If God allows it, i shall be on my way to obtain plenary knowledge about theology and sociology, and how they can be studied in parallel. Someone may asked, including myself, about the true intention of this decision. Honestly speaking, i am still seeking a crystal clear answer for the calling to do full-time ministry has not arrived yet. Perhaps the upcoming Korean Prayer Conference in July can shed some light to the dark Damascus cloud that is looming over my path.
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This month, we will continue to touch on the Synefin Framework[1] and how it can be applicable when fulfiling the Great Commission, which world-wide christians are engaging, in one form or another. Also, we want to first acknowledge the efforts invested by the various christian mission pioneers, missionaries and leaders whom have developed many valuable theories and teachings for the Great Commission based on their own experiences. This Synefin Framework that i am introducing serves as an alternative perspective to view things, one that we often neglect when we started to take things for granted.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission calls us (i.e. all christians) to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us[2].
But how do we make sense out of the challenges arising from the Great Commission? Perhaps the Synefin Framework can help to facilitate and further our discussion. Let us go for a quick recap.
The Synefin Framework contains four domains called "known", "knowable", "complex" and "chaos" respectively. There is also a fifth obscured domain termed "disorder" which is actually the overlapping area among the four domains, resulting from the different interpretation by different people on the same subject of interest. Generally, the ordered domains (known and knowable) have some forms of linear cause-and-effect relationships, whereas the unordered domains (complex and chaos) present little or no cause-and-effect connection at all. At the very fundamental level, the Cynefin framework attempts to question the universality of the assumption of order, the assumption of rational choice and the assumption of intentional capability. But these are beyond the scope of this article, at least for the time being.
With these in mind, let us study the actual application of the Cynefin Framework on the Great Commision.
In order for us to accomplish the Great Commission, we must be prepared to go into the harvest fields (local or overseas) to sow seads (i.e. gospel sharing and bible teaching) and then to reap the crops (i.e. new christian converts and new church leaders). The "known" domain will include pre-mission preparation like mastering our bible knowledge and evangelism tools, learning foreign languages and cultures, plotting maps and geographical topography, recruiting zealous members, raising funds, coordinating prayer and information network and so on so forth. Within this domain, people tend to plan as much as they could so that, via a systematic process, a lot of unexpected surprises can be minimized or even eliminated, and the remaining procedures ahead will be made smoother. The converse is also true, if there are insufficient preparation for a mission trip, then the final outcomes would most likely be far from desirable. Hence, the "known" domain keeps us busy by the process of planning and preparation because we know that jobs well done at these earlier stages will eventually lead to a greater success or better desirable outcomes at a later time. Generally, church leaders have little problems at managing tasks at this domain.
What about past experiences and the common pitfalls that we want to avoid? All these fall into the "knowable" domain where the highly specialized knowledge are held by a very limited group of people. Typically, they are the experts, practitioners, researchers and advisors in the realms of interest. In today's context, we could tap on these valuable resources to gain a better appreciation of the unfamiliar contexts that we are interested in, and perhaps, include some important lessons learnt into our existing training programmes. That explains why it is so important to have (but not limited to) mission post-sharing sessions, conferences and collaboration; the ultimate aim is to impart restricted knowledge, which are important, to the missionaries, who are getting ready to venture into the unfamiliar mission fields. Christianity faith has been making good progress over the centuries; (in my opinion) it would be impractical for a church to start a new mission without exploring the "knowable" domain in details. Why disadvantage ourselves by ignoring the unity of the Christ's body? I want to propose to all Churches to begin constructive communication and share the talents that God has entrusted to each individual so that the kingdom of God may truly advance without any man-made hindrance.
Even with the luxury of ample preparation, chaos theory has taught us that we cannot eliminate or contain the influence of irregularity in the world, no matter how hard we try. This is something which has facinated many scientists around the world, whom (i believe) many could have internalized and attributed this strange phenomenon to non other than the grand mastery work of the Great Architect Himself(God). Numerous empirical experiments can be conducted, but there will always be emergent chaotic elements existing in the world that do not conform to the existing scientific theories. And when that happened, either new theories or patterns have to be observed again, or we can simply label them as tolerable abnormalities in an otherwise ordered system. Does it sounds like the box office hit - The Matrix, to you? Such chaotic behaviours bring us to the next two Cynefin domains, in which the cause-and-effect line is not that apparent to people from the beginning.
In the "complex" domain, the causal relationship is coherent in retrospect and do not repeat. Hence, time is key for the identification of emerging patterns and the application of appropriate reactive measures to those identified patterns. Such instances often occur in isolation and cannot be taught because they may not happen ever again. Frequent exemplification of such domain happened during the actual ground mission work itself. In my opinion, they do, in a way, provide a wonderful space for God to display His majestic glory and power in our midst. In this domain, success come from the skillfulness of individual to spot new patterns and intervening to structure those patterns in their favor. Those who fail tend to adopt a dogmatic approach and simply refuse to allow any agent of change to alter their way. On the mission ground, we should always allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, even though we had spent lots of time in our preparation. Instead of dictating what we can do all the time, we should also yield ourselves to listen to the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit, and be willing to respond in total surrender towards God's will. New wine should be poured onto new wineskin[3]. God may inspire us with the gift of pattern recognition but are we willing to change (perhaps all) our existing plans to tackle the new found pattern(s)? Extraordinary events require extraordinary power to handle, of which only God is capable of providing. When we know that the things are beyond our means, we should let go and let God takes the lead. After all, Jesus Christ is both our Shepherd and our King! He will lead us into victorious triumphant in the spiritual battles at the mission fields.
What happened if things are totally out of control? What if there is no pattern to be observed and a decision has to be made immediately? This is characterized in the "chaos" domain. According to the Cynefin Framework theory, the recommended approach is to act first so as to quickly contain the chaos, then observe the resultant stability achieved and finally responding to the outcomes in the most appropriate manner, when possible. Often, during the actual mission work itself, there are many ambiguous issues that require our immediate attention. What should we do in response? Sound the panic alarm? I think otherwise. The bible says that God gives us a bold and courageous spirit when we accomplishing His work[4]. And He promises to be with us wherever we go. Therefore, we should all the more be bold and courageous, exercising the wisdom (sometimes our common sense) and skillsets that God has given to us when dealing with chaotic situations. We must firmly believe that all things work for the good of those who love God[5]; by faith, our actions will be justified[6]; and He who is in us is above all[7].
On a lesser note, I think we ought to be thankful that such unordered domains exist, because only through self-awareness of our own lacking and uncertainities do we truly rely on God's power and strength. It is timely to remind ourselves, over and again, that the Great Commission is solely for God's purpose, enabled only through Jesus Christ and empowered entirely by the work of the Holy Spirit; which excludes any of our self-ambitions, whatever these words may mean to us.
In conclusion, it is important to note that none of the domain described is more desirable than any other. Rather, the Cynefin framework is used primairily to consider the dynamics of situations, decisions, perspectives, conflicts, and changes in order to come to a common concensus for decision-making under both certainity and uncertainity. If we could somehow identify the challenges of the Great Commission using this framework as an enabler tool, perhaps our current and future mission works may be even more insightful, not to mention fruitful too. Finally, we should not be cynical in the adoptation of new tools (even worldly ones) for overcoming the potential obstacles in missions. Ultimately, the Great Commission must be fulfilled, just as what our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to obey.
May His kingdom come quickly! Amen!
References
1. C.F. Kurtz and D.J. Snowden, "The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world", IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2003).
2. Matt 28:18-20
3. Mark 2:22
4. Jos 1:6,7,9
4. Rom 8:28
5. Rom 14:2
6. Eph 1:18-23
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