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.

Precursor

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

In order to become a better soccer player, you need to practice soccer.

In order to get good at math, you need to study and practice math.

In order to get good at software development 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 need 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.

With that point established, lets do some thinking.

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.

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

Service

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?

Freedom of thought/speech and Handling Disagreements

Encouraging Research

Individualism versus Community

Reverence of the elderly and those in positions of responsibility

Dialogue versus Monologue

Honesty and Transparency

Impact on Service