We Were Made for This
It happened almost immediately. I started reading about Wicked Problems, and I could feel the metaphorical head smack followed by the thought, “How have I never heard of this before?” I was further surprised by reading about the many ways that a Wicked Problems framework is popular and widely applied across many disciplines. I may be late to the party, but I am 100% on board with incorporating a Wicked Problem framework to consider common topics and situations all kinds of leaders face. Before getting into how and why thinking wicked is helpful in my context, let’s take a quick dip into the characteristics of Wicked Problems outlined by Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, professors emeriti who wrote Exploring Wicked Problems, What They Are and Why They Are Important.
Wicked Problems
- Overlap many spheres of society, such as government, religion, family life, and public policy.
- People disagree over their source.
- There are countless sources! How does one draw a cup of water from the ocean and identify the source? Is it a stream? A river? A raindrop? A cloud? Evaporated ocean water?
- Potentially innumerable stakeholders
- Diversely impacted by the problem
- Diverse perspectives on the best way to solve or manage the problem[1]
- They overlap each other/are symptoms of one another. If a person from an African nation suffering war, famine, and crop failure takes a tremendous sounding job and ends up trafficked into a Myanmar scam factory, is their problem climate change, colonialism, or capitalism?[2]
- Each is unique.[3]
- They can never truly be solved.[4]
In essence, Wicked Problems are messy and complex in a way that seems to define the human condition.[5] For Jesus-followers, the messy and complex aspects of the human condition result from sin in the world. Therefore, I want to engage Wicked Problems through a lens of theological anthropology. How can theology be applied to the world’s Wicked Problems in a way that is helpful to humanity? Can the Church make a real difference?
One way Jesus-followers and the Church get it wrong when participating in conversations about Wicked Problems is by leading with the long lens of eschatology. “Jesus will make things right in the end” is cold comfort to individuals suffering from the impacts of climate change, poverty, homelessness, addiction, or overlapping combinations of any number of these and other Wicked Problems. The same long lens of “someday” can also keep Christians on the bench instead of getting in the game when it comes to making a difference in the lives of people impacted by Wicked Problems.
Christians may mistakenly participate in exacerbating Wicked Problems when they abdicate their call to be co-creators with God in Kingdom building and assume the government will be wizards of Wicked Problem solving. US politicians (for example) will narrowly frame a Wicked Problem with two sides of cause and corresponding solutions. Some Christians vocally align along those sides. Choosing sides and cheering for one’s team, whether from a pulpit or Facebook, may feel like helping. In truth, it is futile because Wicked Problems are too interconnected and too involved with messy, complex humanity to be eliminated. Wicked Problems cannot be solved. The best of human solutions are only “modest advances.”[6]
The Church can make a meaningful contribution to managing Wicked Problems. The Church is made for facing global problems that are too big to solve! “Most of the stress and turmoil that individuals actually experience is caused by the Wicked problems that express themselves at a more personal level. So it is at this level that any serious work must begin.”[7] During his earthly ministry, Jesus engaged Wicked Problems as a human. He interacted with and healed people one at a time. He developed leaders in personal relationships. And Jesus called us to follow him. God has not asked us to do God’s work and solve the Wicked Problems. He did that on the cross. Every Jesus-follower bearing the unique imprint of imago dei is imbued with gifts selected from God himself to be used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit to build the Kingdom of God that has now come. The Kingdom we get to create is not “an earthly empire” but is “faithful action that works to bring God’s kingship over every facet of human life.”[8]
A Christian, a church, or The Church will not eliminate homelessness. However, faithful expressions of Christianity can change the life of a homeless person. This Jesus-centered way of being in response to Wicked Problems aligns with Bentley and Toth, who call big huge situations like immigration, climate change, and homelessness “messes,” which are a massive pile of problems collapsed in on themselves. These messes cannot be solved and may drive people apart as individuals consider the aspects that affect them negatively and are blind to how their actions impact others in the same mess. But by locating individual problems within the mess, people can be brought closer together via a unified sense of purpose.[9] The authors emphasize that Wicked Problems can only be managed, not solved, and attempts may only be good, better, or best.[10] Co-creating Kingdom is the best we have for now.
Wicked Problems is a helpful way to tee up problems that are otherwise very difficult to discuss, let alone address helpfully. Rather than engage in hot debate and choosing sides, I hope to offer the Wicked Problem framework to others and ask them to join me in constructive conversations leading to positive action.
[1] Joseph Bentley, PhD, Michael Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, What they Are and Why They Are Important, (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2020), 26.
[2] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 41.
[3] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 11.
[4] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 18.
[5] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 10.
[6] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 41.
[7] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 53.
[8] N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2024), 8.
[9] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 82.
[10] Bentley and Toth PhD, Exploring Wicked Problems, 105.
About the Author
Julie O'Hara
10 responses to “We Were Made for This”
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Hi Julie, As you are considering inviting others to join you in dialogue, is there a particularly messy situation that would become a wicked problem you would like to address?
Hi Diane,
I’m not sure if this is what you had in mind, but my husband and mother-in-law are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. I have been trying to help the more of emotional of them take a wider view.
Julie,
You said “’Jesus will make things right in the end’” is cold comfort to individuals suffering from the impacts of climate change, poverty, homelessness, addiction, or overlapping combinations of any number of these and other Wicked Problems. Then later you quote Wright and Bird “The Kingdom we get to create is not “’an earthly empire’” but is “’faithful action that works to bring God’s kingship over every facet of human life.’” Have you experienced people or even churches as being too heavenly minded/focused that they fail to engage in bringing God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?
Hi Jeff, I would say that many churches in my own denomination had become this way, but that tide is turning rapidly. It seems to be a mindset that we need to watch for vigilantly. Becoming comfortable and ‘clubby’ with each other is SOOOO tempting! I know how trying and rewarding it can me to become involved with messy situations as a church. People need to be willing to be uncomfortable, engaged, and adaptable.
Hi Julie, Prior to reading the book, I, too, was completely ignorant of this term and its profound impact over the last few decades! Your application to use this framework in the future is excellent. I hope to hear more about your experience.
What past lessons have you learned from “the Swamp” of wicked problems that you plan to lean into as you move forward?
Hi Kari,
When I was pastoring in Eugene in 2020 the city allowed unhoused folks to camp in a very large park park under the offramp 2 blocks from the church. It was the first time a lot of people recognized the fact that our city had the highest percentage per capita of homelessness for a city of our size. People were disgusted, sad, angry, lots of NIMBY reactions, etc. Since we could not meet in person due to the illness which shall not be named, I participated with a group doing church outside, under the overpass. During that 10 months many relationships were formed and dozen of people made it into housing. The problem has not gone away, but one-life-at-a-time, relationally, the outcome was changed for many.
HI Julie, it seems like I do the forehead head smack regularly when reading for this program. How could I not have known this?
What are the specific wicked problems you might need to work on with others?
Hi Graham,
Currently, I am thinking of the trouble many of my denomination’s ministry students have articulating our distinctive doctrine of Entire Sanctification. There are many reasons for confusion. Their struggles to articulate a point of theology intersect with many problems and lots and lots of disagreement about where do we go from here. Adding to the challenge is the global nature of our denomination and our particular polity. Thanks for asking the question – I am glad to reframe this particular issue as a wicked problem. It will be very very helpful in upcoming conversations.
Just an affirmation. “Wicked Problems is a helpful way to tee up problems that are otherwise very difficult to discuss, let alone address helpfully”.
I wonder what syntopical connections you might make from either Kahneman’s heuristics (Thinking Fast and Slow), or Carol Dweck’s growth vs fixed mindsets, to address helpfully opening up conversation about wicked problems?
Thank you, Julie, for the perspective you brought into the discussion about wicked problems, followers of Jesus, and the government. As of now, immigration, has seemed to be one of those wicked problems in which we know that solution is hard to come by, and Christians are taking sides. It is just my ‘thinking-out-loud.’ And maybe it is not about solving the WP, but how one’s grown through the process. Thanks, Julie.