The Redemption of Technology Workshop (Theology of Technology) by Andrew Sears

The Redemption of Technology:
Part 1
Dr. Andrew Sears
President, City Vision University
www.cityvision.edu andrew@cityvision.edu
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsears
Slideshare: https://goo.gl/ayt2a5
3/18/17

System Building at TechMission and City Vision University
In the past 10 years, TechMission…
 Matched 69,047 volunteers through ChristianVolunteering.org & programs
 Funded 581 full-time AmeriCorps Members & interns for ministries serving
over 22,101 at-risk youth and other populations through City Vision
Internships and TechMission Corps
 Served over 12.5 million unique visitors through our websites
 Provided accredited college courses with 1,088 students through City Vision
University
 Provided $74.6 million in resources to sites only spending $10.6 million
(703% return on investment)

Personal
Vocation
Christian Vocation:
Love God, Love
Others
Human Vocation:
Co-Creators
Technology and Human, Christian & Personal Vocation
2. Field Specific
• Theology of [your field]
• Christian community in
your field
1. General
Theology of Work
3. Vocation and life
balance is shaped by
living in a technology
saturated society

Four Questions of Personal Vocation
Calling
What are you good at?
Does the world need?What do you enjoy?
Will the world pay?
Internal Motivation
• deep gladness
• who we are
External Motivation
• world’s deep hunger
• what God’s doing//fallen world
Status
Meaning
Status without Meaning
• Empty success
• Corporate drone
Meaning without Status
• Financially unsustainable
• Starving volunteer
Internal
• Underemployed
• Starving artist
External Motivation
• Burnout
• Joyless worker

The Power of Metaphor
What is the dominant metaphor for your career?

What is the dominant metaphor for life?

“Like a watchmaker, God was forced to intervene in the universe and tinker with the
mechanism from time to time to ensure that it continued operating in good working order.”
- Isaac Newton
Our Careers Influence our Worldview

Source: https://rickylwilson.wordpress.com/category/devnull/page/2/
Our Careers Influence our Worldview

Christianity
(Theology)
“Love God, Love Others”
4 Quadrant
Theology of Technology &
Theology of Work
How do I live my full God-given
calling as a Christian technologist?
The Gap for Christian Technologists
4 Quadrant Expertise in Fields
Related to Theology of TechnologyGap of Expertise
Contextualizing “Love God,
Love Others” for Your Field
Theology of Work

Universal
Worldview
• Creation
• Fall
• Redemption
• Restoration
Particular
Worldview
Applied to our
context.
i.e. Theology of
• Work
• Technology
• Art
• Science
• Culture

How do we contextualize Jesus?
Source: https://urbana.org/blog/race-and-ethnicity-bible

Jesus the First Techie: Tektōn
Become a Jew to the Jews
And a Greek to the Greeks

Jesus the First Techie: Tektōn
Become a Jew to the Jews
And a Geek to the Geeks

Group Discussion Question
1. What does good applied theology do?
2. What would a good theology of technology do?
3. What is unique about a theology of technology?
4. What’s the difference between a comprehensive Christian
worldview of technology and a theology of technology?

Common Threads Among Christian Technologist Who
Feel Fulfilled in their Vocation
 They are good at what they do & respected in their fields
 They have a vibrant faith, spiritual disciplines and church
community
◦ They have a strong community of other Christians passionate about using
their field for God and others
 They worked very hard at bridging their field with their general
Christian call of “loving God and Loving others”
◦ They have found a way to bridge their work with people “love others” and
excel in the human elements of their field
◦ They have become an expert in a particular aspect of bridging their field
with loving others

Theology
of Tech
Theolog
y
(general)
Science
&
Religion
Theology
of Work
Media
Ecology
Theology of Technology Today
Currently borrows primarily from 4 disciplines
• Counseling & Tech Addiction Recovery
• Ethics & Morality of Technology
• Media Nutrition
• Systems Thinking
• Strategic Foresight/Future Studies
• Biochemistry of Tech Use
• Technology & Media Ministry
• Theology of Work in Tech Professions
• Technology, Justice & the Poor
• Tech Social Entrepreneurship
• Sociology of Technology
• Technology Policy
Comprehensive Christian Worldview of
Technology Needs Emerging Disciplines

Christians
Globally
(in a tech world)
Tech Christians
Globally
Tech Christians
in U.S.
Tech
Christians in
Christian
Orgs
Professional
Tech
Ministers
• 77,500 full-time IT staff
• $12.5 Billion IT Budget
• 6.3 million Christians in STEM jobs
(71% in computing)
• 50-100 million Christians in STEM jobs
Audiences for Theology of Technology
• Thousands
• <$100 million budget

Part 2: From the Garden to the City
https://youtu.be/lZnEFTLFERk?t=1m20s

John Dyer Questions for Discussion
1. Consider what Dyer says about technology’s “bent” & the law of unintended
consequences: How do you foresee those consequences while designing a
new technology? How do you correct against them afterward? (Give
examples.)
2. What are the implications of God’s having created us as embodied
creatures (not just minds), and of the Incarnation for how we design tech,
especially information & communications technology?
3. Marshall McLuhan famously said “the medium is the message”. In what
ways can you see that to be true in the media that we commonly
encounter?
4. How can tech that often isolates people be used instead to pull them
together into deeper forms of community?
5. How can tech draw people away from spiritual disciplines, and how can it
be used - specifically - to foster spiritual disciplines?

Part 3: Technology’s Fallenness and
Redemption in the Current World

Bias Inherent in Technology
(from Kevin Kelly’s What Does Technology Want?)
Technology “wants”
increasing:
 Efficiency
 Opportunity
 Emergence
 Complexity
 Diversity
 Specialization
 Ubiquity
• Freedom
• Mutualism
• Beauty
• Sentience
• Structure
• Evolvability
Technological DeterminismSocial Constructivism
Both have Influence
(varies by society)

Rural
Urba
n
Online/
Digital
Agricultural Industrial Information
The Need: Macro-Historical Trends Create a Need for
New Focus Areas of Applied Theology

Technology’s Impact on Employment

Technology Influenced Megatrends:
Fallenness and Redemption
Fallenness Redemption
Growth in deviance Growth in diversity
Shallow focus &
relationships
Many options/connections
More distraction & media addiction More knowledge/information
More domestic inequality Less global poverty
Increased automation/mass
unemployment
Increased access to education
Holistic church decrease Increased specialization
Wal-Mart effect on
Churches
Megachurch network growth
Increased access to evil Increased Gospel access
Increased Capacity for
Good
Increased Capacity for Evil
1. Networked
Church
3. Media
Nutrition
2. Education
& Economic
Development
21st Century
Redemptive
Causes

Cause 1: Building the Networked Church
Architecture of Catholic Church
 Mainframe Era
 Hub/Spoke Architecture
 One Hierarchy
 Centralized
 Monolithic
 Strength: addressing
problems requiring
centralized approach
 Problems
◦ The Pope is not Jesus
◦ Single point of failure
◦ Lack of competition
Pope
Hub/Spoke Architecture

Architecture of Protestant Church
 Pre-Internet Computers & LANs
 Disconnected/No Interconnection
 Atomized
 No hierarchy or denominational hierarchy
 Problems
◦ The Body of Christ should not be atomized
and disconnected
◦ Weak in addressing problems requiring a
centralized approach
Isolated Networks
(denominations & churches)

 Complex organic
interconnection
 Uses strengths of both
centralized and distributed
architectures
 Modular
 Increased specialization
 Viral spread of the Gospel
 Problems
◦ TBD
◦ Guess: spread of viral cults
Internet Architecture
From: NetDimes.org

Trend Toward Specialization: Growth of the Parachurch
$-
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
Parachurch $0 $1 $20 $162 $230 $570
Church $1 $7 $50 $108 $140 $300
1800 1900 1970 2000 2007 2025
(in Billions)
62%
66%
60%
Source: International Bulletin of Missionary Research, January 2005. David B. Barrett & Todd M. Johnson.
http://www.globalchristianity.org/resources.htm

Cause 2: Education and Economic Development
Does Technology Hurt or Help the Poor?

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/
Decreasing Absolute Poverty

95% of economic growth
since 2009 went to the top 1%
Increasing Inequality & Automation

Decline of Farm Jobs
Source: ong depression – azizonomics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://azizonomics.com/tag/long-depression/

“Human history becomes more
and more a race between
education and catastrophe.”
- H.G. Wells
Image from Wikipedia

20th Century Challenge: High School Graduation
Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2010). The Race between Education and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.

Source: (US. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014)
47% of employment in America is at high risk of being automated
away over the next decade or two (Frey & Osborne, 2013)
Source: US. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2014). Percent of Employment in Manufacturing in the United States (DISCONTINUED). Retrieved November 21,
2014, from https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USAPEFANA/

21st Century Challenge: College Graduation

The Need for Rapid Growth of Higher Education Globally
100 Million
Students
in 2000
263 Million
Students
in 2025
(84% of growth in
the developing world)
Sources Karaim, R. (2011). Expanding higher education: should every country have a world-class university. CQ Global Researcher, 5(22), 525–572.
Lutz, W., & KC, S. K. (2013). Demography and Human Development: Education and Population Projections. UNDP-HDRO Occasional Papers,
(2013/04). Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdro_1304_lutz_kc.pdf
137 Million New Students in Developing Countries by 2025
4.9 billion middle class globally by 2030

10 million+ students
at $1,000/student
Radically Affordable
Mobile Education
The Need for Disruptive Innovation
Traditional
Christian
Higher
Education
(A few million students
At $10,000/student)
10 x
More
Users
1/10th
Cost
Radically Affordable
Blended Education
100 million+ students
at $50/student

Part 4: Technology: Distraction, Addiction
and Media Nutrition

Increasing Media Saturation: 80-90 hours/week in media

You are what you eat.
As a man thinks so is he.
- Proverbs 23:7 Paraphrased
We become what we worship.
We become what we behold.
- Marshall McLuhan

Image From: http://www.richlandcreek.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=153447&articleId=27982
Unhealthy media use
is affecting our:
• Relationships
• Families/Children
• Communities
• Relationship with God
• Sex lives
• Brain function
• Personal happiness
• Time management
• Safety while driving
• Work Effectiveness
• Political systems
• Culture
• Life balance

Technology Advances
Make Things Easier to Do
• Pornography, Drugs, Sex, Overeating
• All Addictions
• Opportunities for the Gospel

From: http://sociecity.com/rethink/graphic-the-real-food-pyramid

Junk
Media
(Empty
Entertainment)
Neutral
Media
Media for Growth
In person
Relationships
(Bible, Christian content/music, education, work,
some news and other media for growth)
(some music, games,
shallow news, social media)
(Love God + Love Others + Sabbath & Self Care)
Fresh Fruit
and Vegetables
Cheap Empty Calories
(bread, rice, potatoes)
Dessert
Exercise
Toxic or
Addictive
Media
Stop!
Media Nutrition Pyramid Lesson Plan
Provided by City Vision University’s Master’s Program in Technology and Social Entrepreneurship.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

From: http://www.happydiabetic.com/?p=519

Television Fast Food
=
Computer Supermarket
Tablet/Smartphone Convenience Store/Daily Trips
=
=
Media Type & Devices Influence Availability
of Healthy Media

Media Nutrition Questions for Discussion
First write down ideas, then discuss in groups of 2 for 5 minutes
1. What things do you need to commit to remove?
2. What boundaries are you willing to commit to in your media use?
3. What healthy habits can you use to replace unhealthy media?

Ideas for a Media Nutrition Plan
 Remove
◦ All toxic media, addictive games/shows, pornography
 Boundaries & environmental choices
◦ Turn off phone/computer notifications, no phones around children, no phone without
headset while driving, keep phone out of reach when in bed, no non-work computer
activities at work, no TV/games on weekdays, remove addictive games on phone, cancel
TV subscription, only check email at fixed times during the day
 Replace
◦ Media: use Covenant Eyes or Rescue Time, accountability partner, download sermon or
educational apps, create educational YouTube playlists, Bible reading plan in YouVersion,
use Hoopla or Overdrive from library, subscribe to Audible, spend 30 minutes each
weekend curating nutritious media for week, Replace trashy music in commute media for
growth
◦ Add relationships & self-care: dates, nature, hobbies, small groups, meetups, family
activities

Homework:
Media Nutrition Pyramid Lesson
http://ed.ted.com/on/VoRBADci

Part 5: Applied Workshop:
Technology and the Fall’s Effect
on Life Balance & Vocational Satisfaction

Personal
Vocation
Christian Vocation:
Love God, Love
Others
Human Vocation:
Co-Creators
Technology and Human, Christian & Personal Vocation
2. Field Specific
your field
1. General
Theology of Work
3. Vocation & life
balance is shaped by
saturated society

What are the Implications of a Tech Driven Economy
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-08-02/tech-giants-form-fab-five-to-dominate-stock-valuation-chart

“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”
We shape our careers and thereafter
our careers shape our metaphors and worldview.
To the hammer everything is a nail.

Grid 1: Balancing Personal Vocation
Calling
What are you good at?
Does the world need?What do you enjoy?
Will the world pay?
Status Focused (Head/Cognitive)
Meaning Focused (Heart/Affective)
Internally Focused Externally Focused
Where would you draw your focus on this diagram? How do you tend to get uncentered?

Q1 Personal: Nurture (Humanities)
(internal-individual: I/mind)
Q2: Physical: Nature (Science & Technology)
(external-individual: it/body)
Q3: Cultural (Creative Arts)
(interior collective, we)
Q4: Societal (Social Sciences)
(exterior collective, they)
Grid 2: A Systems View of Balancing Personal VocationIndividualCollective
Internal External
• Cultural studies
• Anthropology
• Ethics
• Majority world religions/theology
• Art for Others
• Sociology
• Law
• Economics
• Political Science/Politics
• History
• Ecology
• Humanities
• Western Theology
• Counseling
• Psychology
• Art for Self
• Biology,
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Engineering
• Healthcare/Life Sciences

___% Actual ___% Ideal
Grid 2: A Systems View of Balancing Personal VocationIndividualCollective
Internal External
___% Actual ___% Ideal___% Actual ___% Ideal
___% Actual ___% Ideal
1. What domain is your
profession primarily
operating in?
2. What percentage of your
growth has been spent
in each domain?
3. Ideally how would you
have focused your growth?

Grid 3: Domains of Learning
Currently Ideally
 Cognitive ___% ___%
 Affective ___% ___%
 Psychomotor ___% ___%
What domain is your profession primarily operating in?
What percent of your time and effort do you spend in growth in each of these domains?

Tech-Bias in Vocational Dissatisfaction
 Being in a Tech Saturated World increased the societal bias toward:
◦ Cognitive Learning and decreased emphasis on Affective and Psychomotor
◦ Quadrant 2: external-individual, physical (Science & Technology)
◦ What happens to vocational satisfaction if a tech driven economy demands that we focus
our growth on cognitive, Q2 learning?
 Tech & Economic Bias in Myers-Briggs vs. Percentage of the General
Population
◦ Introverted (51) vs. Extroverted (49%)
◦ Thinking (40%) vs. Feeling (60%)
◦ Judging (54%) vs. Perceiving (46%)
◦ Sensing (73%) vs Intuitive (27%)
◦ What happens to vocational satisfaction if a tech driven economy demands a dramatically
higher percent of people who are Introverted, Thinking and Intuitive than exists in the
population?
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/myers-briggs-statistics/

Tech Impact on Vocation Discussion Questions
Individual Exercise: fill in each of the three grid printouts
Pair up in groups of two
1. Share what you wrote down for each of the grids.
2. Based on these how do you tend to get unbalanced and off-
centered from your ideal? What are the pressures to make you
off-balance from your ideal?
3. How does your career and “location in these grids” shape your
worldview? In what ways does your career create a bias in you
toward solutions that fall in a particular domain (like the hammer
and nail example)?

Christianity
(Following Jesus)
Q1: Tech Addiction Recovery
Q2: Media Nutrition
Q3: Christian Media Ecology
Q4: Tech Tools, Rules & Policies
Q1: Nurture (Family)
Q2: Nature (Biochemical)
Q3: Cultural
Q4: Social Systems
The Greatest Threat to the Body of
Christ…is the pervasive,
destructive pornography available
through the Internet.
- Josh McDowell
Applying Paradigms & Metaphors to Problems

Christianity
(Theology)
“Love God, Love Others”
4 Quadrant
Theology of Technology &
Theology of Work
How do I live my full God-given
calling as a Christian technologist?
The Gap for Christian Technologists
4 Quadrant Expertise in Fields
Related to Theology of TechnologyGap of Expertise
Contextualizing “Love God,
Love Others” for Your Field
Theology of work

• Theology of Technology (current)
• Media Ministry
• Media Ecology
• Theology (majority world)
• Ethics of Science & Technology
• Theology of Work
• Technology & the Poor
• Social Entrepreneurship/Nonprofit
Management
• Business/ BAM/Marketplace Ministry
• Sociology & Social Psychology
• Science & Technology Policy
• Technology & Addiction
• Counseling & Recovery
• Theology (traditional Western)
• Morality of Technology
• Personal Psychology of Technology
• Humanities
• Media Nutrition
• Study of Science & Religion
• Science
• Applied Sciences
Cognitive Components of a Comprehensive Theology of Technology
IndividualCollective
Internal External

Cognitive
• Learning about creative arts
• Theology of Technology/Media Ecology
Affective
• Increase relational time investment
• Small groups & church relationships
• Culture Making & culture engagement
• Transformative Education
• Radical Mission Trips
Cognitive
• Learning about social sciences & business
Psychomotor/environmental systems
• Intentional choices in your environment & surroundings
• System making
• Business development and engagement with markets
• Civics and engagement with political & social systems
• Environmental stewardship
Cognitive
• Learning in Humanities
• Cognitive Therapy
• Cognitive learning in church
Affective
• Emotional focal practices/hobbies
• Prayer and Meditation
• Emotional growth in church
Cognitive
• Learning in STEM & Healthcare fields
• Media Nutrition & Boundaries
Psychomotor/personal environment
• Physical focal practices
• Physical hobbies: Exercise, hiking, sports
• Nutrition & psychiatric medications
Ideas for Developing a Holistic Action Plan for Growth, Life Balance and Recentering Vocation
Internal External

Cognitive
•
•
•
Affective
•
•
•
•
Cognitive
•
Psychomotor/environmental systems
•
•
Cognitive
•
Affective
•
•
•
•
Cognitive
•
•
Psychomotor/personal environment
•
•
4 Quadrant Action Plan Template
Internal External

Life Balance Discussion Questions
Individual Exercise
1. List a few specific areas where you would like to bring change in
your life related to ideas discussed in this workshop.
2. Spend 5 minutes brainstorming and writing out ideas using the 4
quadrant plan printout.
Pair up in groups of two:
1. Share what ideas you wrote down.
2. Which ideas are you willing to commit to.
3. Pray for each other.

Personal
Vocation
Christian Vocation:
Love God, Love
Others
Human Vocation:
Co-Creators
Conclusion: Technology and Human, Christian & Personal Vocation
2. Field Specific
your field
1. General
Theology of Work
3. Vocation is shaped by
saturated society

Potential Next Steps
 Have your family do our Media Nutrition Pyramid Lesson on Ted Ed
 Watch Our YouTube Playlists for Christians in Technology
◦ Theology of Technology
◦ Technology, Life Balance and Addiction Course
◦ Vocation Calling and Purpose of Work
◦ Emerging Media Ministry
◦ Technology, Cross Cultural Organizations and the Poor
 Courses
◦ Watch Our MOOC Course on Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education
◦ Take Online Courses in Our Masters in Technology and Social Entrepreneurship
 Read Books
◦ The Digital Invasion: How Technology Is Shaping You and Your Relationships
◦ Extended Bibliography
 Contact andrew@cityvision.edu 617-282-9798 x101 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsears
◦ Help join our cause!

Jesus
Christian Social Sector
AGRM, CCDA, Salvation Army,
Teen Challenge, UYWI, World Vision
Job Boards
Internships.com
Simply Hired
Christian Higher Ed for Justice
Bakke U, UCC, Eastern, Fuller
Azusa, Acton, NetInstitute, Christian ABE
Open Education
Straighterline.com,
MOOCs, EdX
Coursera, Udacity
Nonprofit Recruiting
AllforGood, Idealist
VolunteerMatch,
Guidestar, FB Causes
Tech & Missions
ICCM, Lightsys, MAF,
GEM, EMI, WIN, OB
VisionSynergy, AIBI
Wycliffe IT, CheckItOut
Tech & Ministry
Internet Evangelism Day,
Mobile Ministry Forum,
YouVersion, ABS, Cru
MSTSM
Program
Tech-Justice Sector
Jesus Tech
Sector
Jesus Justice
Sector
City Vision College
ChristianVolunteering
City Vision Internships
Tech Christian Colleges
AccessED, ACU, Calvin, Taylor, Baylor
Biola, Olivet, Fuller, Wheaton, Liberty
Christian Technologists
Christians Engineering Society,
Intervarsity Faculty, Cru Faculty
ISCAST, Code for the Kingdom
Christians in Tech (FB & LinkedIn)
Indigetous, FaithTech.ca
Vision: Use Technology to Recruit & Educate Christians to Serve the Poor
Christian Recruiting
MeetTheNeed, ChristianJobs
ShortTermMissions, Missions
Christian Media
Christianity Today,
Publishers, Radio & TV
Tech Philanthropy
Google Grants, LinkedIn
Facebook, Salesforce,
Microsoft
Open Source
Drupal, Moodle
Church Tech & IT
LifeChurch, Menlo Park
Saddleback, Willow Creek
Christian Recovery
NACR, Celebrate Recovery
Urban Internships
Mission Year
Churches of the Poor
Christian Higher Ed
In Developing Countries
Low Cost Online Training
Lynda.com, Skillshare, Pluralsight
Parachurch IT
Cru, Intervarsity
Open Data/Content
Wikipedia, Open Gov’t,
Semantic Web
Christian Funders
Foundations, Individuals
Secular Funders
Foundations, Individuals,
Government, Corporations
Map of Tech
& Ministry
Organizations

• Theology of Technology (current)
• Media Ministry
• Media Ecology
• Theology (majority world)
• Political Ethics of Science & Tech
• Theology of Work
• Technology & the Poor
• Social Entrepreneurship/Nonprofit
Management
• Business/ BAM/Marketplace Ministry
• Sociology & Social Psychology
• Technology Policy
• Technology & Addiction
• Theology (traditional Western)
• Morality of Technology
• Personal Psychology of Technology
• Humanities
• Media Nutrition
• Study of Science & Religion
• Science
• Applied Sciences
Cognitive Components of a Comprehensive Theology of Technology
Internal External

Strengths of STEM Christians (or your field)
•
Weaknesses of STEM Christians (or your field)
•
Opportunities of STEM Sector (or your field)
•
Threats from STEM Sector (or your field)
•

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