Movement Leader Themes

Movement Leader Themes

Read a movement leader's own corpus — full books, research dossier, articles — and produce the canonical theme documents for their website in docs/themes/:

1. docs/themes/CORE_THEMES.md — the organizing taxonomy. Which 4–6 themes earn pathway-level status, which candidates are deliberately rejected (folded into tags/modules), how the themes relate as a single integrated argument, and how books map to themes. This is a decision record, not a brochure.
2. docs/themes/{slug}.md — one deep-dive per core theme: 12-section pathway content in the leader's voice, every substantive claim grounded in the corpus and footnoted.

The defining discipline: themes are read out of the corpus, not imposed on it. Read the full books before naming a single theme. Internet summaries and pre-existing config are inputs to check against, never the source of truth.

Invocation

/movement-leader-themes $ARGUMENTS

$ARGUMENTS:

• A leader name or slug: Brad Brisco, brad-brisco. Defaults to the current repo's leader if obvious.
• --taxonomy-only → write CORE_THEMES.md only; skip the per-theme deep-dives.
• --theme {slug} → (re)write a single deep-dive file, assuming CORE_THEMES.md already exists.
• --refresh → regenerate from the existing corpus without re-deriving the taxonomy from scratch (keep the slug set, refresh content).
• Empty → infer the leader from the repo; if ambiguous, ask.

Inputs (in priority order)

Run from the leader's website repo root. Use whatever exists; never block on a missing source.

If docs/books/ is empty, stop and say so: this skill derives themes from a book corpus. Offer to run against the research dossier alone only if the user confirms (lower-confidence output).

Part A — CORE_THEMES.md (the taxonomy)

The taxonomy is an editorial argument with a decision record. Reference implementation: brad-brisco repo, docs/themes/CORE_THEMES.md (five themes derived from a six-book corpus).

Section schema

# {Full Name} — Core Themes

**Purpose:** Fresh assessment of {Name}'s core themes after full book corpus
ingestion (`docs/books/`) and movement leader research. This document proposes
the organizing system for pathway pages, evergreen articles, and courses.

**Status:** Draft for review
**Last updated:** {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Corpus reviewed:** {N books}, research tree, {article sources}

1. Executive Summary — State the leader's work as a single integrated argument, not a topic grab-bag. Then the recommended N core themes in a table: # | pathway slug | Title | Role in the corpus. Justify why N is the right number (book architecture, audience, existing config). End with an explicit list of themes that appear in research but should not become pathways.
2. Methodology — A "What we read" table (Source | Scope | Weight) and the assessment criteria: a theme earns pathway status only if it passes all four tests — (1) Corpus centrality, (2) Distinctiveness, (3) Course viability, (4) Audience demand. State what keeps a theme subordinate (a method, a context, or a borrowed framework).
3. The Integrated Argument — How the themes relate. A flow diagram (fenced ASCII) showing the sequence/dependency, plus, where the corpus supports it, a table mapping the leader's own magnum-opus structure to the themes. This section is the strongest evidence for the theme count.
4. Theme {n}: {Title} (one block per theme) — with: Slug, EEAT tags, One-line claim; What this theme is; What this theme entails (Layer | Content table); Primary corpus (named books/chapters); What belongs here (not elsewhere); Pathway reframe (Usual question | Better question); Course outline (proposed) (6 numbered lessons); Why this earns/stays pathway status (corpus evidence).
5. Themes Considered and Rejected as Pathways — Candidate | Why it appeared in research | Why it does not earn a pathway. This table is mandatory and is where intellectual honesty shows.
6. Mapping: Books → Themes — Book (year) | Primary themes | Secondary themes.
7. Mapping: Pathways → Content Types — Theme | Evergreen articles | Book anchors | Course | AI Lab persona emphasis.
8. Relationship to Existing Platform Config — Does this confirm or revise tenantConfig.themes? Recommend content adjustments, not architecture churn.
9. Decision Record — Decision | Rationale. Every non-obvious call (theme count, keeping X separate from Y, subordinating Z) gets a row.
10. Sources — file paths and URLs actually read.

Deriving the themes (the hard part)

• Read every book's chapters before proposing a taxonomy. Note chapter-level investment — a theme that owns whole chapters across multiple books is pathway-grade; a theme that appears once is a tag.
• Prefer the leader's own organizing structure (how they sequence their magnum opus) over a topical clustering you invent.
• Name a theme with the leader's own vocabulary (their coined terms), not generic church-growth labels.
• 4–6 themes is the normal range. Resist inflation: a borrowed framework (cited from another author), a method (e.g. "paradigm shifts"), or a context (e.g. "post-Christendom") is subordinate, not a pillar.
• If existing config already names slugs, the default posture is confirm and explain, not reshuffle — unless the corpus genuinely contradicts the config, in which case say so in the Decision Record.

Part B — {slug}.md (per-theme deep-dive)

Each core theme gets one file: full pathway content in the leader's voice, every substantive section carrying ≥3 grounded citations. Reference implementation: brad-brisco repo, docs/themes/discipleship.md (and its siblings).

Load the voice guide first (docs/voice/{SLUG}_VOICE.md). The deep-dive must pass that guide's voice markers. If the voice guide does not exist yet, run [[movement-leader-voice]] first.

Front matter

---
author: {slug}
title: {Theme Title}
slug: {theme-slug}
reframing_question: "{the provocation this pathway turns on}"
companion_pillar: {eeat-tag}
primary_corpus:
  - {Book (ch. N, "Chapter Title")}
companion_course: {course-slug}
group_order: [Understand, Examine, Apply, Go deeper]
theme_order: {n}
one_line_claim: "{the claim}"
last_updated: {YYYY-MM-DD}
---

The 12 sections

1. Hero / provocation — Name the default assumption the reader holds, then turn it with the reframing question (bolded).
2. Overview — What this pathway helps the reader recover/do; end with the 2–3 concrete capabilities they'll gain.
3. The model / framework — The 2–4 named frameworks that reframe the conversation, each defined in the leader's terms.
4. The scripture thread — The passages the corpus actually leans on for this theme (woven, not proof-texted).
5. The historical context — Why the distortion exists; where the alternative has worked.
6. The cases — Plural. Two+ concrete, corpus-grounded witnesses (people, movements, moments the leader actually cites). Never fabricate a case; if the corpus frames the theme around a model figure and a movement, use those.
7. The practices — Numbered, concrete, startable-now actions, each footnoted. Theology before tactics — but real tactics.
8. The curated resources — Book/chapter anchors, companion pillar, companion course, vetted external works the leader endorses.
9. The AI Lab — Invite the reader to bring a real situation into the AI Lab companion, staying in this pathway's frame. No script.
10. FAQs — The real objections this theme provokes, answered in voice and cited.
11. Distortion warnings — ≥2 named failure modes (the reductions/counterfeits of this theme), each cited.
12. Invitation — One concrete next step with real people (named cohort/course + a do-it-now alternative), looping back to the theme system.

Sections close with

• Citations — a [^n] list. Each: claim: {what} · source: {Book, ch. N "Title"} · page: {range or —} · type: book|article|reference. Every footnote must trace to the corpus; never invent a page or a quote.
• Delivery note — an HTML comment self-check: section count, cases-plural confirmation, distortions ≥2, four necessities present (dissonance / action / reflection / community), ≥3 citations per substantive section, voice profile applied, and an explicit "no fabrication" line.

The four necessities (must all be present)

Every deep-dive must create dissonance (name the gap), prescribe action (practices), prompt reflection (structured questions), and point to community (named cohort/relationship). The delivery note verifies these.

Process

Phase 1 — Inventory the corpus

ls docs/books/*/chapters/ 2>/dev/null
ls docs/movement_leader_research/ 2>/dev/null
ls docs/voice/ docs/themes/ 2>/dev/null

Build a list of books (slug, title, chapter count, year) and note which research/voice artifacts exist. For a large corpus, delegate per-book reading to subagents via the Agent tool (one agent per book → returns chapter-level theme notes), then synthesize.

Phase 2 — Derive and write the taxonomy

Apply the four-test filter, select 4–6 themes, write docs/themes/CORE_THEMES.md. Stop here if --taxonomy-only.

Phase 3 — Write the per-theme deep-dives

Ensure the voice guide exists (run [[movement-leader-voice]] if not). For each theme slug, write docs/themes/{slug}.md with full front matter, 12 sections, citations, and delivery note. For a multi-theme run, one subagent per theme is appropriate — but every agent must load the same voice guide and the relevant book chapters.

Phase 4 — Verify

• CORE_THEMES.md: every theme block has all required subsections; the rejected-themes table is present; the decision record explains every non-obvious call; sources list real paths.
• Each {slug}.md: 12 sections present; cases are plural and corpus-grounded; ≥2 distortions; ≥3 citations per substantive section; four necessities present; front matter complete; no fabricated pages, quotes, or biography.
• Cross-check: every slug in CORE_THEMES.md has a deep-dive file (unless --taxonomy-only), and no orphan deep-dive exists without a taxonomy entry.

Key rules

1. Read the books first. No theme may be named before its supporting chapters are read. Research dossiers and config are checked against the corpus, never substituted for it.
2. Themes are the leader's, in the leader's words. Use their coined terms; resist generic church-growth labels and imported frameworks-as-pillars.
3. Reject honestly. The rejected-themes table and decision record are mandatory. A taxonomy with no rejections is under-examined.
4. Every claim traces to the corpus. Inline footnotes with book + chapter + page (or —). Never fabricate a page number, quote, case, or biographical detail.
5. Deep-dives must be in voice. Load docs/voice/{SLUG}_VOICE.md and pass its markers. Voice fidelity is not optional.
6. Cases are always plural and always real. If the corpus offers only a model figure and a movement, use those two — do not invent a contemporary planter.
7. Confirm config by default. When existing theme slugs exist, the strong prior is to confirm and explain; only revise when the corpus contradicts, and record why.
8. Reference implementation is brad-brisco. When a section's depth or shape is unclear, open the brad-brisco repo's docs/themes/CORE_THEMES.md and docs/themes/{slug}.md and match them.