Browsing by Subject "Design Thinking"

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

In 2021, congregational life in America feels troubled. The residue of vitality in vacant Sunday school classrooms, dated worship bulletins, antiquated committee structures, and worn pew cushions reminds churchgoers of the ways congregations once successfully capitalized on the intersection of industrialization and an evangelical spirit. However, today, the world has changed. Traditional churches that mirror a now-shuttered factory across town struggle under the weight of dated, worker-dependent, industrial expressions of congregational life. These congregations feel trapped, which inhibits innovation and steers churches toward the same fate as those factories across town. Some believe that what local churches need is a way to cultivate innovation. To do this, congregations need the tools and a pathway that leads to innovative breakthroughs. Design thinking is a process built on an accessible set of tools that can provide teams in any field the steps necessary to cultivate innovation. For the church, and specifically local congregations, innovation cannot happen in a vacuum. Churches have histories and traditions, most of which root themselves in a tradition connected to the book of Acts. As churches cling to specific traditions, they often maintain practices as traditionalism, which begets a shallow expression of tradition. In these instances, faithful innovation is necessary. However, to innovate for the sake of innovation alone represents a shallow expression of innovation. The church needs to hold together tradition and innovation in ways that give life to a shared life rooted through embodied traditions. Faith by Design explores and exploits intersections between the embodied traditions outlined in Acts and the modern pathway to innovation described in design thinking. By adapting the approaches, tools, and practices of design thinkers and then exploiting these processes' intersections with the stories of the early church in Acts, the congregations can discover and design a renewed sense of life and vitality. Faith by Design invites congregations to explore the design thinking process and practices within the rich Christian tradition in ways that will help cultivate the conditions necessary for the emergence of renewed practices and behaviors which beget life, vitality, and hope.  

In 2021, congregational life in America feels troubled. The residue of vitality in vacant Sunday school classrooms, dated worship bulletins, antiquated committee structures, and worn pew cushions reminds churchgoers of the ways congregations once successfully capitalized on the intersection of industrialization and an evangelical spirit. However, today, the world has changed. Traditional churches that mirror a now-shuttered factory across town struggle under the weight of dated, worker-dependent, industrial expressions of congregational life. These congregations feel trapped, which inhibits innovation and steers churches toward the same fate as those factories across town. Some believe that what local churches need is a way to cultivate innovation. To do this, congregations need the tools and a pathway that leads to innovative breakthroughs. Design thinking is a process built on an accessible set of tools that can provide teams in any field the steps necessary to cultivate innovation. For the church, and specifically local congregations, innovation cannot happen in a vacuum. Churches have histories and traditions, most of which root themselves in a tradition connected to the book of Acts. As churches cling to specific traditions, they often maintain practices as traditionalism, which begets a shallow expression of tradition. In these instances, faithful innovation is necessary. However, to innovate for the sake of innovation alone represents a shallow expression of innovation. The church needs to hold together tradition and innovation in ways that give life to a shared life rooted through embodied traditions. Faith by Design explores and exploits intersections between the embodied traditions outlined in Acts and the modern pathway to innovation described in design thinking. By adapting the approaches, tools, and practices of design thinkers and then exploiting these processes' intersections with the stories of the early church in Acts, the congregations can discover and design a renewed sense of life and vitality. Faith by Design invites congregations to explore the design thinking process and practices within the rich Christian tradition in ways that will help cultivate the conditions necessary for the emergence of renewed practices and behaviors which beget life, vitality, and hope.  

Fatherlessness may be one of the most critical issues facing American society. With the increasing prevalence of divorce in the twentieth century, more and more children face the harsh reality of growing up without their father present at home. Divorce is the number one predictor and cause of father absence. The emotional, social, and spiritual repercussions of growing up with an absent father last long after childhood ends. In fact, many children experience the tumultuous consequences of divorce and fatherlessness throughout their entire lives. Yet, the scriptures reveal God as a “father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:1, NIV). Thus, as Christ’s Body alive in the world, this issue beckons the church’s best and most intentional response.

This thesis seeks to prove its argument by referencing the wide body of research on this issue available through books, journals, magazine articles and social research data. Sociologists and researchers began widely investigating divorce and fatherlessness in the early 1970s after California Governor Ronald Reagan passed the first ‘no-fault’ divorce laws in 1969. Intended to correct the abuses of the ‘fault’ divorce law system, ‘no-fault’ divorce introduced a whole new set of complications that now plague American society, which among the many include father absence.

Yet, as “the living congregation of the living Lord Jesus Christ,” the church stands in a unique position to address this issue with authority and resolve. This endeavor calls both clergy and lay leaders, alike, who embody the threefold offices of Christ. Courageous leaders walking worthily of their calling (Ephesians 4:1) speak the truth in grace (prophetic), lead the broken and hurting into a life-giving relationship with Christ (priestly), and make a way for the reconciliation of relationships and the restoration of the family (kingly).

As leaders take on this monumental challenge, Design Thinking methodology specializes in finding solutions to complex and seemingly impossible societal challenges, such as divorce and fatherlessness. Design Thinking combined with Traditioned Innovation provides a framework for the church to honor and leverage the best of its history with a clearly defined, solution-based vision. These solutions, however, need practical implementation. This thesis closes with a brief presentation on a Logic Model to provide church leaders a way to execute on Design Thinking solutions toward maximum impact for the community and the Kingdom!