THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBALIZATION & …academic.sun.ac.za/tsv/netact/angola - 2013/Globalization-CD-2013.pdf · ON CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT . ... Curriculum development challenge NetACT’s

THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBALIZATION & TECHNOLOGY ON CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

A NEW HERMENEUTIC FOR DOING THEOLOGY & CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Jurgens Hendriks, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Curriculum Development workshop presentations

http://academic.sun.ac.za/teologie/netact.html

Check in the list at the left: Curriculum Development Workshop Lilongwe, Malawi Lubango, Angola (Portuguese) Nigeria Caluequembe

2013/02/25 Jurgens Hendriks 2

DEFINITIONS THEOLOGY is words about God; witnessing about an encounter with God.

Theology follows revelation! Theology is a womb thing, it takes place in the

deepest place where life is born. Mary, mother of Jesus, a theologian!

SEMINARIES, eventually, live by the grace of congregations. Training of

leaders / DISCIPLESHIP training happens on the road, in the public spaces of

life – but it needs theory backup & reflection

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT should also be a response to the voice of

God; a discernment process that never gets stuck in routine; its about receiving

the marching orders from JC for every new situation with which the body of

Christ is confronted.


UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM REQUEST : describe the influence of globalization & the IT revolution on seminaries

and curriculum development.

Question: Are we addressing the most dire problems of our societies in a coherent

way in our seminaries / curricula?

PROBLEM: Seminaries are in trouble. Christendom is dying. Seminaries are closing.

Christianity is moving South… why?

CHECK HISTORY of Reformation / Enlightenment / Colonialism period. Theology as

an ACADEMIC PURSUIT and a partner to the state… The “Western” seminary is a

product of this history carrying a discredited DNA structure with epistemological fault

lines in its bones and fibre.


THE CONTEXT HAS CHANGED Brian McLaren “If you have a new world, you need a new church. You have a new world.” The new globalized world requires a new paradigm in leadership and training. I want to explain this by referring to the basic hypothesis of the most quoted sociologist and highly respected intellectual leader Manuel Castells. I will be referring to the second book of his trilogy on The information age: economy, society and culture, The Power of identity (2004).


We have a new world The world is changing through the combined impact of: globalization, informationalisation and technology crime.


What’s new about the new context? Castells says that a key to understanding this new world of

ours lies in understanding: 1 the ways in which identity is formed 2 and how a networked society changed the definition of power

Castells says: Those who deliberately construct identity, And the motivation why they construct identity, determines the symbolic content of identity. The construction of identity always takes place in a context

marked by power relationships


New Context IDENTITY FORMATION Legitimizing identity illustrated by the nation-state

and the Christendom church: Top-down, ideology driven

Resistance identity: is generated by those actors who are devalued / stigmatized by the logic of domination. Motivated by anger, shame, fear... Quote examples...

Project identity: is built when social actors build a new identity that redefines their position in society and by doing so, seek the transformation of the overall social structure. Motivated by a dream, hope ...


New context: POWER POWER is in the process of being redefined It is moving from physical power to information;

from Macht (German) or Might to Mind; from guns to dialogue & communication.

NETWORKING information controls this new form of power

Social movements – of which the church is one - are becoming major power brokers (Eg African Independent Churches!).

Identity is now formed by networks…. 2013/02/25 Jurgens Hendriks 9

UPLOADING: HARNESSING THE POWER OF COMMUNITIES Brian McLaren “If you have a new world, you need a

new church. You have a new world.” In the new context everything works differently Thomas Friedman’s bestseller The world is flat (2007) The first of his ten “flatteners” was the fall of the

Berlin wall 11/9/1989… the tipping point The second is the internet & third software programs UPLOADING – THE 4TH


UPLOADING - definition The newfound power of individuals and communities to

send up, out, and around their own products and ideas, often for free, rather than passively downloading them from commercial enterprises or traditional hierarchies, is fundamentally reshaping the flow of creativity, innovation, political mobilization and information gathering and dissemination. It is making each of these things a bottom-up and globally side-to-side phenomenon, not exclusively a top-down one. … Uploading is, without doubt, becoming one of the most revolutionary forms of collaboration in the flat world. More than ever, we can all now be producers, not just consumers.


UPLOADING: examples


Uploading = 1 Cor 12 loud and clear!

Gmail

A NEW HERMENEUTIC FOR SEMINARY AND CONGREGATION Andrew Walls illustrates four patterns in history: 1. “The Christian story … is not a steady triumphant

progression, it is a story of advance and recession.” (:12)

2. “Christian faith must go on being translated, must continuously enter into the vernacular culture and interact with it, or it withers and fades” (:29)

3. No church, no place, no culture owns Christ (:66).

4. Crossing boundaries have been the life blood of Christianity. The energy for these crossings has come from the periphery rather than the centre (67).


Illustration (i) Christian – Muslim statistics in Africa (WCD)

1900: 9 million Christians = 9% of population

1900: 4 Muslims for every 1 Christian

2005: 411m Christians = 46% of population

2005: 355m Muslims - 40% of population


Illustration (ii) 1962: Independence came to Africa; Missionaries

leave 1962: 60m Christians & 145m Muslims Between 1970 & 1985 Christianity grew in Africa at

16,500 conversions a day (without missionaries) – mostly in poor areas.

During the same time 4,300 people were leaving the church weekly in the West

What happened here?..... There are a number of reasons but…. this growth was largely without seminary influence


A NEW HERMEUTIC FOR SEMINARY AND CONGREGATION How do we explain this growth-decline pattern? Post 1962: The Acts 15 principle implemented…

proselytizing was stopped… The Ephesian principle applied: middle wall of

separation abolished & the laws of church order ordinances skipped (Eph 2:14-15)

Africa’s growth: where Africans became leaders and inculturated the gospel… own language etc

Seminaries tend to make denominational proselytes and keep walls of separation intact (with Western curricula)


The growth of the African church The growth of the church in Africa in African Initiated

Churches is in sociological terminology social networks working on the uploading principle even before the heyday of the information revolution.

Congregations that proclaim the Gospel in their own culture are busy with, in sociological jargon, project identity formation.

The project is the local manifestations of the Kingdom of God, …………is being drawn into the missio Dei


The paradigm shift The Acts 15 principle, the power of the cross-cultural

dissemination of Christianity is taking place in Africa. The church is growing. Millions of Marys, Elizabeths

and Zechariahs are breaking out in song and worship all over our continent. They are doing theology, because they experienced the presence and power of God.

They are in dire need of discipling …. of an contextualized form of leadership training…. of reinvented “seminaries”.


Curriculum development challenge NetACT’s mission: to develop missional – congre-

gational leaders Can seminaries teach pastors how to do theology on a

congregational level – how to teach & disciple congregations / members to do theology –like Mary?

Example: Studying Congregations in Africa The NetACT story... 15 seminaries in 9 countries Step 1: You need a new (very old) leadership style:

kenotic leadership = following Christ in giving power and ministry away (Phil 2:5-6, Eph 4:1-16)


Partnership for Missional Church The pastors trained in doing missional /

congregational theology spawned a movement: PMC I will illustrate three spiritual practices that are taking

place on a congregational level. Together they represent a journey in discernment

based on a praxis methodology. Dwelling in the Word Dwelling in the World Plunging


1 Dwelling in the Word Reading Luke 10:1-12 at every meeting – year in & year

out….reflection and sharing in pairs & in group Ask: What is God up to? Then & now where we are? Dwelling in the Word stimulates the congregants to

imagine everyday life through the lens of Scripture A communal missional understanding develops Compare typical academic exegesis of Scripture… it

mostly negate a missional reading and opening up of the imagination… looks in and back, seldom missionally out towards a new future


2 Dwelling in the World The missio Dei is all about the world… not the church Cluster s of congregations are journeying together over a

three year period, meeting nine times, developing the following capacities:

1 Discovery: building the capacity to listen. 2 Engagement : building the capacity to take risks. 3 Visioning: building the capacity to focus & imagine. 4 Praxis and growth building the capacity to learn

and grow. 5 The fifth capacity, that of sharing and mentoring, is

built throughout the process.


3 Plunging Plunging refers to the capacity to cross the congregation’s

cultural boundaries, which includes conceptual and geographical boundaries

Plunging is the concrete skill of reaching out to the world to discover where the missio Dei wants to take us. This is when and where people really experience “mission” or being sent

The teachability of a congregation immediately expands. In Luke the “no purse, no bag no sandals” advice addresses the power issue. Being a servant and eating “whatever they provide” say something about the way this is done.

The invisible walls of our own culture and setup soon become clear. The world of “the other”, the stranger, the widow and orphan usually are a different and unknown world and hospitality acquires a new meaning.

New community formation takes place.


Concluding Theological training / curriculum = illustrated by

Mary It is responding to God’s presence and call, in God’s

world and obeying God’s word It is about discerning God’s will where we are It is about the missio Dei (God’s agenda for his

creation) It is about having an Act 15 synod and going from it on

a new and inspired journey… Look at Luke 10:1-13 for guidance…


Documents

THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBALIZATION & …academic.sun.ac.za/tsv/netact/angola - 2013/Globalization-CD-2013.pdf · ON CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT . ... Curriculum development challenge NetACT’s