Kingdom Journalism

Appreciative Inquiry and “Describing God’s Mighty Works”

• Posted by Steve K. on May 19th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized
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I was re-reading a blog post by Len Hjalmarson in which he talks about how Mark Lau Branson, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, applies the concept of “Appreciative Inquiry” to church ministry. Hjalmarson points to an earlier blog post that describes Branson’s take on “Appreciative Inquiry” this way: “Appreciative Inquiry [is] asking questions about where God has been at work and then stoking the imagination as to how to further participate in these ways as a body. [Branson] called the latter ‘interpretive leadership.’ He said the deadest churches he had been in had still been places where God had been wonderfully at work, but there were no witnesses.” (emphasis mine)

Branson points out that “every epistle of Paul (except Galations) begins with a thanksgiving prayer” and asks, “When you begin like that, how does that shape your imagination?” Branson’s application of “Appreciative Inquiry” starts out with appreciative questions about where God is working and shapes the imagination totally differently than starting out by asking what’s wrong with this church/ministry/project (i.e., where have we failed? what are the problems? etc.)

Now I don’t want to suggest that missionary communicators should never talk about the problems and struggles they are having, or the very real prayer and financial needs they are facing. On the contrary, I am a strong advocate for honesty and transparency. But imagine if we were more intentional in our mission communications to focus primarily on glorifying God and what he is “on about” in the world, rather than on the problems and the needs? What if we changed how we began our communication—to start with God, the missio dei, and our participation in God’s ongoing work? I think this is a key component of kingdom journalism (”describing God’s mighty works”), and “Appreciative Inquiry” is simply an unexpected affirmation from the world of change management.

Frankly, Branson’s comment about there being “no witnesses” is one that will haunt me, I think. I hope it does that for you, as well, and motivates you to communicate well what God is doing around the world.