Core

"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” (John 17:15-21). 

Thesis

Understand the impact of Culture on Service and how we can be more effective in our service given the culture we live in.

Problem Statement

We often feel that our service is not sufficient for the youth and some youth just stop coming to church. You can see this clearly by looking at the youth list and the subset who are actually involved.

This leads us to the following statements: we need youth servants or we need a priest who grew up in North America who can understand the kids/youth and connect with them. But

1. what do we mean by that exactly?
2. Why do we see this as important?
3. Are we making emotional statements?
4. Or are we trying to solve a problem which we have identified.

Have we asked ourselves why do some of the youth don't feel that they belong?

In order to solve problems we need to:

1. Define the problem
   1. What is the problem?
   2. How did you discover the problem?
   3. When did the problem start and how long has this problem been going on?
   4. Is there enough data available to contain the problem and prevent it from getting passed to the next process step? If yes, contain the problem.
2. Clarify the problem
   1. What data is available or needed to help clarify, or fully understand the problem?
   2. Is it a top priority to resolve the problem at this point in time?
   3. Are additional resources required to clarify the problem? If yes, elevate the problem to your leader to help locate the right resources and form a team. 
   4. ∙Ensure the problem is contained and does not get passed to the next process step.
3. Define the goals
   1. What is your end goal or desired future state?
   2. What will you accomplish if you fix this problem?
   3. What is the desired timeline for solving this problem?
4. Identify the root cause of the problem
   1. Identify possible causes of the problem.
   2. Prioritize possible root causes of the problem.
   3. What information or data is there to validate the root cause?
5. Develop an action plan
   1. Generate a list of actions required to address the root cause and prevent problem from getting to others.
   2. Assign an owner and timeline to each action.
   3. Status actions to ensure completion.
6. Execute the action plan
   1. Implement action plan to address the root cause.
   2. Verify actions are completed.
7. Evaluate the results
   1. Monitor and Collect Data.
   2. Did you meet your goals defined in step 3? If not, repeate th 8-Step Process. 
   3. Were there any unforeseen consequences?
   4. If problem is resolved, remove activities that were added previously to contain the problem.
8. Continuously improve
   1. Look for additional opportunities to implement solution.
   2. Ensure problem will not come back and communicate lessons learned.
   3. If needed, repeat the 8-Step Problem Solving Process to drive further improvements.

The goal is when we come up with a solution we need to make sure the solution solves the core of the problem and not only treats the symptoms.

Now I admit sometimes all we can do is manage the symptoms because the core of the problem is just not solvable. To draw a medical analogy, diabetes. We know what causes diabetes but we don't have the capacity to actually cure that, so we can only manage the symptoms.

To apply this thought process to our main thesis, we'll need to:

1. Identify what we mean by culture
2. Identify what we mean by service.
3. Understand the impact of culture on the service.
4. Identify that set of the challenges culture introduces to the service
5. For each challenge we propose a set of one or more solutions

Without going through this rigorous thought process, we will not be effective in our service especially, since a significant majority of the servants are in fact of a different culture.

Definitions

Culture

1a : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time popular culture Southern culture

b : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization a corporate culture focused on the bottom line

c : the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic studying the effect of computers on print culture Changing the culture of materialism will take time …— Peggy O'Mara

d : the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations

2a : enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training

b : acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills a person of culture

3 : the act or process of cultivating living material (such as bacteria or viruses) in prepared nutrient media also : a product of such cultivation

4 : cultivation, tillage We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.— Alexander Pope

5 : the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education

6 : expert care and training

Service

Useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity. A helpful act.

Culture Attributes

Questions to Start (30 second answers)

• Can there be good culture and bad culture?
• What makes a culture good?
• What makes a culture bad?
• Does culture change?
• What's the rate of change?
• What are the contributing factors to cultural change?
• Do we need to keep abreast of the changes in culture?
• Is there a heavenly culture?

Good or Bad or Meh?

Is there good culture? Bad culture? Or it just depends?

I think there is culture based on good principles which have deviated away from these good principles and there are cultures which are based on horrible principles. We can look at how God used the people of Israel to wipe out evil nations with evil culture. For example human sacrifices was part of the culture of some of these nations.

We can also see that God has based the people of Israel's culture on his laws:

So I believe there is ample evidence to prove that there are core principles upon which a good culture needs to be built upon.

And to build on that, one of the immigration trends that we see is a move from certain middle eastern societies to North America. Now I don't want to over simplify the issue here, but one of the biggest reasons people move here is to have a more prosperous life. Have we stopped to think why that is. Again, I don't want to oversimplify the issue, but one of the reasons, I believe, is the principles this culture was built on.

North American culture is built upon Christian principles. We can see that in the "Declaration of Independence"

Unfortunately culture changes and abandons the principles it was built upon. An analogy, would be something like this. A person buys a car and maintains it very well. He then hands it off to his offspring, but his offspring doesn't take care of it. They don't maintain it. They don't clean it. They don't use the right oil, etc. What will happen to this car. For a while it'll be able to handle the bad maintenance habits of its new owner and will even seem like it drives just as good as it did before. But eventually things will start breaking down and if no corrective action is taken it'll breakdown completely.

I think the same can be said about North American society. It was built on a very good foundation. It was built on God's words; on Christian principles. Doesn't mean it was perfect, but it helped propel it to where it is now. However, from generation to the next these principles were discarded. The changes we are seeing now are a direct result of the abandonment of these principles. Not only abandonment but also the twisting of these principles into an unnatural form. Below we have a few principles that we can examine. We can take a look at their biblical origin and how they have been abandoned or twisted and why it is important to go back to these principles.

This brings me to my next point. What is our role in culture. Many people hide their heads in the sand, thinking that as long as we isolate ourselves the culture we live in will not affect us. I see two issues with that:

1. Culture is a force that surrounds us from all directions. So no amount of isolation will work. Our kids go to school, watch tv, have friends. These and more immerses us in the culture. We are in the world, but not of the world.
2. I don't think we can compartmentalize our Christian life. We can't say we're Christian at church only. Or we're not suppose to be involved in the world around us. In fact, I argue that it is our duty to be the light of this world. Which means we need to be involved in all aspects of the culture we live in. It is our duty to be the corrective force in the culture. It is our duty to love our fellow man and ensure their safety and prosperity.

Freedom of Expression (thought/speech/assembly) and Handling Disagreements/Encouraging Research

Importance of Independent thought

I said this many times, but I think it's a point worth repeating.

In order to become a better painter, it's not enough to only look at painting, you need to paint.

In order to get good at math, it's not enough to only study solved mathematical problems, you need to solve math problems from scratch.

In order to get good at software development, it's not enough to look at other's code, you need to develop software

The point being, it is not enough to only learn theory, you need to actively practice in order to get good.

The same applies to thinking. If you want to be a good thinker it's not enough to read/listen to other people's thoughts, you need to do some thinking of your own.

This principle is a corner stone of Western Society. I believe it is one of the primary reasons Western Society has come as far as it has in such a short period of time, historically speaking. It is also the basis of the ability to accomplish great things. Without the freedom of thought and by extension freedom of expression, there can be no personal growth and by extension no advancement in society in general.

People in general need to be able to express themselves and put their thoughts out there without feeling the threat of being cancelled if their views do not conform.

One criticism which can be raised against this argument is within the church we have immutable doctrine. However, this doesn't deny the right for people to express their questions, doubts, lack of understanding. In order for someone to gain a better understanding of these immutable doctrine, one must be able to examine them, understand their history and prove them for himself.

For example, let's take the doctrine of the Trinity. From my personal view many times when this comes up we tend to go down the road of trying to explain it using pictorial images like the triangle, or the sun and the rays, etc. While these are good for a young child, it is not effective for older youth. It doesn't help them grow, because these images are themselves not proof of anything. They need to be able to derive this conclusion from their own research, or be guided by understanding the source of this doctrine. The trinity is not something humanity invented, it is a divinely revealed truth. And it's not something that the church has come up with from thin air. Therefore, we should be able to provide guidance for people to go and do their own research and be able to arrive to the same doctrine. Not everyone is interested in such research, but I'm talking about the people who do want to understand more in depth. This should be encourage, even if their thoughts portrays disbelief or doubt.

If we believe we have the truth we shouldn't fear contradictory thoughts. Truth always prevails.

I would argue that it is good for the general strength of the church to allow freedom of thought, because that leads to people who believe not because they are forced to or because they are told not to question, but because they are truly convinced. This leads to a strong community.

Another argument against freedom of expression is that if you have contradictory opinions you might cause disagreements and it's hard to deal with disagreements. Disagreements can be viewed as something that shakes the confidence in the institution. A rebuttal would be to say this:

There are different types of disagreements or differing views. Ones which revolve around non-immutable points and another revolves around immutable doctrine. I do not say that there should be a compromise on the immutable doctrine. However, we should be able to prove these immutable doctrine using infallible proofs. And we should not raise the non-immutable points to level of immutable doctrine, because if everything is immutable doctrine, then there is nothing immutable anymore.

Thus far I described two approaches to the principle above:

1. Discouraging freedom of expression in fear of the blowback it could cause. This is the culture of the middle east
2. Encouraging freedom of expression because it produces stronger societies

If we look carefully we now see a breakdown in this principle in our society, where this principle is being distorted. Freedom of expression and thought is being carried out to an extent where there is no common ground anymore. Freedom of Expression assumes that there is a standard by which we all must live with; God's standard. And we are all trying to express ourselves with the hope of reaching that ideal.

The culture though has abandoned that standard and therefore, we find ourselves taking this principle in an unnatural direction. We have people saying that they speak their truth, as if truth is a subjective concept. We have people trying to live and express harmful ideas and stopping their ears from listening to any reasonable arguments against their point, because it would be offensive to them. They defend their stand by saying we have the freedom of expression. But by disallowing arguments and cancelling the opposing point of view, they are denying that principle to others. Therefore the pendulum has swung in the other direction. By allowing a subgroup freedom of expression but denying another group the same, there is no longer freedom of expression, but tyranny.

Reverence of the elderly and those in positions of responsibility

This brings me to the

Two opposing personal experiences:

1. For a period of time I used to sit with Uncle Magdy on regular basis to discuss different topics. And the man is a lot more informed and knowledgeable than me. If you look at his practices, he did a lot of research, a lot of reading, a lot of prayer. He was a thinker. And when we talked with each other it wasn't a one way monologue, but rather a discourse. I learned a lot from him, but I disagreed and still disagree with some of the points which came up in our discussion. Does that mean I disrespect him? Not in the slightest, but disagreement is not equal to disrespect. We can disagree with each other yet respect each other's point of view tremendously.
2. On the other hand, one time I was reading a book by Pope Shenouda and he said something (which I can't remember) that I didn't necessarily agree with. I mentioned my disagreement to a fellow I knew, and his response: "Who are you to disagree with the Pope". And on another occasion I was mentioning a thought about Pascha and the response was "Are you going to correct me, sonny".

You can see the stark differences in both of these encounters. In the first one there is an inherit encouragement for the freedom of expression

Individualism versus Community

Dialogue versus Monologue

Honesty and Transparency

Impact on Service