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Well, welcome back.
I told you that there's

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going to be some
videos that are going to

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go more in depth and
be more advanced, and

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this is going to be
one of our first sections

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of that. So anytime
you see this slide that

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says additional
information, that means we're

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going to go a little
bit more deeper into

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something to help you
understand. So in Lutheran

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theology, we often
make distinctions. It's

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very common for us
to make distinctions,

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for example, between law
and gospel, justification,

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sanctification. So
what I'm going to do is

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I'm going to talk
about another particular

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distinction that I
think can be helpful for

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your understanding of
how to use the framework.

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And the distinction
I'm going to make is a

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distinction between
what we're going to call

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theology from above
and theology from below.

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And I think this will
help you as you think

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about how do you
incorporate and use theology

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in relation to the practical
theological framework.

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Well, let's first of
all talk about what it

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means when I talk about
a theology from above.

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So those people who
take a theology from above

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approach have theological
teaching that they

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will simply just impose
upon the people that

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are in their particular
congregation or ministry.

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So that's kind of what
Pastor Taylor was doing.

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He came into the
congregation and he had a

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particular theological
way of thinking of

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things and doing
things. And he simply just

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imposed it upon the
congregation and the school.

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He didn't take time to
listen to what was going

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on, to get a sense of
the history of the school

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and the church or the
issues that they were

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struggling with, the
challenges they had,

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or even the opportunities
possibly that they

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wanted to try to do
within the community. No,

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he came in, he had an
understanding theologically,

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and he simply just imposed
it. And so that's what

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we call a theology from
above. Now, a theology

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from below is a little bit
different. So a theology

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from below is you first
go into a ministry or

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congregation and you
understand the lived faith

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experience of the people
who are there. That's

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the first thing that you
do. So you spend time

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getting to know them. You
spend time understanding

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the history of the
congregation. You understand

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how it was created, what's
going on in the school,

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what's going on in the
community. And this does

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take time because
you've got to talk to a lot

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of people. So when I
was in ministry, I did home

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visits. I went and visited
everyone in their home.

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Some pastors will actually
have time where people

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can come to the church
and they will host an event

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with food where the
pastor has an opportunity to

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get to know people in
the congregation. When

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Pastor Davis was serving
a Peace congregation

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that I told you about, he
took more of a theology

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from a below approach.
He got to know the people.

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He was very social with
them. He understood

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the issues that were
there and he knew the

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opportunities. So when
he created this common

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space that the church
had, he knew that this was

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an opportunity to be
able to witness and share

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faith with people in the
community who would show

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up and be part of that
common space. Now, it's not

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that we ignore theology.
All right. When you take

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a theology from below
approach, it doesn't mean

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you ignore theology. It
just means you start with

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the lived faith experience
of the people you are

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called to serve. You
understand them first and

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then you decide what
theological teaching is

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going to be best to
preach, teach, use in care

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situations. And if you
take this approach, it's

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a much better approach.
It's a much more caring

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approach. And you're
going to be speaking more

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directly into the hearts
of people when you start

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with their lived faith
experience and then

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determine what theological
teaching would be

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best to be able to share
with them or proclaim

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to them teaching and
preaching, for example.

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So another distinction I
want to make for you is

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between what I'm going
to call, I know it's a big

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word, but confirmation
bias and discovery.

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Confirmation bias is when
you come into a situation

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and you already are
biased toward a particular

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way of doing things.
And you're going to do that

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without understanding
the lived faith experience

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of the people that you're
serving. And the picture

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I use here is of a man
who has a blindfold on

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because when we participate
in confirmation bias,

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all we're trying to do
is confirm the bias that

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we have rather than give
opportunity for discovery

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and exploring things.
And you're going to hear

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me talk about the
importance of exploring and

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discovering. When you're
in ministry, you have to

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be willing to explore and
discover and be open to

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what is going on. If you
simply just show up and

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you just want to have
everyone confirm or affirm

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what you're doing, it's
going to be more challenging

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to be able to do ministry
that way. So try not to

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fall into the camp of
confirmation bias where

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you're only trying to
confirm your bias and get

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people on board with
it. Instead, be open to

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discovery and be open
to what's going on in the

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area that you're at so
that you then can speak

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that Word of God into
that particular situation.

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Another distinction I'm
going to make for you is

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the distinction between
anecdotal attending and

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systematic attending.
So when we are in a

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congregation or a
ministry, we are observing

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things, we are hearing
things, we have ideas

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about what's going on,
we have our own thoughts

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and feelings about it.
Well, that's very anecdotal.

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In other words, we
haven't like systematically

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or using some sort of
a method to be able to

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understand what's
taking place. And there's

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nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong

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with kind of just paying
attention to what's

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happening. But there
are times in ministry when

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maybe you want to
take more of a systematic

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approach to attending to
things. And when we take

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a systematic approach,
what that means is we're

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going to follow some sort
of a process or framework

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so that we can better
understand it. And what the

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framework does, especially
the practical theological

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framework, it really helps
us to take a systematic

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approach to attending
so that we don't forget

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to attend to something
that we really should be

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attending to. Anodic
attending sometimes leaves

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out things and we forget
that, oh, we need to pay

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attention to this. But
if we use a systematic

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approach to attending,
that really helps us so

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we don't lose sight of
particular things. And

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that's what the practical
theological framework

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is going to provide for
you. It's a systematic

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approach to be able to
attending to things in a

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way that's going to give
you good information and

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hopefully eventually a
good way forward in order

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to deal with
that issue or that

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opportunity that
you have identified.