1 00:00:04,871 --> 00:00:07,083 Alright, so welcome back. So now what we're 2 00:00:07,125 --> 00:00:09,275 going to talk about in this video is we're 3 00:00:09,275 --> 00:00:12,621 going to talk about mapping engaging in First 4 00:00:12,663 --> 00:00:16,049 Article insights. So just to review, we talked 5 00:00:16,049 --> 00:00:18,407 about the first map, how to map out attending 6 00:00:18,449 --> 00:00:20,587 to self and world, and now we're going to 7 00:00:20,587 --> 00:00:22,971 talk about how you engage in First Article 8 00:00:23,013 --> 00:00:25,325 insights, and we're going to map that out 9 00:00:25,325 --> 00:00:28,165 for you and give you kind of a sense of 10 00:00:28,207 --> 00:00:31,231 how to do that. Alright, so let's dive in. 11 00:00:32,165 --> 00:00:35,341 Why do I call it First Article insights? Well, 12 00:00:35,383 --> 00:00:38,805 because the First Article of the Creed talks about 13 00:00:38,805 --> 00:00:42,484 how God has created everything. So I believe in 14 00:00:42,526 --> 00:00:46,012 God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and 15 00:00:46,012 --> 00:00:48,949 earth, the Creed says. So God has created 16 00:00:48,991 --> 00:00:52,252 everything, everything that we see, everything 17 00:00:52,252 --> 00:00:55,153 that is around us. And that's not a bad thing. 18 00:00:55,195 --> 00:00:58,324 It's a good thing that He has created this for us. 19 00:00:59,092 --> 00:01:01,938 So the explanation of the first of the First 20 00:01:01,980 --> 00:01:04,931 Article of the Creed says this. I believe that 21 00:01:04,931 --> 00:01:07,533 God has made me and all creatures that He has 22 00:01:07,575 --> 00:01:10,103 given me my body and soul, eyes, ear, all my 23 00:01:10,103 --> 00:01:13,097 members, my reason and all my senses, and still 24 00:01:13,139 --> 00:01:16,109 takes care of them. Now, pay attention to that. 25 00:01:16,676 --> 00:01:19,786 So remember when I told you that this is all about 26 00:01:19,828 --> 00:01:22,916 discovery and exploring? Well, how do we discover? 27 00:01:23,216 --> 00:01:25,630 How do we explore? We do it by looking around. 28 00:01:25,672 --> 00:01:28,021 We do it by listening. We do it by observing. 29 00:01:28,021 --> 00:01:31,473 All these things they talked about. And God 30 00:01:31,515 --> 00:01:34,928 has given us a body with all of its members 31 00:01:34,928 --> 00:01:39,438 to be able to do that. Not only that, He's given 32 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:43,937 us the ability to reason. So I can explore God's 33 00:01:43,937 --> 00:01:47,095 creation and I can come up then with conclusions 34 00:01:47,137 --> 00:01:50,009 about that creation based upon my own reason 35 00:01:50,577 --> 00:01:53,095 and my own strength. And that's awesome. That's 36 00:01:53,137 --> 00:01:55,482 great. And so when we're talking about first 37 00:01:55,482 --> 00:01:58,020 article insights, what we're going to be 38 00:01:58,062 --> 00:02:00,954 talking about is what has various disciplines, 39 00:02:01,554 --> 00:02:04,560 especially in the social science world, what have 40 00:02:04,602 --> 00:02:07,527 they discovered with their own reason and senses 41 00:02:07,527 --> 00:02:10,436 and their own members of their body that God has 42 00:02:10,478 --> 00:02:13,366 given them? What have they discovered about this 43 00:02:13,366 --> 00:02:15,644 creation that's pretty cool that will help us 44 00:02:15,686 --> 00:02:18,004 to understand or issue our opportunity better? 45 00:02:18,705 --> 00:02:21,373 Now, I do want to at this point make another 46 00:02:21,415 --> 00:02:23,943 distinction. So you've heard me say before 47 00:02:23,943 --> 00:02:26,113 that Lutherans are really good about making 48 00:02:26,155 --> 00:02:28,314 distinctions. So here's another distinction 49 00:02:28,314 --> 00:02:32,022 I'm going to make. The Third Article, the Creed 50 00:02:32,064 --> 00:02:35,655 explanation says this. I believe that I cannot 51 00:02:35,655 --> 00:02:38,370 buy my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus 52 00:02:38,412 --> 00:02:40,994 Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy 53 00:02:40,994 --> 00:02:43,172 Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened 54 00:02:43,214 --> 00:02:45,431 me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the 55 00:02:45,431 --> 00:02:48,624 true faith. OK, so here's the distinction. Number 56 00:02:48,666 --> 00:02:51,704 one, we have this wonderful creation we live in 57 00:02:51,704 --> 00:02:55,860 and we can explore it and discover lots of things 58 00:02:55,902 --> 00:02:59,679 about it using our our own senses and our own 59 00:02:59,679 --> 00:03:03,984 reason. But there is something that our reason 60 00:03:04,026 --> 00:03:08,555 and senses cannot help us with. And that is life, 61 00:03:08,555 --> 00:03:12,126 salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life 62 00:03:12,168 --> 00:03:15,628 in Jesus Christ. I cannot buy my own reason or 63 00:03:15,628 --> 00:03:18,919 strength, believe in Jesus or have life and 64 00:03:18,961 --> 00:03:22,368 salvation in Him that comes from God and that 65 00:03:22,368 --> 00:03:26,743 is a gift. So this distinction is important. And 66 00:03:26,785 --> 00:03:31,110 sometimes what happens is people confuse things. 67 00:03:31,110 --> 00:03:34,847 So people who may say, oh, you know, psychology is 68 00:03:34,889 --> 00:03:38,518 bad or something like that is because they're not 69 00:03:38,518 --> 00:03:41,173 understanding this distinction that is there 70 00:03:41,215 --> 00:03:44,090 that is important to have. So the distinction is 71 00:03:44,090 --> 00:03:47,154 helpful. I hope it's helpful for you as we start 72 00:03:47,196 --> 00:03:50,363 talking about what we can learn from First Article 73 00:03:50,363 --> 00:03:53,488 Insights or the various disciplines that are out 74 00:03:53,530 --> 00:03:56,502 there. OK, so engaging First Article Insights, 75 00:03:56,636 --> 00:03:58,660 the question we're asking is how does First 76 00:03:58,702 --> 00:04:00,907 Article Insights provide a way of understanding 77 00:04:00,907 --> 00:04:04,407 and response? This is important. First Article 78 00:04:04,449 --> 00:04:07,914 Insights is helping us to understand things at 79 00:04:07,914 --> 00:04:11,560 a deeper level. It's not necessarily telling us 80 00:04:11,602 --> 00:04:15,288 what to believe. It's not telling us what to do. 81 00:04:15,455 --> 00:04:18,712 That's what our theology is for. But First 82 00:04:18,754 --> 00:04:22,128 Article Insights is helping us to understand 83 00:04:22,128 --> 00:04:25,160 and may help assist in our response to that issue 84 00:04:25,202 --> 00:04:27,967 or opportunity. What are some skills that are 85 00:04:27,967 --> 00:04:30,749 helpful to have to do this? Well, some sort of 86 00:04:30,791 --> 00:04:33,673 library skills, being able to search for things, 87 00:04:33,673 --> 00:04:36,835 being able to find things in a library or going 88 00:04:36,877 --> 00:04:40,013 to find things online, credible articles are or 89 00:04:40,013 --> 00:04:42,972 information or even now with podcasts and videos 90 00:04:43,014 --> 00:04:45,952 and all the things we have. Are you able to find 91 00:04:45,952 --> 00:04:48,631 people maybe who are talking about something in 92 00:04:48,673 --> 00:04:51,391 this particular realm that can help you map out, 93 00:04:51,424 --> 00:04:54,224 you know, how best to respond? You have to have 94 00:04:54,266 --> 00:04:56,929 an investigative attitude. So you're going to 95 00:04:56,929 --> 00:04:59,317 investigate. You're going to look for things. 96 00:04:59,359 --> 00:05:01,734 Critical thinking skills is important. If you 97 00:05:01,734 --> 00:05:04,379 don't have good critical thinking skills, it may 98 00:05:04,421 --> 00:05:07,106 be difficult now to know what to do with the data 99 00:05:07,106 --> 00:05:10,154 or the information that you've collected and to 100 00:05:10,196 --> 00:05:13,413 understand what has scientific merit and what does 101 00:05:13,413 --> 00:05:16,460 not have scientific merit. And I'll talk about 102 00:05:16,502 --> 00:05:19,852 those things. Various components of this particular 103 00:05:19,852 --> 00:05:22,634 mapping is we're going to identify and analyze 104 00:05:22,676 --> 00:05:25,558 literature and theories that attend to the issue 105 00:05:25,558 --> 00:05:27,645 and our opportunity and address that 106 00:05:27,687 --> 00:05:29,929 ministry question that we have created. 107 00:05:30,963 --> 00:05:32,717 We're going to distinguish science from 108 00:05:32,759 --> 00:05:35,001 pseudoscience. We're going to identify and analyze 109 00:05:35,001 --> 00:05:37,386 various maps of understanding. We're going to 110 00:05:37,428 --> 00:05:39,906 identify limitations of First Article insights. 111 00:05:40,373 --> 00:05:44,714 So I don't think that First Article insights are 112 00:05:44,756 --> 00:05:49,048 always correct. They are not God-given. They are 113 00:05:49,048 --> 00:05:51,587 us discovering the world we live in. So there are 114 00:05:51,629 --> 00:05:54,053 going to be limitations to it and we need to be 115 00:05:54,053 --> 00:05:56,425 aware of that. And then we determine the First 116 00:05:56,467 --> 00:05:58,725 Article insights that can contribute to your 117 00:05:58,725 --> 00:06:01,153 understanding of the issue or opportunity and 118 00:06:01,195 --> 00:06:03,663 answering the ministry question. All right, so 119 00:06:03,663 --> 00:06:07,799 there are lots of disciplines out there. I live 120 00:06:07,841 --> 00:06:12,105 in one of those disciplines, psychology. I have a 121 00:06:12,105 --> 00:06:14,845 master counseling degree, a PhD in psychology. 122 00:06:14,887 --> 00:06:17,844 And so understanding psychology and how psychology 123 00:06:17,844 --> 00:06:21,220 works, that's kind of a wheelhouse that I have. 124 00:06:21,262 --> 00:06:24,250 But there are other disciplines out there. 125 00:06:24,917 --> 00:06:27,562 You know, there's the political understanding of 126 00:06:27,604 --> 00:06:30,289 things, the economic understanding, how economics 127 00:06:30,289 --> 00:06:34,277 works. All these various disciplines are helpful 128 00:06:34,319 --> 00:06:38,264 for us because they can give us an understanding 129 00:06:38,264 --> 00:06:40,742 of how these things work in this created world 130 00:06:40,784 --> 00:06:43,302 that we're in. And these kinds of things you're 131 00:06:43,503 --> 00:06:46,420 going to get from scripture. You know, scripture 132 00:06:46,462 --> 00:06:48,875 is not intended to help us to understand 133 00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:52,463 our psychological makeup. Scripture is not helping 134 00:06:52,505 --> 00:06:55,848 us to understand necessarily economics and what 135 00:06:55,848 --> 00:06:58,772 happens like if you raise or lower the interest 136 00:06:58,814 --> 00:07:01,654 rate and things like that. But because God has 137 00:07:01,654 --> 00:07:04,469 given us our bodies, our members of our bodies 138 00:07:04,511 --> 00:07:07,427 and our senses and reasoning, we can figure some 139 00:07:07,427 --> 00:07:10,160 of those things out on our own and we can come to 140 00:07:10,202 --> 00:07:12,865 some conclusions about them. So there's going to 141 00:07:12,865 --> 00:07:16,890 be different lenses or disciplines that will 142 00:07:16,932 --> 00:07:20,907 help you to understand a particular issue or 143 00:07:20,907 --> 00:07:23,463 opportunity. Now, again, there's lots of them out 144 00:07:23,505 --> 00:07:25,945 there. And one of the things you may have to do 145 00:07:25,945 --> 00:07:29,217 is narrow it down. Now, if you're in a congregation, 146 00:07:29,259 --> 00:07:31,884 in a ministry, you may have people in your 147 00:07:31,884 --> 00:07:34,927 congregation or ministry who are actually living 148 00:07:34,969 --> 00:07:37,990 and breathing in one of these disciplines. Maybe 149 00:07:37,990 --> 00:07:40,470 they're teaching in it. Maybe they're working in 150 00:07:40,512 --> 00:07:42,929 it in some way. And they can be very beneficial 151 00:07:42,929 --> 00:07:46,293 to you to help you to understand how these other 152 00:07:46,335 --> 00:07:49,669 disciplines can speak into this particular issue 153 00:07:49,669 --> 00:07:52,112 or opportunity. So I'm going to give you an 154 00:07:52,154 --> 00:07:54,807 example of this, of how this kind of plays out. 155 00:07:55,208 --> 00:07:58,747 So the issue that I'm going to put before you is 156 00:07:58,789 --> 00:08:02,148 alcoholism. People who get addicted to alcohol 157 00:08:02,148 --> 00:08:05,985 and how it is that we can look at it through 158 00:08:05,985 --> 00:08:09,552 different lenses depending upon what discipline 159 00:08:09,594 --> 00:08:12,825 you're in. So for example, if you're of the 160 00:08:12,825 --> 00:08:16,542 medical discipline, you might say that the reason 161 00:08:16,584 --> 00:08:19,966 why someone is struggling with alcoholism and 162 00:08:19,966 --> 00:08:23,653 alcohol addiction is because it's in their genes. 163 00:08:23,695 --> 00:08:27,273 They were kind of born that way. So their father 164 00:08:27,273 --> 00:08:29,745 was an alcoholic. His father was an alcoholic. 165 00:08:29,787 --> 00:08:32,245 And so one way of thinking about it medically, 166 00:08:32,278 --> 00:08:35,625 if we use that particular discipline, is we might 167 00:08:35,667 --> 00:08:38,851 just look at it as in terms of, well, it's just 168 00:08:38,851 --> 00:08:42,014 genetic. Another way of possibly looking at it, 169 00:08:42,056 --> 00:08:45,258 if we use the psychological discipline and lens, 170 00:08:45,258 --> 00:08:49,138 is to look at it this way that maybe it has to do 171 00:08:49,180 --> 00:08:52,865 with cognitive behavioral things. So maybe it's 172 00:08:52,865 --> 00:08:55,960 how they think about it. And if we can change 173 00:08:56,002 --> 00:08:59,205 their thinking about alcohol, that would change 174 00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:02,046 their behavior in relation to alcohol. So it has 175 00:09:02,088 --> 00:09:04,911 nothing to do with genes. It has more to do with 176 00:09:04,911 --> 00:09:07,829 how you think about it. Or let's choose another 177 00:09:07,871 --> 00:09:10,583 discipline, social cultural. Social cultural 178 00:09:10,583 --> 00:09:14,640 discipline might say something like this, that 179 00:09:14,682 --> 00:09:18,691 the reason why people become alcoholic and get 180 00:09:18,691 --> 00:09:22,060 addicted to alcohol is because they've been 181 00:09:22,102 --> 00:09:25,665 participating in a drinking culture. Sometimes 182 00:09:25,665 --> 00:09:27,827 this happens, for example, people leave high 183 00:09:27,869 --> 00:09:30,169 school and go to college, and some colleges are 184 00:09:30,169 --> 00:09:32,830 noted for being a drinking culture, that because 185 00:09:32,872 --> 00:09:35,408 now they're in college and they're around this 186 00:09:35,408 --> 00:09:38,567 drinking culture, that's what has contributed 187 00:09:38,609 --> 00:09:41,948 then to them being an alcoholic. So if we simply 188 00:09:41,948 --> 00:09:44,038 remove them from that culture, that drinking 189 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:46,352 culture, and notice the word culture again we're 190 00:09:46,485 --> 00:09:49,884 using here, if we remove them from that drinking 191 00:09:49,926 --> 00:09:53,225 culture, then they would change and not want to 192 00:09:53,225 --> 00:09:55,470 drink alcohol and not be an alcoholic anymore. 193 00:09:55,512 --> 00:09:57,797 Another way of thinking about it, another lens, 194 00:09:57,863 --> 00:10:01,420 is marketing. When people market alcohol, for 195 00:10:01,462 --> 00:10:05,371 example, they think in terms of product placement. 196 00:10:05,571 --> 00:10:07,999 Where are they going to put the product? And how 197 00:10:08,041 --> 00:10:10,509 are they going to frame that product? How are you 198 00:10:10,509 --> 00:10:13,233 going to talk about alcohol? Remember we talked 199 00:10:13,275 --> 00:10:15,982 about framing earlier? Well, marketing thinks a 200 00:10:15,982 --> 00:10:19,545 lot about framing things. Sometimes in marketing 201 00:10:19,587 --> 00:10:22,455 they also think about demographics, and 202 00:10:22,455 --> 00:10:25,700 understanding the demographics of the particular 203 00:10:25,742 --> 00:10:29,095 context you are in is helpful. But some people may 204 00:10:29,095 --> 00:10:32,226 say, well, the demographics of this particular area 205 00:10:32,268 --> 00:10:35,134 are such where the reason why they're alcoholic 206 00:10:35,134 --> 00:10:40,320 is because the marketing is promoting it to 207 00:10:40,362 --> 00:10:45,945 that particular group of people. Another way of 208 00:10:45,945 --> 00:10:49,321 is a sin, and because it's a sin, that's the 209 00:10:49,363 --> 00:10:52,551 reason why people are addicted to alcohol, 210 00:10:52,551 --> 00:10:55,668 is because it has to do with their sin. Now 211 00:10:55,710 --> 00:10:58,724 notice all these take a different approach 212 00:10:58,724 --> 00:11:02,532 about the same topic, all right? So the topic is 213 00:11:02,574 --> 00:11:06,265 alcoholism, but depending upon which discipline 214 00:11:06,265 --> 00:11:09,511 you look at and the lens you use to look at that 215 00:11:09,553 --> 00:11:12,772 particular topic, you might have a different way 216 00:11:12,772 --> 00:11:16,104 of engaging with it or thinking about it. Now 217 00:11:16,146 --> 00:11:19,445 is one of these wrong? Well, not necessarily. 218 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,733 Is one better than the other? Maybe. You might 219 00:11:24,775 --> 00:11:28,254 want to take more of an eclectic approach. 220 00:11:28,954 --> 00:11:31,967 Pay attention to the various different maps of 221 00:11:32,009 --> 00:11:35,127 understanding that disciplines use to understand 222 00:11:35,127 --> 00:11:37,993 a topic, and just be aware of what they are. And 223 00:11:38,035 --> 00:11:41,000 sometimes what you may want to do is take the best 224 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,348 of those various disciplines and synthesize that 225 00:11:44,390 --> 00:11:47,640 information together in a way that helps people 226 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:50,110 better understand something. So if you're dealing 227 00:11:50,152 --> 00:11:52,411 with someone or a group of people, let's say, 228 00:11:52,411 --> 00:11:54,422 you know, congregation who are alcoholic, I 229 00:11:54,464 --> 00:11:56,515 wouldn't say that you just take one of these 230 00:11:56,515 --> 00:11:59,442 and run with it, but maybe you synthesize the 231 00:11:59,484 --> 00:12:02,321 information from these things and you get to 232 00:12:02,321 --> 00:12:05,683 know people too, because, for example, maybe it is 233 00:12:05,725 --> 00:12:09,061 for one individual, it was just a drinking culture 234 00:12:09,061 --> 00:12:11,657 that caused it. But maybe for someone else, it 235 00:12:11,699 --> 00:12:14,166 was because their father and grandfather and 236 00:12:14,166 --> 00:12:17,475 etc. were alcoholics. So again, that goes 237 00:12:17,517 --> 00:12:20,706 with the theology from a below approach. 238 00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:23,817 Understand the lived faith experience of people 239 00:12:23,859 --> 00:12:26,412 and then determine the best way to be able to help 240 00:12:26,412 --> 00:12:29,855 and care for them in regards to their faith. All 241 00:12:29,897 --> 00:12:33,452 right. So what I want to, so these things I talked 242 00:12:33,452 --> 00:12:36,296 about in regards to various disciplines and their 243 00:12:36,338 --> 00:12:38,991 understanding of alcoholism, eventually we can 244 00:12:38,991 --> 00:12:43,473 in terms of theory. There's a lot of scientific 245 00:12:43,515 --> 00:12:47,566 theory out there about how the world works. 246 00:12:48,167 --> 00:12:51,348 And scientific theory is very helpful because 247 00:12:51,390 --> 00:12:54,540 after they observe the world and they test it 248 00:12:54,540 --> 00:12:57,445 using empirical ways of testing it, what they'll 249 00:12:57,487 --> 00:13:00,312 do then is come up with a theory based upon all 250 00:13:00,312 --> 00:13:03,062 that empirical data and say, okay, this is kind of 251 00:13:03,104 --> 00:13:05,785 how it plays out. This is our experience and what 252 00:13:05,785 --> 00:13:08,680 we think is happening. So scientific theory 253 00:13:08,722 --> 00:13:11,590 can be very helpful and very useful for us. 254 00:13:12,792 --> 00:13:15,370 One of the challenges though is maybe what are 255 00:13:15,412 --> 00:13:18,030 all the theories that are out there? We'll find 256 00:13:18,030 --> 00:13:20,646 someone in a particular discipline that could 257 00:13:20,688 --> 00:13:23,402 help you with that possibly, or you just Google 258 00:13:23,402 --> 00:13:26,287 the various theories and see what comes up. One 259 00:13:26,329 --> 00:13:29,375 theory that we're going to talk about that I think 260 00:13:29,375 --> 00:13:32,154 relates very well to Peace Lutheran Church and 261 00:13:32,196 --> 00:13:35,014 School is a theory that we call systems theory. 262 00:13:35,014 --> 00:13:38,372 Systems theory is a very popular theory that 263 00:13:38,414 --> 00:13:41,887 is used in the church to be able to understand 264 00:13:42,855 --> 00:13:45,225 relationships within congregations. And there's 265 00:13:45,267 --> 00:13:47,526 various people have written about this. Peter 266 00:13:47,526 --> 00:13:49,827 Steinke, for example, if you go look at his 267 00:13:49,869 --> 00:13:52,264 work, he's written a lot about systems theory 268 00:13:53,132 --> 00:13:55,745 and in regards to congregational life. So that'd 269 00:13:55,787 --> 00:13:58,170 be a resource that'd be very helpful to you. 270 00:13:58,571 --> 00:14:01,002 All right, but let's talk first about what systems 271 00:14:01,044 --> 00:14:03,175 theory is and how this, we can apply this to 272 00:14:03,876 --> 00:14:06,896 Peace Lutheran Church and School. 273 00:14:06,938 --> 00:14:10,449 Systems theory ultimately is looking at 274 00:14:11,050 --> 00:14:13,543 how everything is wired together in the 275 00:14:13,585 --> 00:14:16,055 system. So looking at the whole system, 276 00:14:16,055 --> 00:14:18,706 but they're paying attention to how those parts 277 00:14:18,748 --> 00:14:21,327 are put together. Or another way you can think 278 00:14:21,327 --> 00:14:25,023 about it is puzzle pieces. How are those puzzle 279 00:14:25,065 --> 00:14:28,334 pieces being put together? So for example, 280 00:14:28,334 --> 00:14:30,856 you have the school, so that's a puzzle piece. 281 00:14:30,898 --> 00:14:33,405 You have the principal, that's a puzzle piece. 282 00:14:33,706 --> 00:14:35,909 You have the teachers in the school, that's 283 00:14:35,951 --> 00:14:38,244 a puzzle piece. You have the pastor, that's a 284 00:14:38,244 --> 00:14:40,748 puzzle piece. You have the congregational members 285 00:14:40,790 --> 00:14:43,182 that are a puzzle piece. You have the community 286 00:14:43,182 --> 00:14:45,951 around the congregation, that's a puzzle. So you 287 00:14:45,993 --> 00:14:48,687 have all these puzzle pieces. What does it look 288 00:14:48,687 --> 00:14:51,419 like when you put them together? In some ways, 289 00:14:51,461 --> 00:14:54,293 when you put it together, especially this, well, 290 00:14:54,293 --> 00:14:58,358 start this with Pastor Davis, the system worked 291 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:02,334 pretty well. And the pieces of the puzzle kind 292 00:15:02,334 --> 00:15:04,174 of went together pretty well. They had their 293 00:15:04,216 --> 00:15:06,305 issues, their problems, but it worked pretty well. 294 00:15:07,239 --> 00:15:09,874 But when Pastor Taylor came along, the pieces of 295 00:15:09,916 --> 00:15:12,645 the puzzle did not fit together very well anymore. 296 00:15:12,845 --> 00:15:14,807 He was a different background, different 297 00:15:14,849 --> 00:15:16,949 culture, different biases, different ideas. 298 00:15:17,283 --> 00:15:19,779 And he tried to insert those into a congregation 299 00:15:19,821 --> 00:15:21,787 that already had a particular culture. 300 00:15:22,354 --> 00:15:24,833 So when we looked at the whole, we could see that 301 00:15:24,875 --> 00:15:27,393 it's kind of like looking at a puzzle, right? When 302 00:15:27,393 --> 00:15:29,510 you look at the puzzle, you get it done, you can 303 00:15:29,552 --> 00:15:31,664 see the whole thing, it looks great. Or you look 304 00:15:31,664 --> 00:15:34,488 at it and like you smash some pieces together just 305 00:15:34,530 --> 00:15:37,169 to make it fit. And sometimes I guess you could 306 00:15:37,169 --> 00:15:39,314 say that's kind of how it looked for Pastor Taylor. 307 00:15:39,356 --> 00:15:41,373 Some of the pieces were smashed together to fit, 308 00:15:41,373 --> 00:15:44,224 which caused of course some trouble and 309 00:15:44,266 --> 00:15:47,446 conflict. When you look at the whole system, 310 00:15:47,446 --> 00:15:50,828 pay attention to if the system complements one 311 00:15:50,870 --> 00:15:54,219 another or is contrary to one another. Another 312 00:15:54,219 --> 00:15:56,430 way to think about it, are the pieces of the 313 00:15:56,472 --> 00:15:58,824 puzzle fitting together or are they not fitting 314 00:15:58,824 --> 00:16:01,590 together? One of the big things with systems 315 00:16:01,632 --> 00:16:04,563 theory is thinking about anxiety in the system. 316 00:16:05,998 --> 00:16:09,429 Every system has anxiety. You cannot have a system 317 00:16:09,471 --> 00:16:12,738 or let me put this, we can't have a congregation 318 00:16:12,738 --> 00:16:17,066 or ministry without anxiety. You can't be a human 319 00:16:17,108 --> 00:16:21,213 without anxiety. If you have no anxiety at all, 320 00:16:21,647 --> 00:16:24,723 you're probably dead. All right. We need anxiety 321 00:16:24,765 --> 00:16:27,753 to do what we're doing. And so anxiety is good. 322 00:16:27,853 --> 00:16:29,805 Even in sports, anxiety is good. Kind of give 323 00:16:29,847 --> 00:16:31,623 you that oomph to do what you need to do. 324 00:16:31,957 --> 00:16:35,366 So pay attention to what anxiety is there and 325 00:16:35,408 --> 00:16:38,931 whether the anxiety is helping the system or if 326 00:16:38,931 --> 00:16:42,045 hindering the system. If it's acute anxiety, 327 00:16:42,087 --> 00:16:45,170 normally it's something that can be resolved 328 00:16:45,170 --> 00:16:47,776 pretty quick and it usually helps the system. If 329 00:16:47,818 --> 00:16:50,409 it's chronic anxiety, which means it's happening 330 00:16:50,409 --> 00:16:54,431 over a long period of time, like over a year at 331 00:16:54,473 --> 00:16:58,450 least, it's probably devastating to the system. 332 00:16:58,951 --> 00:17:03,637 Here's another way to think about acute and 333 00:17:03,679 --> 00:17:08,727 chronic anxiety. Chronic anxiety is like if the 334 00:17:08,727 --> 00:17:11,005 building and then eventually the fire alarms are 335 00:17:11,047 --> 00:17:13,365 probably, they turn them off because they realize 336 00:17:13,365 --> 00:17:16,745 it was a false alarm and we come back and get back 337 00:17:16,787 --> 00:17:20,072 to work. That's acute. Chronic is the fire alarms 338 00:17:20,072 --> 00:17:23,749 are going off all the time and they never shut 339 00:17:23,791 --> 00:17:27,746 off. And if you've ever been, you know, when I was 340 00:17:27,746 --> 00:17:31,278 a kid, it was a bell that dinged. Nowadays, it's 341 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,820 this really annoying buzzing sound that the fire 342 00:17:34,820 --> 00:17:38,198 alarms have. And if you were to have to live with 343 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:41,727 that every single day and work in that environment, 344 00:17:41,727 --> 00:17:44,983 that would be miserable. Well, that's what's 345 00:17:45,025 --> 00:17:48,467 happening in systems who have high anxiety that 346 00:17:48,467 --> 00:17:51,296 are chronic over a long period of time. And that's 347 00:17:51,338 --> 00:17:54,206 what happened for Peace Lutheran Church and School. 348 00:17:55,007 --> 00:17:57,671 The crime, it became chronic anxiety over a 349 00:17:57,713 --> 00:18:00,479 long period of time. And as a result of that, 350 00:18:01,113 --> 00:18:04,819 they couldn't be creative anymore. When you have 351 00:18:04,861 --> 00:18:08,454 low anxiety, it's easy to be creative and adapt 352 00:18:08,454 --> 00:18:11,617 to things. When you have high anxiety over a long 353 00:18:11,659 --> 00:18:14,927 period of time, it's very, very difficult now to be 354 00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:18,543 creative. And so a lot of the creativity went out 355 00:18:18,585 --> 00:18:22,167 the window and no one was creative. And there was 356 00:18:22,167 --> 00:18:24,907 kind of a lack of joy as well. Because again, if 357 00:18:24,949 --> 00:18:27,673 you're, you think about it, if you're sitting in 358 00:18:27,673 --> 00:18:29,934 a building all day and the fire alarms are going 359 00:18:29,976 --> 00:18:32,277 off, that's not a joyful thing. So people stopped 360 00:18:32,277 --> 00:18:35,081 coming to church. Some people pulled their kids out 361 00:18:35,123 --> 00:18:37,749 of the school. Things like that began to happen. 362 00:18:38,150 --> 00:18:40,652 And when people started doing that, the finances 363 00:18:40,694 --> 00:18:43,288 of the congregation became an issue because people 364 00:18:43,288 --> 00:18:45,562 weren't giving to the church anymore. All 365 00:18:45,604 --> 00:18:48,193 right. Another thing with systems theory that's 366 00:18:48,193 --> 00:18:51,624 interesting, they call triangles, is that normally 367 00:18:51,666 --> 00:18:55,000 when there's two people, you just have a straight 368 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,385 line. Those two people are interacting with each 369 00:18:57,427 --> 00:18:59,605 other. But if those two people have anxiety, 370 00:18:59,771 --> 00:19:02,559 especially if it's chronic anxiety, what they'll 371 00:19:02,601 --> 00:19:05,544 do is they'll bring in a third person, that's where 372 00:19:05,544 --> 00:19:08,840 the triangle comes into play, to be able to help 373 00:19:08,882 --> 00:19:12,217 try to reduce that anxiety. And that's not always 374 00:19:12,217 --> 00:19:14,812 a helpful thing, but it does happen. So for 375 00:19:14,854 --> 00:19:17,489 example, what happened on the school side at 376 00:19:17,489 --> 00:19:20,401 Peace Lutheran Church and School is that the 377 00:19:20,443 --> 00:19:23,395 school side is that the principal was feeling 378 00:19:23,395 --> 00:19:25,538 a lot of chronic anxiety because of the 379 00:19:25,580 --> 00:19:28,200 situation, especially in relation to the pastor. 380 00:19:29,034 --> 00:19:32,764 So to relieve that anxiety, he would talk to the 381 00:19:32,806 --> 00:19:36,575 teachers often about how dissatisfied he was with 382 00:19:36,575 --> 00:19:39,292 Pastor Taylor. And he ended up gossiping about 383 00:19:39,334 --> 00:19:41,914 Pastor Taylor and slandering his reputation. 384 00:19:42,948 --> 00:19:46,026 Pastor Taylor also to relieve that anxiety did 385 00:19:46,068 --> 00:19:49,054 similar things. He talked to other people. He 386 00:19:49,054 --> 00:19:50,843 talked to other fellow pastors that more 387 00:19:50,885 --> 00:19:52,624 matched his idea of how to do ministry. 388 00:19:52,624 --> 00:19:55,906 And he would slander the congregation and gossip 389 00:19:55,948 --> 00:19:58,931 about the congregation. That's not good. But 390 00:19:58,931 --> 00:20:01,477 triangulation happens often when there's 391 00:20:01,519 --> 00:20:04,169 a whole bunch of anxiety in the situation. 392 00:20:04,937 --> 00:20:07,882 Now, the reason why I have responsible and 393 00:20:07,924 --> 00:20:10,909 vulnerable underneath triangles is you want 394 00:20:10,909 --> 00:20:14,038 to pay attention to either the most responsible 395 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:17,316 person or the most vulnerable person gets wrapped 396 00:20:17,316 --> 00:20:20,500 up into these triangles. In the case of Peace 397 00:20:20,542 --> 00:20:23,555 Lutheran Church and School, it was the most 398 00:20:23,555 --> 00:20:26,851 responsible person, which was Pastor Taylor, that 399 00:20:26,893 --> 00:20:29,962 ended up the prime target of all the triangles 400 00:20:29,962 --> 00:20:32,584 that were going on. But sometimes it can be the 401 00:20:32,626 --> 00:20:35,067 most vulnerable person. Let's go back to our 402 00:20:35,067 --> 00:20:37,833 alcohol example. If there's a family and one 403 00:20:37,875 --> 00:20:40,806 of the family members are alcoholic and they're 404 00:20:40,806 --> 00:20:43,309 causing all kinds of trouble, there's all kinds of 405 00:20:43,351 --> 00:20:45,844 issues with that, they're not the most responsible 406 00:20:45,844 --> 00:20:48,655 person, but they're the most vulnerable person. 407 00:20:48,697 --> 00:20:51,250 And now that most vulnerable person becomes 408 00:20:52,017 --> 00:20:55,281 the talk of the triangles that are going on. So 409 00:20:55,323 --> 00:20:58,490 as you're discovering and exploring and paying 410 00:20:58,490 --> 00:21:00,613 attention, pay attention to who is the 411 00:21:00,655 --> 00:21:02,928 most responsible and the most vulnerable. 412 00:21:03,595 --> 00:21:05,484 All right. So how does systems theory, this 413 00:21:05,526 --> 00:21:07,499 theory, help us to understand what's going on 414 00:21:07,499 --> 00:21:11,172 at Peace Lutheran Church and School? What 415 00:21:11,214 --> 00:21:14,573 helps us because we can understand now 416 00:21:15,207 --> 00:21:19,341 that the anxiety in the system is the reason 417 00:21:19,383 --> 00:21:23,649 why they cannot be creative. And if you cannot 418 00:21:23,649 --> 00:21:27,352 be creative, then you can't come up with good 419 00:21:27,394 --> 00:21:31,056 solutions. And when you have chronic anxiety, 420 00:21:31,323 --> 00:21:34,981 what takes place is, is that you just kind of do 421 00:21:35,023 --> 00:21:38,797 what you need to do to get by. And that's what was 422 00:21:38,797 --> 00:21:41,429 happening at this particular congregation school. 423 00:21:41,471 --> 00:21:44,036 They were just doing what they needed to get by, 424 00:21:44,036 --> 00:21:47,018 but they really weren't doing ministry and they 425 00:21:47,060 --> 00:21:50,208 weren't being a great witness to the people around 426 00:21:50,208 --> 00:21:54,275 them. And so the chronic anxiety was causing this. 427 00:21:54,317 --> 00:21:58,183 And that helps us to understand what's going on. 428 00:21:58,183 --> 00:22:00,177 And it helps narrow it down then for us 429 00:22:00,219 --> 00:22:02,354 too. So earlier we talked about, you know, 430 00:22:02,688 --> 00:22:04,890 what, why is the conflict happening or what's 431 00:22:04,932 --> 00:22:07,125 taking place? Well, this helps to answer that 432 00:22:07,125 --> 00:22:10,172 question. It has to do with the anxiety in the 433 00:22:10,214 --> 00:22:13,498 system that's happening. We also, by using systems 434 00:22:13,498 --> 00:22:16,327 theory, can understand that when there is chronic 435 00:22:16,369 --> 00:22:18,837 anxiety and now conflict in a congregation, 436 00:22:19,504 --> 00:22:22,570 that there are going to be triangles. People, in 437 00:22:22,612 --> 00:22:25,844 order to reduce that anxiety, are going to triangle 438 00:22:25,844 --> 00:22:29,110 other people in and gossip and slander about 439 00:22:29,152 --> 00:22:32,384 the various identified people in the system. 440 00:22:33,118 --> 00:22:35,336 So system theory just helps us to understand it. 441 00:22:35,378 --> 00:22:37,589 All right. It doesn't always necessarily give us 442 00:22:37,589 --> 00:22:40,081 a solution to it, but it does help us to 443 00:22:40,123 --> 00:22:42,594 understand it and narrow down our focus. 444 00:22:42,594 --> 00:22:44,718 So what I want you to think about when you're 445 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,065 going through the practical theological framework 446 00:22:47,065 --> 00:22:50,795 and you're paying attention to First Article 447 00:22:50,837 --> 00:22:54,606 insights is what particular theory could help 448 00:22:54,606 --> 00:22:57,414 you give a better understanding of what's going 449 00:22:57,456 --> 00:23:00,245 on in this particular system. Now we could have 450 00:23:00,245 --> 00:23:03,120 chose other theories. So for example, cognitive 451 00:23:03,162 --> 00:23:06,017 behavioral theory could be another one we could 452 00:23:06,017 --> 00:23:09,100 use to understand what's going on in this system. 453 00:23:09,142 --> 00:23:11,890 And sometimes you may want to take different 454 00:23:11,890 --> 00:23:14,656 theories and you may want to synthesize them 455 00:23:14,698 --> 00:23:17,629 together to understand. But we're just learning 456 00:23:17,629 --> 00:23:20,053 how to use the framework. So at this point in 457 00:23:20,095 --> 00:23:22,667 time, if you can just find one particular theory 458 00:23:22,667 --> 00:23:25,229 that could probably help lead and guide you, that 459 00:23:25,271 --> 00:23:27,873 would be enough at this point in time to play with 460 00:23:27,873 --> 00:23:30,846 and to work with and to give you good understanding 461 00:23:30,888 --> 00:23:33,612 of the issue or opportunity that's happening in 462 00:23:33,612 --> 00:23:34,646 your ministry context.