Seth Godin has a helpful graph and discussion today on how the way we use the internet (and the devices we use to accomplish our tasks) is affected by “time, screen size, and selfishness.”
Archives for 2011
The Ten Most Significant Cultural Trends of the Last Decade
Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, gives some commentary on what he sees as the ten most significant cultural trends of 2001 – 2010.
They are:
- Connection
- Place
- Cities
- The end of the majority
- Polarity
- The self shot
- Pornography
- Informality
- Liquidity
- Complexity
Asking Questions is the Key to Understanding
From John Piper, in his latest book Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God:
One of the best honors I received during my six years of teaching college Bible classes was a T-shirt. My teaching assistant made it. On the back it said, “Asking questions is the key to understanding.”
When I speak of becoming intentional about thinking harder, that’s mainly what I mean: asking questions and working hard with our minds to answer them. Therefore, learning to think fruitfully about biblical texts means forming the habit of asking questions.
The kinds of questions you can ask of a text are almost endless:
- Why did he use that word?
- Why did he put it here and not there?
- How does he use that word in other places?
- How is that word different from this other one he could have used?
- How does the combination of these words affect the meaning of that word?
- Why does that statement follow this one?
- Why did he connect these statements with the word because or the word therefore or the word although or the words in order that? Is that logical?
- How does it fit with what another author in the Bible says?
- How does it fit with my experience?
For more on what Piper means by asking questions of the text, you can also see his article “Brothers, Let Us Query the Text.”
Offensive Study and Defensive Study
This is an enlightening distinction that Gordon MacDonald makes in Ordering Your Private World:
In my earliest years of ministry, when this business of mental growth had not yet become a discipline for me, most of my study was what I now call defensive study. By that I mean that I studied frantically simply because I had an upcoming sermon go preach or talk to give. And all my study was centered on the completion of that task.
But later I discovered the importance of something I now call offensive study. This is study that has as its objective the gathering of large clusters of information and insight out of which future sermons and talks, books, and articles may grow. In the former kind of study, one is restricted to one chosen subject. In the latter, one is exploring, turning up truth and understanding from scores of sources. Both forms of study, offensive and defensive, are necessary in my life.
We grow when we pursue the discipline of offensive study.
Reading is Real Work
A good word from Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World:
Some months ago I led a seminar for pastors on the subject of preaching, and discussed the matters of study and preparation. Since a number of spouses were present when I spoke, I said to the group, “Now, some of you may be tempted to think that when your spouse is reading, they are really expending second-class time. So you are liable to feel free to interrupt them on impulse. What you need to realize is that they are working every bit as much as the carpenter who is in his shop sharpening the blade of a saw. Within reason, you ought not only to avoid interrupting your spouses, but also to try your best to maximize their privacy if you want them to grow in effectiveness.”
Two additional thoughts. First, the main thing I want to emphasize here is not his point on interruptions (though that is an important consideration — as long as taken together with his “within reason”). Rather, the main thing I want to emphasize is simply that reading is real work. When the purpose is study and learning, it is not second-class, throw-away time.
Second, the importance of reading is true not just for pastors, but for people in all vocations. Everyone in any vocation should devote time to reading and studying to advance their skills and ability to be effective in what they do. And when you do this, it is not leisure time, but real, first-rate work that is just as important (perhaps more important) than the rest of the work that you do.
Tim Keller on Work and Cultural Renewal
Tim Keller has a great article at Redeemer’s Center for Faith and Work on Christians, work, and cultural renewal. It’s very helpful because, among other things, he shows that there is a connection between the way we do our work and the renewal of culture.
I’ve taken the article and turned into an interview of sorts in order to highlight some of the things I’ve found the most helpful.
Should Christians seek to change culture?
I am often asked: “Should Christians be involved in shaping culture?” My answer is that we can’t not be involved in shaping culture.
So not to shape culture is to shape culture–in support of the status quo. Can you give an illustration?
To illustrate this, I offer a very sad example. In the years leading up to the Civil War many southerners resented the interference of the abolitionists, who were calling on Christians to stamp out the sin of slavery. In response, some churches began to assert that it was not the church’s (nor Christians’) job to try to “change culture” but only to preach the gospel and see souls saved. The tragic irony was that these churches were shaping culture. Their very insistence that Christians should not be changing culture meant that those churches were supporting the social status quo. They were defacto endorsing the cultural arrangements of the Old South. (For more on this chapter in American history, see Mark Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.)
This is an extreme example, but it makes the point that when Christians work in the world, they will either assimilate into their culture and support the status quo or they will be agents of change.
How does this apply to the world of work?
This is especially true in the area of work. Every culture works on the basis of a ‘map’ of what is considered most important. If God and his grace are not at the center of a culture, then other things will be substituted as ultimate values. So every vocational field is distorted by idolatry.
Christian medical professionals will soon see that some practices make money for them but don’t add value to patients’ lives. Christians in marketing and business will discern accepted patterns of communication that distort reality or which play to and stir up the worst aspects of the human heart. Christians in business will often see among their colleagues’ behavior that which seeks short-term financial profit at the expense of the company’s long-term health, or practices that put financial profit ahead of the good of the employees, customers, or others in the community. Christians in the arts live and work in a culture in which self-expression is an end in itself. And in most vocational fields, believers face work-worlds in which ruthless, competitive behavior is the norm.
It seems that, as Christians, we don’t always do a good job of addressing these sorts of issues in our various fields. What would you say are the main errors that we are most likely to fall into?
There are two opposite mistakes that a Christian can make in addressing the idols of their vocational field. On the one hand they can seal off their faith from their work, laboring according to the same values and practices that everyone else uses. Or they may loudly and clumsily declare their Christian faith to their co-workers, often without showing any grace and wisdom in the way they relate to people on the job.
That makes sense. What is one of the primary ways that we should seek to relate our faith to our work?
At Redeemer, especially through the Center for Faith & Work, we seek to help believers think out the implications of the gospel for art, business, government, media, entertainment, scholarship. We teach that excellence in work is a crucial means to gain credibility for our faith. If our work is shoddy, our verbal witness only leads listeners to despise our beliefs. If Christians live in major cultural centers and simply do their work in an excellent but distinctive manner it will ultimately produce a different kind of culture than the one in which we live now.
So doing our work well and for God’s glory is not only good in itself, but can also be a means of transforming culture?
[Yes,] but I like the term “cultural renewal” better than “culture shaping” or “culture changing/transforming.” The most powerful way to show people the truth of Christianity is to serve the common good. The monks in the Middle Ages moved out through pagan Europe, inventing and establishing academies, universities, and hospitals. They transformed local economies and cared for the weak through these new institutions. They didn’t set out to ‘get control’ of a pagan culture. They let the gospel change how they did their work and that meant they worked for others rather than for themselves. Christians today should be aiming for the same thing.
What is our ultimate hope and assurance in this?
As Roman society was collapsing, St. Augustine wrote The City of God to remind believers that in the world there are always two ‘cities,’ two alternate ‘kingdoms.’ One is a human society based on selfishness and gaining power. God’s kingdom is the human society based on giving up power in order to serve. Christians live in both kingdoms, and although that is the reason for much conflict and tension, it also is our hope and assurance. The kingdom of God is the permanent reality, while the kingdom of this world will eventually fade away.
Use Your Practical Wisdom
The other day I came across a good TED video of Barry Schwartz discussing the importance of making sure we don’t substitute following rules for using our good sense and practical wisdom. The great irony, he points out, is that rules can become a substitute for wisdom, and this, in turn, demoralizes people. Thus, ironically, rules can actually undermine virtue. Here’s the summary:
Barry Schwartz dives into the question “How do we do the right thing?” With help from collaborator Kenneth Sharpe, he shares stories that illustrate the difference between following the rules and truly choosing wisely.
It’s not that rules are always bad in themselves. But “they are like notes on a page — they get you started.” What we need are not people who thoughtlessly just follow the rules in spite of what the true intent may be and a spirit of mercy and generosity (see the Sermon on the Mount — we are to be more than just by being merciful as well), but rather people of virtue who apply the rules wisely while knowing how to exercise judgment, not just follow a script.
This reminds me of the time I went on a long bike ride, forgot my shirt (it was hot out), and well into the ride when I was really thirsty a gas station attendant wouldn’t sell me Gatorade or water because of the “no shirt, no shoes, no service rule.” (You can read about that here, along with the management lessons I draw out). Maybe that’s a good rule in general, but this was a clear case of a rule inadvertently being used in a way that denied the opportunity to serve a genuine case of human need (even if it was my mistake to forget my shirt and not take along more water!).
Here’s Barry Schwartz’s video:
Seven Predictions for the Creative Community in 2011
Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen and founder of Behance (devoted to helping organize the creative world), asks “What are the key shifts in technology, trends, and work styles that will shape our future?” and gives some reflections on the road ahead for creative professionals in 2011.
Have a Growth Mindset, Not a Static Mindset
From Josh Kaufman’s new book The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business:
In general, there are two primary ways of looking at the world — two mindsets that influence your response to new experiences.
The first basic mindset is that your skills and abilities are fixed. If you try something and it doesn’t work, it’s because you’re “Not good at that,” and you never will be. You were born with innate skills and abilities that will never change.
Using this mindset, if you experience a challenge or difficulty, you’re likely to stop — you’re obviously not good at it, so why bother?
The second basic mindset is that your skills and abilities are malleable. If you try something and it doesn’t work, it’s because you haven’t worked on it very much, but if you keep trying, you’ll inevitably get better. Your skills and abilities are like muscles — they strengthen with use.
. . .
If you have a “fixed” mindset, challenges are a commentary on your worth as a person — you’ve been tried and found wanting, which makes trying new things feel threatening. If you have a “growth” mindset, challenges are simply an obstacle to overcome by working harder.
You can also see Josh talk about this concept at his website.