The Post-Conclusion to

The Dangers of Digital Idolatry

by Gary R. Corwin, EMIS/SIM

Post-Conclusion -- What Can The Computer Resource Person Do to Help?

1. Be an example to others in your organization of what it means to take a "Christ's Kingdom" rather than a "My Empire" view. Help your research and administrative people format their databases in ways which integrate easily with others' material, things like using the same ID codes, and developing data dictionaries which clearly explain to others how your data is formatted and what the definitions mean. If a new database is needed, see if there is one being used by others which will work for you, thus also making the sharing of data much easier in the long run.
2. Avoid as much as possible using key but common terms in technical ways; terms like "evangelized" or "unreached," which carry such important but differing nuances for people, and only lead to confusion and unnecessary arguments. Be both aware and scrupulously honest about where computer-generated statistics do not serve us well.
3. Make world evangelization your passion, and computers your vehicle for contribution, not the reverse. Reviewing your status on this one, alone with God, could be the most important time you spend this year.
4. Keep Kingdom purposes, the service of sound theology and missiology, the measure for creating and evaluating your databases. Remember that software limitations are challenges to be overcome, not the final word on how well reality can be reflected. Don't lose sight of the faith factor in your work. Building databases, just like planting churches, can be done either in the flesh, or as a reflection of the supernatural power of God working through a yielded and "abiding branch."
5. Always keep the end user in view. What is important is not just what is being said, but what is being heard. Fostering effective communication through knowledge of various presentation graphics, and how to integrate them, is an enormous contribution. As is maintaining a high level of data integrity, be ever vigilant to point out where compromises are being made in the way data is being used or presented.
6. Keep integrity very evident in the way you handle data provided by others. To quote Mike O'Rear in a manner dripping with integrity, "that we not take it or present it as our own, that we not edit it and then claim it is still from the original author, that we not publish it without permission, that we do not give it away to other people without permission, etc."
7. Foster effective peer review of your work and the work of others. It should really be second nature, but it is all too rare. Willingness to provide others with the logic, formulas, and assumptions behind our work should always be there, both to help us improve on our imperfections and to enable users to have a higher level of confidence in our work. Pursuing means to insure that this happens more regularly would be a worthy goal for a conference like this one.
8. Help missionaries to use computers effectively, while avoiding their addictive allure and the wasting of time that can produce. It is an area where computer resource people can use their high credibility with great effect.
9. Finally, a closing quote on the stewardship of power, again from Mike O'Rear: "We need a conscious recognition that information (and access to information via powerful computer software) is power, and is perceived as power. [We must] be diligent in not abusing this power. [We must] truly seek to `empower' others rather than lord it over them with our superior knowledge."