradox" and introduce a new paradigm that encourages faith and creativity.

Ideating Stage

Stage #3 of spiritual design thinking is entitled "ideating"

To understanding this ideating stage, it is important to know what it is not. In spiritual design thinking, ideating isn't just the creation of new ideas for creation sake. Rather it is to explore ways that we can align with the Holy Spirit's activity in our lives. The focus is the creation of "many" ideas rather than the "right" idea. In the context of spiritual formation, this stage is informed by the previous two stages. The spiritual design process starts from a place of listening (empathy and defining) but moves into practical responses (ideating, prototyping, and ultimately testing and retesting).

This stage was heavily informed by 10x thinking or "moonshot" thinking. Google (now Alphabet) has incorporated this theory in the DNA of the company. One practical implication of this theory would be in how they view innovation. True innovation happens when you try to improve something by 10 times rather than by 10%. This serves as an incredible filter for the type of ideas that are generated and pursued. This type of thinking "take the top off" many of the delimiters and restrictions that we unwittingly put upon ourselves and others.

The hope in the ideating stage of the spiritual design thinking process is to allow individuals to "dream big dreams" for God and to begin to move into a life of faith stepping.

Defining Stage

Stage #2 of spiritual design thinking is entitled "defining"

The focus of this stage is to define what God is saying and doing in our lives. The emphasis is on "appreciating" or focusing on the positive things that God is doing in our lives. The defining stage seeks to build on what God is already doing.

In design thinking, this stage is described as the "sense making" section of the design process. From a spiritual formation perspective, "sense making" is synonymous with the spiritual act of "discernment." Appreciative Inquiry (AI) provides a helpful framework for spiritual discernment because it assumes that the questions that we ask will focus our attention in a specific direction. By focusing on the positive things that God is doing, we are intentionally focusing on the Holy Spirit's activity. It is important to note that this approach is rooted in a theological belief that God is already at work in our midst and it is more than just positivistic thinking. Discernment is a spiritual discipline that devotes energy towards defining God's activity in our lives.

Another important consideration in the spiritual design process is the importance of convergent and divergent thinking. The empathy stage is an example of divergent thinking. The question "what is God saying?" potentially leads to the "opening up" or generation of new possibilities. The defining stage however is more of a convergent way of thinking. The question "what positive things is God already doing?" leads to a more focused perspective on the Holy Spirit's activity. The spiritual design thinking process will go back and forth between divergent as well as convergent thinking.

Empathy Stage

Stage #1 of spiritual design thinking is entitled "empathy"

I used Stanford's d.school (design school) model of design thinking as a theoretical framework to build my model. In the d.school, the empathy stage is the considered the centerpiece of a human-centered design process. To learn more about design thinking, take a look at this helpful PDF:

https://dschool-old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/dresources/wiki/welcome/attachments/11df7/BootcampBootleg2010v2SLIM.pdf?sessionID=4d722a5eb0575f652855f387894049161b6f236d

Design thinking was an early, paradigm shifting "human-centered" approach that challenged the older more traditional "problem-based" approach to design. My goal was to take this a step further and to reframe design thinking from a spiritual formation perspective that moved it from being "human-centered" to being "God-focused."

This is a bit technical but I utilized Mark Lau Branson's theory of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to reframe design thinking from a spiritual formation perspective. AI is an organization development model that is rooted in a biblical framework that seeks to be responsive to God’s activity in the life of a given community or organization. During one of our lectures, Dr. Branson stated that at the heart of AI is a belief that the Holy Spirit already had His "boots on the ground" and was at work with our churches, organizations, and ministries. Our job was simple: identify, appreciate, and focus on the positive things that God was doing in our midst.

Inspired by his comment, I sought to reframe this empathy stage as a centerpiece of a God-focused design process that started by listening to God's voice. Based on my research, it was clear that "listening" to the voice of God was challenging in the new global high-tech culture. Technology has simply amplified the number of other "voices" that are shouting for our attention and affections through an endless stream of tweets, updates, pings, and notifications. Hearing God's voice is imperative in the new high-tech global cultural context.

Spiritual Design Thinking

Let's start from the end... I will share the findings from my dissertation starting in reverse. As I read the existing literature, studied the existing research, and conducted my own studies with church-going technology end-users, I realized the need for a culturally relevant, technologically informed, and spiritually attuned model of spiritual formation for high-tech contexts such as Silicon Valley. I incorporated elements of design thinking, Appreciative Inquiry, 10x thinking, into a new model of spiritual formation that addressed some of the challenges and leveraged many of the opportunities found within our new global high-tech culture. I named this new model of spiritual formation "Spiritual Design Thinking." Here is an illustrated version of this model:

In the next few blog posts, I will go into depth for each stage.

Best laid plans...

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray... My hope with this blog was to chronicle my dissertation journey... haha! That didn't quite happen. :) That being said, I just graduated with my Doctorate of Missiology in June of 2017. My hope is to share the high level findings from my research as well as explore new avenues of interest and curiosity. The intersection of faith and technology is a fascinating place to be and I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to "hang-out" in this space. I look forward to sharing my thoughts in the future.