Basic Priniciples Behind the HLA Project: The Practical Stuff

This project may seem a little elaborate, but that is only for the organizational aspects of doing anything that requires coordinating the actions of people. To work against the "friction" (which inevitably arises from priority conflicts and time constraints) when people work at the same task, one only needs two things:

1. Enthusiasm for the common goals at which the project aims
2. Efficient management, to direct people what to do in order to reduce drag on the project by ensuring that each part works together SELF-CONSCIOUSLY with the others.

This is what the coordination team is all about, and what most organizations LACK in their effiency efforts. I obtained this idea from studying bugs. Some kinds have coordination team players, whose job it is to bring the actions of everyone else in line with the collective goals. IN our setting this is done only by directing -- not the imposition of negative sanctions -- other than simply -- if the volunteer no longer wishes to be a part of it -- letting them go and seeking a replacement. I expect that number 1 (above) will be the primary impetus for participation in the project, and would not have it any other way.

But the basic priniples giving rise to this project are actually very simple.

1. God wants and expects PROGRESS from His people. He wants (rightly demands) PROFITABLE servants. Every good manager does this.

2. Believing the truth, and doing it charitably, form the two-fold way of expressing all that the Bible commands. Even the right worship of God is based on His Spirit and Truth.

3. To do what God requires first implies that one KNOWS what He requires. This gives confessions a certain kind of practical priority. You cannot do better than you know, except by accident. Therefore, if we are to make progress, we must start with the confessional Truth of God's Word, to improve both what we believe and what we do.

4. Teams are better than individuals at almost any and every task, and almost all the time. This is because they have more collective assets -- intellectual and economic -- to work with. More tools and hands for the same job. Moreover, teams permit the next step, which is a crucial work-related biblical prinicple.

5. Divide and conquer. By dividing up one goal or set of goals into its more basic constituent parts -- and then by distributing responsibility for completing these smaller tasks to others -- a managment team can make short work of an otherwise daunting (perhaps impossible) task for just one individual.

6. Specialization and giftedness. By breaking down the larger goal into smaller doable (bite-sized) tasks, and appointing teams as open-ended task referents (i.e. the adminstrative team will handle this kind of task, and the recruiting team that kind of task, etc), this enables us to simply ask people what they are good at, and appoint them to the appropriate team. This saves a great deal of time, and sees to it that each person's giftedness enables us to specialize in advance to get the job done with maximum efficiency. The teams already exist, they just need indivdual members of the set.

7. Real-time dynamics. As an project effort unfolds in the real world, problems arise you did not and could not have anticipated. This means every project will have to ADAPT as the demands of each task change. This is where most projects (even corporate teams) fail -- they are not able to adapt to change or its demands. History consistently shows that those which adapt best to new economic conditions grow wealthy faster and stay wealthy longer. For instance, had we all bought stock in cell phone companies when the trend was just starting a few years back, we would all have proven the wiser for it by now (with our bank accounts shouting the "amen.").

This is the purpose of the coordination team -- maximum adaptability in steering the groups to stay together while adapting to new demands. They will be crucial to the project, and among its greater assets. The "grazing team" -- internet surfers and the recruiters -- will take the lead in providing the information which points to the ways in which we must adapt to developing circumstances.

8. Publish (produce quality goods). Of the making of many books, there is no end. Just skim Barnes and Noble online or amazon.com if you doubt this. This means we need to publish, not merely quantity, but a very high quality of what no one else is doing, or can do. Team publishing has extreme advantages here. And this need to produce and disseminate the findings of the group in writing will easily take flight with the help of a skilled research team -- guided by their own findings, and by those of the surfers -- will be sent to the apologetics team for critical evaluation -- these guys will pick the logic of the arguments in the research with a fine-toothed comb. It is their job to refute everything in our literature before someone else does.

Then the logically clean version is sent onto the writing team. They will put finesse to the print.

9. Seek and You shall find.

This promise (and command) amounts to a command to study and research, looking for wisdom where it may be found. Wisdom comes in two forms, natural revelation from God, and special revelation. These says the same things, but communicate their message by different media - and obviously special revelation says more of it, and speaks more clearly. But we must study the media and message of both, to see what greater clarity of the One message may be gained by paying special attention to how the two are designed by God to interact. In other words, GenRev will help us understand SpRev better, and vice-versa.

10. So research teams will be divided into 3 overlapping groups (divide and conquer).

The first studies the Bible generally, and also the confessional standards of the Church -- and any auxiliary literature deemed helpful to this task (i.e. ancient history, etc).

The second studies the individual books of the Bible to indentify (and eventually apply) the major and minor themes of each book of the Bible.

The third group will use the information from the first two, and from their own pre-existing knowledge of Scripture, to construct conceptual frameworks for the development of technological applications that might be patented by the group.

Each research group will have the help of the internet grazers, the coordination team (who will keep them and everyone else up-to-date on all advances related to the needs of each R & D group. And the recruiting team -- when not recruiting - will be actively acquiring consultant contacts for each research group. This effort aims to develop a network of professors, scientists and other "egghead types," who can and will interact with them to assist their efforts on a consulting basis.

Proceeds from the project will be used to reward efforts of the team, and to advance the cause of the group. It will also be put into a charitable trust, which can be used to extend the group's ability to gain more volunteers by offering acacdemic scholarships, and also for simply feeding the poor because the Lord Jesus likes this (and because people like to eat once in a while).

The administrative team will help with the logistics of any effort requiring their help -- which means they will be a busy lot. This will include, record-keeping (esp. AP/AR stuff, tax payment, possible incorporation, research contacts (chat with publishers about formats required for our publications, what software we need, help finding out about trust development options, etc. All these tasks will be shared - admin. guy can delegate to grazer guy -- find me "this." No one person in the task group will fail to have assistants when needed.

We will also establish a hierarchy of priority, so that when task or time conflicts arise, the higher priority always has the right of way or claim on another member's time. If the conflict proves significant, we simply have the recruiting guys get another volunteer (interns will help with these tasks, who receive payment in the form of academic credit and specialized training to improve their academic performance wildly). All team members will be recieving A's only because they have all the assistance they need to make it happen. Resistance is futile, and their research will be assimilated by our group.

In short, inter-team synergy - each team strengthening and empowering the others -- will drive the success of the group as a whole. This is what makes "systems" work. People acting systemically (as teams) divide and conquer each task working together in a pre-designated function. In a logical system, this is called "the mutual consent of all the parts." In a dynamic group this is called "team synergy." The principle is identical (or at least closely analogous) in both cases. In research, this specifies analysis used to aid synthesis of new ideas.

The same principle in each case is the mutual affirmation of each of the parts to improve the whole (of which each part is a member). The mutual affirming of each part by the others results in great good for everyone involved. This is how the creation was ordered in the beginning, and explains why each part is called only "good," but the fully-integrated creation (as a whole) is called "very good."

So wisdom has to do with how something is well ordered to secure maximum benefit for the aim of one's charitable efforts. Love by itself is not enough. It must be "WISE love," or love "governed and ordered" by the Truth. Not all love is of the same quality, and not all love is acceptable in the Word. Wisdom is not optional. Neither is charity.

Put these two togther, and you have a biblically-defined "winner."

This is what the HLA project promises, wise charity, speaking the truth in love, for the people of God -- not only of this generation -- but of many to come. I suppose this could have been called "Project Legacy." I estimate this could easily be accomplished with 70 people working on the effort.

The basic rule is the more people included, the more governing is needed. The basic effort could proceed (slowly) with as few as three people and one computer, and would be markedly increased in efficacy with a total of 12 people and 4 computers. Each group of 3 could do a great deal of useful work offline with printouts -- scribblilng on hardcopy. We are going to have to plant at least 10 new trees by the time our paper quota is complete. There will be much scribbling and highlighting. 1 computer for no more than each unit of 4 people is desirable for maximum efficiency in their literary and conceptual labors.

70 is not an absolute maximum, but reaches that point of diminishing returns on effort expended. Yes, this is the reason behind the council of 70 chosen by Moses (and Jesus who sent out 70 missionaries). The efficacy of still a larger group will continue to increase (I estimate), though not as sharply, up to about 120 members.

We will need old-fashioned filing cabinets for the hardcopy research notes and printouts, and scads of pens, paper and highlighters. Libraries will work well at the outset -- public or school libraries. The location makes little difference except in travel time. Printouts are more expensive at libraries. Books are free to check out (on the upside).

Phones will be crucial since commication (sharing) is the better part of information (knowledge). We ought always to prefer wise groups rather than just wise individuals, if all other things are even close to equal.

At first, the researchers, etc may not be able to work in the same location -- which is important but not critical, especially not at first. Meetings will be necessary eventually, but much of this can transpire by phone. The trainging parts need personal meetings since visual aspects of learning inform and reinforce many of the concepts taught.

Recruiting, training and fundraising are the three elements which take priority at the beginning. Collecting the sources most necessary for the effort comes next. This will include the following:

1. Obtaining several Bibles (three is good enough to start) -- These are online - but a hardcopy is better.

2. Obtaining a copy of the Westminster and Heidelberg standards -- these are online -- but a hardcopy is better.

3. Obtaining a computer with printout capability, and many pens and highlighters, to work over various printed out sections of the Bible with all the verse indicators removed.

4. Tables for groups to sit at, scribble at the same time, and argue loudly - libraries do not like this. Note comparing is a must. When each person identifies the least pattern in the text, he tells the others, and they fill it in. Make BIG margins on the printouts and write small notes there.

When these accumulate, the themes of the text begin to unfold. And the process is aided by each asking questions of the text out loud which arise from his or her study of it. The others must try to answer the questions.

5. This is the "book research" that begins to identify the themes of each book. Each person after swapping notes at a head-knocking session, goes and reads commentaries on the book - skim them since many offer only one or two insights for many pages. By comparing many -- dont take the advice of any one of them -- you will see what the consensus is and then can compare your notes to their. This means more heads to knock. Argue with any text you read when you think it is wrong -- write down your apologetic on scratch paper and refute the gainsaying piece of yesterday. Then study your arguments asking what they imply. If these are true what would that mean for this or that doctrine I know of -- maybe sola scriptura or some other well known and believed doctrine. This will yield insights.

6. At your next meeting, everyone swaps insights. And then you knock heads some more. Repeat this process and a system of theology will begin to emerge in your notes. Compare this system to the WCF of heidelberg standards. Isolate any difference for further study. Assume operationally that you are mistaken and need to know where you went wrong and why. Why is the most important point -- this will yield further insights, and enable self-correction.

Learn by trial and error, using the Bible to generate your ideas and the Church's standards to spot your errors (these men already did a great deal of sanctified head-knocking). This will produce a synergy between the original source of your theology - what justifies the Church's standards -- and those sources which express the personally and theologically mature believing consensus of the saints of the past.

Each of these sources will produce insights into the other [This is like asking the husband to tell you about the wife, and the wife about the husband]. Interview both of them, and then ask the neighbors what they think [commentaries, etc]. Then go back to your next session and talk to the kids some more. Compare notes.

This time, you compare one book's theology to another book's theology. Use each of the theme's by reducing it to a set of simply stated propositions. And put them all together to see what each of them combined with the others implies. Ask what the confessional standards say about this, and compare your findings with theirs. If they say nothing about some topic about which you are asking, and you believe your answers are biblically correct -- you are becoming theologically mature. Now your group will want to knock heads with other like groups, and hash out the implicates in the form of a new chapter not the subject of which is not discussed in the earlier confessional standards.

If God says it, it is true -- even if the Church has not yet formulated it in some formal expression. So far as I know, no confession has touched upon the doctrine of punctuated equilibrium, or the philosophy of science (explicitly). But you can show from the implicates of the theology of the WCF that it teaches theoretical instrumentalism, and not scientific realism, as it is popularly construed today.

What does this mean PRACTICALLY?

This should give the reader some idea - there is much more - of how this work is to proceed. And what sorts of tasks are involved on a practical level. Someone will make phone calls to pastors and explain the project, asking if we might have someone present the topic at a college group Bible study. Others will spend time just surfing the net and reporting what manner of cool things they found that might help the project at any stage of its development. Someone else will be studying the Bible looking for clues to a topic others are working on at the same time. Then they meet and knock heads. Everyone gets copies of anything discovered that we recognize as a helpful insight. Remember, start at the end of the book first and reread the ending many times before you read the first chapter. This will jumpstart your studies.

The only problem with this sort of exercise is that someone who has been doing it a long time will tend to come up with many more insights than the others. But instead of being discouraged, the beginners can use all his notes to play catch up fast, and then begin having their own remarkable insights -- and believe me -- when you begin to get insights that shock even you (and they will I assure you), you then start realizing -- whoa -- I could go on doing this as long as I have my Bible to study. Now imagine everyone else having insights like yours at the same rate (and they come faster with time as your knowledge accumulates -- since you have more truths to cross reference with others in your head and heart) -- with many people generating many insights -- and everyone kept up to date on all of them -- everyone helps everyone else get smart very fast.

Pastors may well wish to join the group. The more the merrier. The congregations are going to want to know what happened to this guy because his sermons totally rock. When he tells them why there is a good chance they will want to subsidize the effort. We can publish our textual insights online and send links to pastors in the email, to aid and abet their sermons. They are always on the lookout for exegetically and theologically sound tidbits.

This is not difficult and should be fun. If a person does not find some part of the project fun, I will do it instead, and put them on some other task more fun for them.

--------To be continued -------