Theological praxis / practice needs an empowering
methodology that creates the connection between theory and practice. In the
coming sections we will show that the solution for creating a bridge between
theory and practice in theological praxis / practice is found in what is
referred to as the Positive Deviance Approach. As mentioned in the opinion of
this blog the alternate missional ecclesia / church, through their use of the Positive Deviance Approach, with their
unique strategies and practices provided support for empowering
contextualization. They were able to accomplish this with theological praxis /
practice to create and sustain ecclesial / church communities amid marginalized
people. The Positive Deviance Approach has been practiced long before it was
known and understood by those who are its practitioners.[1]
The
Positive Deviance Approach requires a reorientation toward a leadership style
where real cultural transformation transpires. Richard Pascale, an Associate
Fellow of Said Business School at Oxford University, elaborates on the Positive
Deviance Approach, it is “invisible in plain sight . . . invisible positive deviants
often ‘don’t know what they know’ (i.e., don’t realize they are doing anything
unusual or noteworthy).”[2] He goes onto explain that “the Positive Deviance process is a tool for adaptive work.”[3] His intent by this statement is to indicate that it is the “how”
that takes priority over what as a priority. The movement is away from
producing change or transformation from a propositional ideology to an organic
practice of community. He views the approach as “disseminating through the
practice of new behavior – not through explanation or edict.” The approach
turns the hierarchical system upside down and empowers those who occupy the
bottom to bring about change rather than dependence upon the leadership of
experts. A couple examples of the application of the Positive Deviance Approach
are the application of the process to combat childhood malnutrition in Vietnam
through Save the Children, as well as to combat female genitalia mutilation in
Egypt.[4] The Positive Deviance
Approach may be summarized as follows:
·
- Culture must be engaged from within culture. Transformation of a culture comes from within and not from above or outside the culture as in the exercise of cultural colonialism or imperialism.
- Cultures and communities self-navigate and create their own identity through their resources and social assets to solve a problem.
- A community exercises collective intelligence by designing their own practices and is not focused within the leadership of a community alone, nor is it sourced from external experts but is scattered amid the community.
- The community adapts to the internal diversity and transformation, thereby creating distinctive practices and strategies.
- Sustainability is essential to the approach. The community seeks and creates the solutions to their problems in order to sustain change and the existence of a healthy community.
- It is easier to change behavior by practicing it rather than knowing about it. “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting.”[5]
The Positive Deviance Approach is an anthropologically based
approach that works amid a culture not to change the culture from outside, but
from within. Engaging marginalized people amid the greater culture of Portland,
Oregon requires an intuitive based theological praxis / practice to empower
contextualization of the Gospel. As an approach it requires the practitioners
to enter into a culture as a native, or at least as a welcomed guest to learn
and understand a culture. This practice and strategy is counterintuitive to
modernist missionary methods that follow a colonialist methodology. But this
was not always the methodology of church. In future blog posts we will show
that Jesus’ practices and strategies mirrored the Positive Deviance Approach
amid his Judaic society and culture. Since Jesus is viewed as the exemplar of
all Christian behaviors, practices and strategies great attention should be
given to his intuitive methods. His engagement of the culture serves as the
model for engaging marginalized people in contemporary society.
[1] Richard
Pascale et al., The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators
Solve the World’s Toughest Problems (Harvard Business Press, 2010), 7.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 8.
[4] http://www.positivedeviance.org/from_the_field/index.html
[5] Pascale
et al., The Power of Positive Deviance, 190–194.
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