Pete Holzmann: To summarize what God has been doing over the last few yeaars.
We are bringing modern business tools and processes to the missions
community. Not just IT, but also strategic planning etc.
This upsets many people who believe that by taking secular methods we
are removing the Holy Spirit from our work.
Leaders around the world were asked how they go about planning. These
were brought together, and a guide developed on how to plan strategically.
The model chosen for identifying the stages in planning were actually
taken from the Middle East, and refer to concepts such as dreams.
Technology is just a tool for furthering the Gospel. In time we will
begin to treat computers just as we now do the telephone.
Curt Byers: What does the Bible say about technology? In Genesis we have animal husbandry,
gatherers etc. The Tower of Babel is a technological statement. The Bible
is not anti-technology, it condemns some of the techniques. For example,
even the sacrifice of animals is condemned.
Is Information Technology increasing our pace of life?
We are getting an
ever increasing volume of data, and are finding it more and more difficult
to process it.
The problem is that we are not particularly suited to change, and the rate
of change is ever increasing. This is partly driven by the drive for
efficiency and increasing profits. We must centre ourselves in the Lord,
and avoid being driven by the world.
The average person made almost no decisions at the beginning of
the century. We now make so many decisions that there is almost no space
for silence. Curt proposed that this may be a ploy of Satan as we need
silence in order to hear God. Fundamentalisms require no decisions to be
made, and so people find them attractive.
We need to find ways of creating space and reducing the number of decisions
we have to make. We must push some of the things away, and try and create
space to proactively take decisions.
Concern was raised over the analogy of IT specialists building the nervous system for the body of Christ. Pete is comfortable with the analogy and reminded us that analogies can only go so far. The reality is that God is building the body. Curt felt that perhaps a neural net (as in the brain) would be a better analogy, as there is no controlling influence.
The body of Christ must coordinate its efforts to become really effective. The communication network that we can build can help with this.
With the flood of information that is drowning us, how can we start
controlling it?
In the past the introduction of editors to newspapers
helped to restrict the overall flow of information. It is the librarians
of today who are going to be the editors of information. They will
evaluate it, mark items as significant, etc. When we need information
in greater depth we can look at all the resources that the librarian
selected from.
How can we become a community?
Face to face communication is the best way to do it.
However, electronic discussion groups have been shown to come up with
the best solutions. It was postulated that this was because people think
at different rates. When the discussion is asynchronous people have time to
think at their own pace. On the other hand, when people do have time to
think then they can come up with a great volume of justification for
their point of view.
Does the enhanced communication from E-Mail help with the bonding of
missionaries?
It is appearing that some cross-cultural missionaries
are connected so well to home that they are not adapting to their new
culture. Do we have to raise some artificial barriers?
Taking the inter-personal contact out of decision making is losing some
of the other non-verbal factors which need to be taken into account.
In IT we must incorporate other cultural ideas otherwise we will just have
a Western oriented system.
Using the analogy of a library, we would not go and spend whole day just
browsing. We manage our time better than that, and will usually go to
the library for a specific purpose. Where E-Mail is concerned, we must
filter it first, and then handle it at an appropriate time, e.g. urgent
(for today), important (this week), and other (when we have time).
In time our E-Mail systems will begin to filter our mail for us automatically,
learning from our preferences and actions.
We must maintain and build on our relationships, and prioritise them over
information. Those we have relationships with will be a good guide. We
know who is going to provide us with useful resources, and will prioritise
appropriately.
The question was raised as to where the Holy Spirit comes in.
We must continue to listen to the Spirit as our first priority, but
remember that we need to discern what we hear, and also God works
through the body as well as directly to us through the Spirit.
Technology was equated to the Tower of Babel, and the question was posed as
to whether it will be squashed.
Pete reminded us that we are being built
into a body composed of many parts, and so we cannot equate the two.
The ICCM must be the part of the group which ensures the Internet is
used for Godly purposes.
It was noted that no mention of training had been made so far during the
conference.
Pete noted that this is a critical issue, and the easy part
is showing people how to use the technology. The difficult part is then
to train them how to build relationships. Pete noted that women were
underrepresented in technology, but far better at relationships. We need
to bring women into technology so that they can use their skills in
relationships to develop technology.
Pete has a simple filter to use when recommending a tool to an executive. It must be easy to use, it must fulfill the real need, and it must work. Too few tools actually meet these criteria.
Some recent dicussions with China led to the discovery that the Chinese understanding of freedom was that freedom meant that the West could simply dump anything and everything in China, including pornography. This just highlights the difficulties of cross-cultural communication. This is an area in which we have to work very hard.
Free communication to missionaries in closed countries is putting some of them in difficulties. Some barriers need to be raised in order to protect these people out in the field. This will include information on Web pages. We should not be publishing some of the information which is currently on the Web. Many times Churches will list their missionaries, and they do not even realise that they are putting the missionary in danger.
The role of the Holy Spirit within our work was again highlighted. It was
felt that Curt and Pete had not satisfactorily answered the question of how
the Holy Spirit fitted in.
Pete responded that the number one relationship in his life was with God.
Everything that he does he takes to the Lord and bathes it in prayer.
Technology is now becoming almost imperceptible in our daily lives, and
there may be a danger that we lose perspective of the Spirit's work.
Curt felt that each one of us should have an anointing to work within
technology in missions. As we are serving in this area we need to make
it available to the best of our ability. Our organisations must seek God
at the top in order to ensure that the technology is being used correctly.
Many of us have had the responsibility of introducing IT into our
organisations. We must continually take this to the Lord in prayer so that
we use it correctly. We need to understand the spiritual significance of
what we are doing. What we are dealing with is not just a bunch of chips,
but far more than this.
This issue was committed to the Lord in prayer.
Pete made that statement that he had worked out a way of just getting
information when he needed it. Bob Hodge felt that this should be the
second stage. We first need to acknowledge that there are many things
that we do not know so we need to continue to scan to some extent.
Pete acknowledged that we need to develop some space for God to work in,
and then He will do some magical things in our lives. Controlling the flow
of the information we process can be a way of creating this space.
We need to acknowledge that there will be those who are not on-line for a long time to come. Geography is being replaced by time. Those who have an on-line connection are "close", those who pick up E-Mail daily are a bit further away, and those who are not on-line are far away. We must try and ensure that those who would like the technology can get, but also acknowledge that there are some who do not actually want or need it.
We need to be using technology to increase the effectiveness of those who are doing personal evangelism. We also need to introduce it to others before it is introduced by those with evil intent.
Technology, and its implementation in our organisations cannot be separated from the ministry of our organisations. In Romans 12 and other places the Bible states that we become vehicles for God's purposes.