One of the reasons I have been more occupied than usual has been a particularly demanding course I'm taking in my program at the Center for Urban Ministerial Education which deals with Systems Thinking as it relates to urban ministry. Of the courses I've taken in this program, it is perhaps the most practical. I find myself wanting to instantly apply what I'm learning.
The central theme of the course is a concept developed by the teaching team called "Living System Ministry" or LSM for short. LSM is what is taught in Dr. Doug Hall's new book, The Cat and the Toaster: Living System Ministry in a Technological Age. While it is difficult to encapsulate all that Living System Ministry teaches in a single example, the cat and toaster analogy is a good introduction.
Hall uses a cat and a toaster as an illustrative contrast. On the one hand, a toaster is a mechanical and simple system. The parts of the system can be taken apart, examined, and put back together without resistance from the system itself. On the other hand, a cat is a complex, living system. All the parts of a cat work together and are interdependent upon one another. The parts of a cat cannot be easily taken apart and put back together. Not only that, but a cat has defensive, resistive systems.
The point is, cities have long been engaged as if they are simple, mechanical systems---toasters. With the illusion that cause and effect are closely related in time and space, ministries have employed linear thinking and have operated counter-productively. In contrast to this conventional thinking, Hall proposes that cities are complex, living systems---like cats---and must be engaged as such.
I've been very encouraged by what I'm learning in Dr. Hall's class though the teaching team, and I encourage anyone who is thinking about engaging in urban ministry to look into LSM. I also encourage those interested in LSM to check out ToasterCat.org
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1 comment:
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Toaster
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