Category: pastoral

BY: Dr. Lynne Taylor | March 22, 2025

I’ve long been curious about how and why people come to embrace (and remain in) the Christian faith. In a western context of declining church attendance and declining religious affiliation, some people – even among those who did not grow up in the church – choose to become Christians.

I explored this in my 2017 PhD thesis, by interviewing a small number of adult Australians who came from an unchurched background and had become Christians in the previous two years. One of the interesting findings was the match that existed between what the participants told me they liked about God and what they aspired to be more like themselves. They told me that they saw God as loving, powerful, patient, accepting and forgiving; and that they wanted to be more loving, patient, accepting and forgiving themselves. It was one finding among many – and one that I flagged for further investigation.

Space to Explore the (Possible) Connection

Fast forward a few years, and in 2023, I was delighted to be accepted as a Fellow on the University of Birmingham “New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theologians” Fellowship. I am grateful for funding from the Fellowship (made possible by the John Templeton Foundation) that has enabled me to explore this possible connection further. I’ve used the funding to set aside some of my own time for this project and to employ a part-time research assistant: the fabulous Dr Jessica Bent. In our research, we’re working to better understand if there exists a relationship between people’s perceptions of God and their aspirations towards being better people.

A Gap in the Literature!

We started by looking for other work that makes the connection between people’s personal aspirations towards being a better person, and their god concepts and god images. We didn’t find much. At all. Which is, of course good and bad – good because it’s clearly a gap in the literature; and bad because we couldn’t find another study to replicate. But that’s OK! There was still lots to read and explore, from both psychology and theology.

The Imago Dei

A theology of imago Dei asserts that human persons are made in the image of God, to reflect God’s image or attributes. Defining who people inherently are, the imago Dei also impacts on both how we live and how we aspire to live. Theologian, Theodore Runyon called it a vocation, and a true destiny.[1] Those familiar with psychology might be hearing echoes of the ideal self…We sure did!

Photo by Jianxiang Wu on Unsplash

The Ideal Self – And a Little Michelangelo

Psychologist, Theresa DiDonato explains that “the ideal self encompasses the type of person an individual aspires to become: the constellation of behaviors, traits, and skills she wishes to acquire.”[2] The ideal self can motivate people towards a place where their actual self matches what they see as their ideal and ought self.

Achieving their ideal is not something that one can do alone. Some have compared others’ assistance in forming one’s ideal self to the sculptor Michelangelo, working to reveal the true artform from within a block of stone. While generally this connection is made to a romantic partner, some scholars, like Elaine Cheung and Wendi Gardner, extend the idea in relation to a community of sculptors who have different skills and emphases. We could readily see how belonging to a church that was made up of people who wanted to live according to their Christian values might also help move people towards ideal selves that were defined by those values. And we wondered if people who understood themselves to be in a relationship with God, and appreciated attributes of God, might aspire to an ideal self that is like God.

Investigating the Connection

We started data gathering with a questionnaire completed by recently baptised adult Christians (from Baptist Churches in New Zealand), in which we investigated if their God representations correlate with the attributes that they aspire to live out themselves.

We chose recently baptised adults because in Baptist churches, baptism signifies a personal commitment to Christianity and a desire for ongoing personal transformation. Those being baptised usually share a testimony beforehand where they describe why they have chosen to be baptised. Therefore, we figure that they will have recently considered the meaning and the implications of their faith. This made them an ideal sample, especially as we’re also interested in whether an aspiration-attribute match motivates faith formation.

We designed a questionnaire that asked what participants wanted to be more and less like, and what they appreciated about God. There was a combination of open-ended questions and other, quantifiable measures.

At the end of the questionnaire, we asked directly if “reflecting on what God is like” made them “want to be more like God.” They all said yes, it did; and all but one indicated that “reflecting on what God is like” made them “want to be a better person.” Unfortunately, we’d only ended up with a very small sample size (17 valid responses) so we couldn’t do any quantitative analyses. But the qualitative data was rich and confirmed our hypothesis…

They did want to be like God! In the open-ended questions about what they wanted to be more like, their responses (for instance, more graceful, less “for myself”, and less independent) matched the attributes of God they said they most appreciated (the same person said: God is graceful, Jesus is servant-like, Jesus is fatherly, God is friend). Each participant showed at least one match between their aspirations and the attributes of God they appreciated.

The matches fitted within twelve different categories: self-giving, active, Christ-like, loving, faithful, mental wellbeing, patient, generous, relational, authenticity, forgiving, and other spiritual. Of these different categories, matches were most prominent in the self-giving (self-control, humble, self-less, obedient) category.

What’s Next?

Because we didn’t get enough responses to statistically analyse the quantitative data in this first study, we refined and simplified the questionnaire and gathered more data from anyone aged over 18 who considers themselves to be of Christian faith. We expected that this general cohort may be less likely to have matching aspirations and appreciated attributes, but that they will still exist for most participants. We’re currently analysing this second dataset, and it looks like this is the case!

Why Are We Interested?

We hope that this research contributes to both theological and psychological theory, and helps churches and Christians understand how they can best support people towards flourishing. Churches can play a role in helping their congregation members healthily define what their ideal self is like, and then to support them towards those aspirations.

This blog is cross-posted on https://crosstrainingpsychologyandtheology.com/2025/03/22/blog-an-ideal-self-and-the-imago-dei/

Thursday 13 February 2025 8-9pm NZDT
(Not in NZ? Find when it is at your place here

We’re running a workshop next month,
considering the insights and implications
from our recent research on recently baptised adults’
perceptions of God and their aspirations towards living good lives.

We’ll be chatting about:
What motivates faith formation
What do people aspire to be like, and why
Why might people want to become Christian or deepen their faith today

Everyone is welcome!

Zoom details are in the image: Meeting ID: 922 5381 9845/Password: 949020

a woman sitting on a couch reading a book

Wow! A lot has happened since I last talked about my Birmingham fellowship project that explores the relationship between people’s perceptions of God and their aspirations towards living well. Jessica and I finished collecting and analysing our first set of data (thank you everyone who shared and/or completed the questionnaire!) and we presented our findings at the Ecclesiology and Ethnography conference in Durham. Just like last year, it was a pleasure to be part of the conference. There was so much to learn and so many good papers from presenters across the world.

In our presentation, we described the pilot study we have completed – what we did and what we discovered – and outlined what our next steps along this research journey will be. In summary, our pilot study, consisting of an online questionnaire completed by adults baptised in NZ Baptist churches in the last five years, found that people do want to be like God… The things they wrote they wanted to be like (for instance, more graceful, less “for myself”, and less independent) matched the attributes of God they most appreciated (the same person said: God is graceful, Jesus is servant-like, Jesus is fatherly, God is friend). Each of the seventeen people who responded to the qualitative questions showed at least one match between their aspirations and the attributes of God they appreciated.

We found matches within twelve different categories: self-giving, active, Christ-like, loving, faithful, mental wellbeing, patient, generous, relational, authenticity, forgiving, and other spiritual. Of these different categories, matches were most prominent in the self-giving (self-control, humble, self-less, obedient) category. Which is something we are very interested in! 

Just as interesting was that each of the twelve participants who responded to the question said that “reflecting on what God is like” made them “want to be more like God.” All but one also indicated that “reflecting on what God is like” made them “want to be a better person.” While five respondents noted that reflecting on God made them “realize that they weren’t very good,” three said that reflecting on God made them “realize that they [are] very good.” In fact, one of these respondents indicated that reflecting on God made them realize that they are both not very good and very good. Such a nuanced understanding of one’s humanity can certainly be understood theologically!  

So where to from here? We didn’t get enough responses to statistically analyse the quantitative data, so (having refined and simplified the questionnaire and our God Attributes Measure) we started gathering more data from anyone aged over 18 who considers themselves to be of Christian faith.

(That questionnaire is now closed, with sufficient responses – keep an eye on the blog for more!)

We’d love you to let others know about it:

Research on faith and spirituality

Are you aged over eighteen years and a person of Christian faith? If so, Dr Lynne Taylor and Dr Jessica Bent (from the Theology Programme, University of Otago) invite you to take part in a research study on faith and spirituality. It is part of ongoing research on contemporary faith formation.

If you choose to take part in our research, you will be asked to complete an online questionnaire (it will take approximately 15 minutes) that asks you questions about your perceptions of God and yourself.

You’ll find more information and the questionnaire here: https://otago.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1SVVC6AzVPdcwtg

My neglected blog is up and running again, in perfect time to update you on research I am doing on contemporary faith formation! Last year, I was accepted as a Fellow on the University of Birmingham “New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theologians” Fellowship. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but essentially the Fellowship is training theologians in psychological research methods and theories in relation to how God is seen and understood by people. Exciting, right?

I’ve been to Birmingham for two residentials with my fellow Fellows(!), where we all received loads of input and insights. I was also awarded funding and my fabulous research assistant (Dr Jessica Bent) and I embarked on an exciting new project…

In our research, we want to better understand the relationship between people’s perceptions of God and their aspirations towards living well. Many of you will already know about my doctoral research on why previously unchurched become Christians today. One of the interesting things that came up in the PhD was the match between what the new Christians I interviewed told me they appreciated about God’s character; and things that they aspired to be more like themselves. They told me that they saw God as loving, patient, accepting and forgiving. They also told me they wanted to be more loving, patient, accepting and forgiving themselves! Fascinating, right? Our current project extends that research (in exciting ways, we think!). In our current project, we ask if God representations of recently baptised adult Christians correlate with the attributes they aspire to live out themselves.

We hope that this research will not only contribute to theological and psychological theory, but also help churches and Christians understand how they can best support people towards flourishing.

At the moment, we are at the exciting stage of recruiting participants from NZ Baptist churches for the project. Through an online questionnaire, participants will share about their faith journey, their experiences of other Christians and of God, and their reflections on a series of virtues/characteristics. (We will also be running focus groups later on this topic.)

If you would like to partner with us in the work we are doing, please pass on the link below to anyone over the age of 18 who has been baptised in the last five years. (We’re keen to hear from both those who are active and regular members of their worshipping communities as well as people who have changed churches or denominations or even stopped attending. The stories and reflections of all our participants are needed!)

Here’s the link to the Information Sheet about the project: https://tinyurl.com/baptism2024info

Contact lynne(dot)taylor(at)otago(dot)ac(dot)nz if you have any questions!

Chaplaincy and dementia care

Here’s the final catch up post!

This article is a particular joy as it came out of research one of my students, Annabel Hawkes did on dementia care chaplaincy. Annie is a social worker, who volunteers as a chaplain and is passionate about dementia care. I supervised her research dissertation on the work of two Anglican chaplains who work in residential dementia care homes. Once the dissertation was completed, I spent a couple of days turning it into a journal article and we found a home for it in Religions. The article explores the idea of personhood and the work of these chaplains as they offered a ministry of personal and sacramental presence to the residents.

You can read it here: https://www.mdpi.com/2819768

Hawkes, Annabel, and Lynne Taylor (2024). “Presence and Personhood: Investigating Christian Chaplaincy Care in Two Residential Dementia Units.” Religions 15 (2): 704 (12 pages).

And carrying on the catch up: my excellent research assistant, Jessica Bent and I published an article last year on preaching during the early days of covid-19. We had analysed the online worship services of three NZ churches, from March 2020 and brought the data into conversation with Neil Pembroke’s work on therapeutic and theocentric preaching. Each of the churches studied balanced the theocentric and therapeutic in helpful and interesting ways.

As we note, “The theocentric related to God’s character and attributes (particularly God’s love, attentive presence and faithfulness), and activity and power. The therapeutic was expressed by lamenting and acknowledging pain, offering words of comfort, and inviting response, including in care for others. For each church, the goal was towards human flourishing: shalom, or well-being even amid difficult circumstances.”

You can read it here: http://ehomiletics.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/JEHS_23-2_2023_updated.pdf

Taylor, Lynne and Jessica Bent (2023). “Theocentric Therapeutic Preaching: Good News During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society 23 (2): 70-97.

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.

10 T4ML #10 Dream a little

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

(10 Things For Ministers in Another Lockdown)

I don’t know if you experienced and remember the sense of hope that perhaps the world and the church might be different in the future, because of the pandemic. Maybe we’ll discover ways to live without trashing the planet. Maybe we’ll find new ways of being the church in our local communities. Maybe we’ll live into new ways of caring for one another. Maybe there are things that we learn and do that might become part of our future, rather than just being stopgap measures.

One person I interviewed described it like this: “What might be normal going forward might be different, but we get to build that. We get to decide what that is.” There was a sense of determined anticipation that the future could be different, and we could be involved in shaping that.

At the same time, there was some resignation by then (March 2021) that much had returned to an old normal. That many church members simply wanted a return to what was, rather than a turn to what could be. That’s not surprising: a return to familiarity can be comfortable and comforting.

But let’s be honest. The Church is in decline and the things that have been done over past generations are not all that will be required into the future. So dream a little dream! (Or a big dream, even.) Imagine what could be. Look back in your journal on your computer and see what new and fresh things sparked a sense of joy and anticipation. What old or ancient practices were reinstated? What new things grew? As I write this, we’re still in Alert Level 4, here in Aotearoa New Zealand. None of us want to be here. So read this in the light of the previous nine things I also wanted to say.

Look back and draw on past strength; and live into and out of your values. Those things will help sustain you. Lean into God, in whom our hope and strength are found. Name the challenge: it’s hard, right? Prioritise connection and invite participation. Be “good enough”: perfection not required; perfection not possible. Invite people (online) into your place, even if it’s a bit messy or muddly. Keep an eye out for God at work. Get people involved, reaching out to others. And, strengthened and empowered by all that, dream a little dream of what might be.

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

(10 Things For Ministers in Another Lockdown)

There are many things that are crucial to our wellbeing as humans. In addition to our more obvious physical needs, some scholars talk in terms of three inherent needs: autonomy, belonging and competency. Needless to say, pandemics impact negatively on all three! Competency relates to a sense of purpose and mastery – having something important to do and knowing that you do it well. Belonging relates to a sense of connection and attachment to others: more difficult to achieve when physical distancing is mandated, and travel restricted or prohibited. Autonomy relates to a sense of being in control, which is obviously diminished by uncertainty around lockdowns and the wider ongoing pandemic context.

One way that all three can be enhanced in covid times is through the simple act of reaching out to others. In the context of the church, this can be approached informally as everyone is encouraged to care for their friends and whanau. It can be approached formally through creating pastoral care structures that ensure each person is linked to others in the church; each caring and being cared for. Or there might be an approach somewhere in the middle, where informal care is encouraged, and those with particular needs matched with someone who can check in on them. However it happens, it’s good to celebrate its significance!

Autonomy is enhanced as the caregiver makes the effort to offer care: as they decide for themselves to act in a way that is caring towards another. This can give them some sense of having control over their actions. Belonging is enhanced as relationships deepen, and the caregiver sees what they are doing as making an important contribution to the church community. Competency is enhanced as the carer regains a sense of purpose: they are doing something that is important and is valued.

We often see such actions in terms of the benefits for the recipients of that care, but in reality, they also benefit the one doing the caring. There’s reciprocity here – the benefits go both ways.  

Therefore, ministers can be encouraged to name and celebrate the importance and significance of caring beyond one’s own bubble. Of taking the time and making the effort to reach out to others. Sounds like a win-win to me!

(Of course, we need to ensure that there are clear ways that people can escalate any concerns that they may have about those they are reaching out to. In this way, appropriate pastoral, spiritual and practical care can be offered to those who need it.)

Wellbeing and older people

I’ve just sent someone an article that I wrote a number of years ago about older people in the church.

It encourages taking a holistic approach to what it means to be human; looks at the sorts of resourcing a local church can provide to older people; affirms the need for places of connection; and recognises the need for all people to have ways that they can offer themselves and their gifts for a wider purpose.

https://unsplash.com/photos/MMhazsT2wtM
image by @tatizanon

Interested? You can download it here (It should go directly to your downloads – if you have any difficulty, flick me an email :))