From the Garden to the Sanctuary:
The Promise and Challenge of Technology

John Dyer is the Executive Director of Communications and Educational Technology for Dallas Theological Seminary. A former youth pastor and long time web developer, he has developed tools for Microsoft, Apple, Harley-Davidson, and the Department of Defense and now writes on technology and faith for many publications such as Christianity Today and Outreach Magazine. His first book is From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology.

Plenary 1: Allowing the Biblical Story to Shape our Understanding of Technology

Besides money and time, perhaps no other cultural force has more influence over our lives than technology. And yet, beyond a few proof texts, it appears as if the Bible doesn't have much to say on the topic. However, if we look past the chapters and verses (a technology added in the 17th century!), we find that the story unfolding in the Scriptures has much to say about human making and tools and offers wisdom and insight into today's technological and culture issues.
 

Dr. Arthur Boers has written on the subject of the intersection of Christian faith and daily life for the past thirty years. His current interests include how faithful living impact leadership and how technology is affecting the daily life. He holds the R.J. Bernardo Chair of Leadership at Tyndale Seminary (Toronto).  Dr. Boers is the author of a number of books, including Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions (Brazos, 2012), and The Way is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago (Intervarsity, 2007).

Dr. Boers earned the following degrees: D.Min. with distinction from Northern Baptsit Theological Seminary, M.Th. in Pastoral Counseling from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary, M.A. in Peace Studies from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and B.A. from the Universtiy of Western Ohio.

Dr. Boers is the Book Review Editor for Conrad Rebel Review. For many years he served as columnist and editorial advisor for Christian Ministry and The Builder. His articles and review have been published in Biblical Preaching Journal, Catholic New Times, Christian Century, Christianity Today, Congregations, Leadership, St. Anthony Messenger and Sojourners. His hobbies include walking, hiking, canoeing and kayaking. He has been married to Lorna since 1980 and have two children.

Plenary 2: Open the Wells of Grace and Salvation

In the Bible, wells are places of dramatic encounters, deep conversations, and desperate conflicts. They symbolize the potential (not always realized) of technology to draw people together towards divine priorities. The church remains one of the few remaining “wells” in our culture, regularly and radically gathering together people of all ages, classes, and nationalities to worship God and serve others and always employing technology to do so. We examine priorities of using technology well so that God’s grace and salvation continues to be mediated today.
 

Dr. Rosalind Picard is Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, MA, and author of the award-winning book Affective Computing, which helped give rise to the field by that name.  She is chief scientist, co-founder, and director of Affectiva, a small Boston-based company that sells two emotion communication technologies. 

Dr. Picard has served on dozens of international and national science and engineering program committees, editorial boards, and review panels, including the Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) division of Computers in Science and Engineering (CISE), the Advisory Board for the Georgia Tech College of Computing, and the Editorial Board of User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction: The Journal of Personalization Research.

Plenary 3 - Building Emoticons Into Machines: Surprises and Reflections

This talk will highlight new technology that senses and responds to human emotion.  Why would anybody want to build computers with emotion? How can emotion technology help people with autism or other emotion communication challenges, or emotional health challenges?  This technology also raises questions about what it means to be human vs. machine - as we build emotions into machines, are we blurring the boundary, or not?  Dr. Picard will share stories of how this technology has evolved and reflect on larger questions that it raises about our humanity.
 

Dr. Albert Erisman is Executive in Residence and the past Director for the Center for Integrity in Business in the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University.  He teaches business ethics and business and technology both at the undergraduate and the graduate level.  He is also executive editor of Ethix magazine (www.ethix.org), which he co-founded with a colleague in 1998.   In this capacity he has interviewed business leaders from around the world on issues of ethics, values, and purpose. 

In April 2001 Dr. Erisman completed a 32 year career at The Boeing Company where, for the last 10 years he was Director of R&D for computing and mathematics.  In this capacity, he managed a staff of 250—300 scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and engineers with the objective of bringing new technology to Boeing’s processes and products.  He was selected as one of 11 inaugural Senior Technical Fellows of The Boeing Company in 1990. 

Dr. Erisman is a co-author or editor of three books, along with numerous technical and popular papers.  He is a Fellow in the Fordham University Consortium on the purpose of business.  He has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Iowa State University.

Plenary 4 with David W. Gill: Is This a War or a Dance? Upside, Downside and Forward with Technology

Tightly united in their love for God and Scripture and determination to make Jesus Lord of technology, Drs. Erisman and Gill see things from two different perspectives, even after debating and listening to each other’s best shots for over 40 years!  Dr. Gill, shaped in part by his years of study of (and with) technology-critic Jacques Ellul, will summarize the cautionary side of the debate;  Dr. Erisman, for many years Director of Technology for the Boeing Corporation, will push the creative-redemptive side.  They will push each other.  You will be pushed.  You can push back.  In the end we want a dance, not a war . . . a dance where God is leading.
 

Dr. David W. Gill is Mockler-Phillips Professor of Workplace Theology and Business Ethics and the Director of the Mockler Center for Faith and Ethics in the Workplace at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, MA. Dr. Gill’s vocational mission has two foci: “understanding and promoting the values and ethics of Jesus Christ in the life and work of the Christian community” and “building ethically healthy organizations in a complex, diverse, global marketplace.”

Prior to joining Gordon-Conwell, Dr. Gill taught business ethics to MBA students at St. Mary’s College and Seattle Pacific University. He served as the Carl I. Lindberg Professor of Applied Ethics at North Park University in Chicago and has also been a frequent guest professor of Christian Ethics for Regent College and Fuller Seminary. In 1977, he founded New College Berkeley, an innovative graduate school of theology and ethics for laypeople and think-tank for the exploration of connections between personal faith and values and public and professional life. He served New College Berkeley for 14 years in various roles including Project Director, Founding Chair of the Board, Professor of Ethics, Dean and President. He is best known as a scholar for his work on the thought of the French sociologist and ethicist Jaques Ellul and is the founding President of the International Jacques Ellul Society.

He and his wife, Lucia, have two children and six grandchildren. Dr. Gill enjoys going to the gym, listening to jazz, cycling and dancing and traveling with his wife.

Plenary 4 with Albert Erisman: Is This a War or a Dance? Upside, Downside and Forward with Technology

Tightly united in their love for God and Scripture and determination to make Jesus Lord of technology, Drs. Erisman and Gill see things from two different perspectives, even after debating and listening to each other’s best shots for over 40 years!  Dr. Gill, shaped in part by his years of study of (and with) technology-critic Jacques Ellul, will summarize the cautionary side of the debate;  Dr. Erisman, for many years Director of Technology for the Boeing Corporation, will push the creative-redemptive side.  They will push each other.  You will be pushed.  You can push back.  In the end we want a dance, not a war . . . a dance where God is leading.

In this workshop, we will put together research on trends in higher education with research suggesting the United States is quickly becoming a post Christian culture. In this complex new environment, the role of the seminary as the training arm of the church is changing as are the methods seminaries use to train leaders. We will explore these changes and imagine what seminary might look like through the 21st century.

In this workshop, we will examine suggestions for helping Christians to have discerning conversations about technology. As well as looking at potential hazards of technology use today, we will explore what is needed to invigorate and prioritize our highest values so that technology takes its proper place in how we live.

The act of effectively communicating with our family does not come in a neatly wrapped, one-size-fits-all package.  In fact, communication does not come in a package at all.  Communication is a process, and much like the process of the transformation of the soul, it takes time and practice to walk in the disciplines of His grace.  Part of the challenge in the call to “speak the truth in love” is that some people focus on more on the truth and others focus more on the love aspect. 

One of the problems is that almost no one considers the medium.  Texting, emailing, using social networks to share relational messages can be much fun and provide immediate access to those with whom we are in relationship, but it has also become part of the crisis in communication.  If you have ever gotten stuck in a vicious cycle of communication breakdown, take heart!  God uses the communication challenges in our family to help us grow.  Today’s workshop is geared to helping families understand how technology can help or hinder relationships, and provides guidance on making wise choices.

Technology and politics is not just about voting machines versus paper ballots and pencils.  We will look at how technology in the form of bureaucracy (administrative technique) has colonized and transformed politics and government, east and west, despite surface ideological differences.  And we will look at how propaganda has replaced serious discourse and entertainment has replaced information and understanding in the realm of political communication.  Today’s politics is in trouble, not merely because of the Right or the Left but because Christians are not representing a Third Way anchored in the Gospel and exhibited in community.

Technology is changing the way people "come together." It is also changing our culture. What does this mean for the church? What does that mean for the way we proclaim the gospel in the fullest sense?

This workshop will present historical, biblical, and theological perspectives on the impact of various technologies - print and digital media, electronic amplification, Powerpoint, video screens, social media - on the content and styles of worship, and the impact of such technologies on the expectations and mind-sets of those attending worship services; discussion will include appropriate strategies for using modern media in ways that enhance rather than diminish the worshipers' sense of being in the presence of God as the primary reality in Christian worship.

Communication Competence is more than simply using effective speech.  It involves understanding one’s audience and the ability to speak appropriately in any situation.  But today’s communication environment has vastly changed everything.  E-mails, blog comments, and text-messages are often sent without reflection and exchanged in situations that are unclear.  From the way we do business and manage our households to corporate and institutional solvency, digital media have opened the doors to an increasingly converged and global personal presence; the world is our audience. 

As the new digital culture reshapes and restructures the way we behave socially, it also influences the very way human beings think.  Today’s workshop provides a realistic look at the challenges of an increasingly digital culture, from privacy, attention, civility and identity issues to the reformulation of ethical norms.  We’ll look at ways one might function responsibly and ethically in a world of integrated social marketing and virtual presence.

Life-creating, life-enhancing and life-sustaining therapies abound in modern healthcare. Both the promises and pitfalls of biotechnology are easy to identify. In this workshop, we will use tools of secular and theological ethics to consider how to navigate a course among the promises and perils of biotechnology.

This registration cost includes conference registration, handouts, snacks and meals.The cost per individual for the conference is $80 until May 8, $90 until May 29 and $130 after May 29.  Spouse and group rates of $60 are available for the conference until May 29. Student rates of $30 are available for the conference until May 29. After May 29, all special rates will expire, and the individual rate of $130 will go into effect.

All group registrations must be submitted together (paper or online) to qualify for the group rate unless otherwise instructed by the Ockenga Institute. Special rates for the Gordon-Conwell community (faculty/staff/students) are also available.

Due to conference planning, all meals are included in the registration cost. Meals will not be sold individually, nor will the meal registration be taken out of the registration cost. One-day rates will not be extended as well at this time. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

• Cancellations must be received by May 22, 2013 to receive a full refund, less a $10 processing fee.
• Cancellations made by May 29, 2013 will be refunded 50%.
• Cancellations after May 29, 2013 will not be refunded.

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