Thanks for the questions. Let me see if I can't explain a bit. It is true that there is a bit of building to do to get my project going. But the building IS what I am doing now. As you probably know, I do not presently have what one would consider a real job in the sense of doing what it is that I feel is a "vocation". So I feel it would be steering further away from my "Context of Ministry" to mention what I am doing in order to bring home money. (The answer to that is: I am doing freelance home electronics installation, while I take a couple of classes at Cincinnati Technical College in the "Computer Communications" coursework track. I also do an 8-hour a day 5-day a week "Co-op" position for the school with Community Mutual in the PC/LAN (PC support and LAN connectivity issues), working under a guy who has 10 years of LAN environment experience. While this is good experience to learn LAN connections and software issues, it seems to be on the same order as, say, going to a seminar on counseling or something would be for you. It is not the context of my ministry----rather, it is the people to whom I will be bringing my "message" and where they are in relation to this idea of Computer Communication technology that is my focus. I guess my idea of what "context" we are speaking of is different. My understanding is that our "context" is our Context of ministry; who we are serving in our project, and what the background of this "audience" is. This is what I am preparing to cover, using the chart as the "illustration" of the web of relationships that are flowing in and out of each other (ie. the paths passing through each of the major elements (the paths are the orange "roads"). So what I am doing right now is still taking me right back to the "context"---- It's a part of my project in that it is helpful hands-on, but the classes and the co-op are only resources to the end goal of being an enabler and a intermediator for the church and its relationship with Computer mediated technology. I don't feel its a "cart before the horse". I am, on the contrary, giving a 10-week period (the school quarter term and also the co-op job during the term) to study and hands-on experience toward just those ends I have begun to describe. I feel that the "Context" I am being asked to describe is who I am seeking to minister to. It is not the teachers or Community Mutual. I see them (their role with me) as a means to an end. The end is clarifying, naming, enabling the work of "CMC" by gathering resources and interpreting their possibilities for the church in light of what I perceive to be the mission of the church----- specifically the mission of Theological Education to train the people (both directly and through the training of leaders). And besides, I'm only past the introduction. I've only given you the way I am going to describe it. That was my last entry, and the actual description is coming next. All the previous notes were just thinking out loud, getting a little more focused through some questions put to me. I think I was helped in that effort by everyone so far. And you have done the same by asking me again. I hope I made a little more sense to you this time around. in....eyebrows up....as to say "what do you think, clear as mud?"
|
Mail me comments, suggestions, warnings, flames, whatever This site maintained and researched by Dale Lature, Lavergne, TN