Category: community

Computer showing online meeting and coffee cup
Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

I’ve recently had a new article published in Witness (a USA-based journal). At the moment, it’s only available to members and subscribers, but I am permitted to provide a copy of it here on my blog. I’ve also included the abstract below.

I didn’t expect to go there, but analysing the data from the case study church took me back to my PhD research on contemporary conversion.

ABSTRACT:

The covid-19 global pandemic radically interrupted all areas of life, including forcing churches to adapt their worship, mission, and pastoral care within new constraints of physical distancing. This article explores a case study of how one church communicated the message of faith; connected with, and cared for attenders, the wider community, and others; and experimented with different forms of worship and ministry during covid-19. Drawing on data from a questionnaire, focus groups, interviews, content analysis and participant observation, the article demonstrates the importance of amplifying a message consistent with one’s values, providing opportunities for warm connection, and continuing to make iterative change to ministry practices.  Considering this alongside recent research on contemporary conversion, the paper affirms the significance of relational authenticity in engaging in Christian witness, including when the church is forced into unfamiliar and undesired realities. Churches can be encouraged by the potential fruitfulness of multiple voices communicating the significance and meaning of their faith; being honest about life’s challenges; and encouraging and resourcing engagement in spiritual practices as means of Christian witness, including in challenging times.

Taylor, L. M. (2021). “Reaching Out Online: Learning From One Church’s Embrace Of Digital Worship, Ministry And Witness.” Witness: The Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, 35, 1-14.

2018 Community Demographics

One of the things that I do in my not-working-for-Uni time, is provide demographics based on the Census data to local churches. It’s something I have done since forever (er, since the 1986 data was released as Supermap2 in the early 1990s).

It has taken a bit longer than usual, but I’ve now got the NZ 2018 Census data ready to be made into data on your local community.

Why do this? Because I believe it’s important for churches to be engaged and embedded in their local communities. And part of that, is understanding who makes up that community. I reckon that God was and is into local communities – God sent Jesus, after all. That was pretty local.

If you’re interested, there is a sample profile that you can download here. (Page 1 is below). Details on how to order are here.

All Hallows Eve 2018

We (Student Soul) gave these out at Salmond College: encouraging students to remember and give thanks for those who have been a blessing in their lives to date.

It is good to reclaim All Hallows Eve as a celebration of good people!

Also, chocolate. Always good.

Halloween (All Saints Day eve)

Hey world! It’s Halloween.
Halloween is the eve (e’en) before All Hallows Day (Hallow)…

It’s a day to remember people whom we are glad of:
people who have inspired us,
helped us grow … challenged us … made our world a better place.

In the past, I’ve engaged in a little reverse-Halloween activity:
knocking on neighbour’s doors to give away treats.

Today, I invite you to remember someone whom you are glad of.
What challenge or encouragement might they offer you today?