sustain:if:able kiwi

90 plus research interviews in 2021

As I head into the 2022 working year, I’m reflecting not only on writing done in the 2021 year gone. I’m also reflecting on research undertaken.

A highlight of 2021 was being able to conduct over 90 research interviews. This involved four different projects, for four different church denominations. In my role as Director of AngelWings Ltd I conduct quality research. In 2021, this involved requests to conduct research into future church and change, theological education, student mission and craft in mission. Most was by zoom, working internationally with folk in USA, Samoa, Fiji and Australia. There were also multiple interviews across Aotearoa both face to face and by zoom.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

My rough rule of thumb is that one interview involves 4 to 6 hours of work, excluding travel time. There is about 30 minutes to write introducing the project, suggesting boundaries and seeking to set up an interview. There is about 60 minutes of interview. There is about 30 minutes to individually process the interview, to either walk or journal my impressions in a research memo. Then there is the interview writeup. For most of these interviews, I compiled not a transcript but a 2-3 page summary. This is sent back to the person interviewed, so they are aware of what was heard. This also includes time if the feedback process involves corrections or suggestions for improvement. (A full transcript takes a lot longer and very few industry groups see the need for that depth of accuracy). The write-up takes about 2 hours for a 1-1 interview, longer for a focus group.

So 90 interviews, each at around 5 hours of work, meant some 450 hours of work, over 11 weeks full-time equivalent for me in 2021. What a privilege, to engage, listen and learn from thoughtful, caring and passionate people.

Interviews make knowledge. You literally see wisdom emerge in front of your eyes, as people pause and say “I’d not really thought of it like this before but …” Such is the power of qualitative research to individuals and communities.

Interviews invite diverse voices to the table. When people begin with “I’m not sure I have much to say …” you realise that unless invited, so much insight is never shared. Such is the gift of qualitative research to organisations and groups.

In 2021, I was blessed to conduct over 90 interviews, across multiple projects and diverse cultures, as part of AngelWings providing quality knowledge and insight to individuals, organisations, church denominations and theological providers.

22 in 21: published pieces in 2021

(Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash )

As I head into the 2022 working year, I’m glad of the work of the year gone. Much to reflect on, including the opportunity to write. Numbers-wise, in 2021, I had 22 pieces of written work published. 11 were academic pieces and columns, 11 were film reviews. It’s a mix of scholarly and accessible that I really like.

Academic pieces – 2 peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters, 1 editorial;

“Courageous, purposeful, and reflexive; Writing as a missional and emergent task,” Ecclesial Futures 2 (2), (2021), 99-120, (co-authored with Lynne Taylor, Elaine Heath and Nigel Rooms).

“Jesus as a socially (ir)responsible innovator: seeking the common good in a dialogue between wisdom Christologies and social entrepreneurship,” International Journal of Public Theology 15 (1), (2021), 119–143, (co-authored with Christine Woods).

“Unbounding learning communities: An Educational Strategy for the Future of Life-long learning,” God’s Exemplary Graduates. Character-Oriented Graduate Attributes in Theological Education, edited by Les Ball and Peter Bolt, SCD Press (2021), 420–434, (co-authored with Rosemary Dewerse).

“Faith in the boardroom: seeking wisdom in governing for innovation,” In Reimagining Faith and Management: The Impact of faith in the workplace, edited by Edwina Pio, Robert Kilpatrick and Timothy Pratt, Routledge, (2021), 90–103.

“Editorial Volume 2 Issue 2,” Ecclesial Futures 2 (2), 2021, 1-6.

Book reviews – 2 reviews in academic journals;

“Book Review: Imagining Mission with John V. Taylor.” Stimulus 28 (1) June 2021 – reviewed here.

“The colouring of grey literature. A review of “JVT quotes” and “Answers on a Postcard.”” Ecclesial Futures 2 (1) June 2021, 165¬9.

Journalism – 4 columns;

“Aging,” Zadok 2021.

“Female Christ figures,” Zadok 2021.

“Signs, wonders and the economics of hanky power,” Zadok 2021 (4).

“Walking as Resistance,” Zadok 149, 2021 (4).

Film reviews – 11 reviews, of 500 words each, in Touchstone magazine, some on this blog …

The Power of the Dog – here.

Squid Game (Reviewed by Kayli Taylor) – here

Upstream

The Panthers

Black Widow

Deliver us from evil – here.

The First Cow – here.

Easter in Art –here

Cousins – here.

Dawn Raid –

From the vine –

journal article acceptance – Ordinary Time Festivals: an Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology

“a thing well made.” It’s a line from a song by Don McGlashan and it’s been an earworm since I received news this week that my journal article “Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology” has been accepted for publication by Theology Today, an international academic journal out of Princeton. It’s my 23rd accepted academic journal and the news got me thinking – Can journal articles be a thing well made?”

Reflecting on a journal article as a “thing well made”:

• First, the organising of 5,000 words in a logical and coherent way.
• Second, the attention to both detail (footnotes, grammar, spelling) and big picture (one coherent argument that connects with the real world).
• Third, pitching to the right journal. This involves researching the aims and objectives of the journal, working to align the abstract and argument with those aims and then writing a pitch.
• Fourth, responding to feedback. Submitting your work to multiple blind reviewers takes courage. You open yourself to critique.

Four reasons. What reasons might you add? Can a journal article be a thing well made? While you think, here’s the “Ordinary Time Festivals” abstract —

Feasts and festivals enliven the Christian life. Given Easter, Christmas and Pentecost cluster around the nineteen weeks of Christmastide and Eastertide, the thirty-three weeks of ordinary time are disconnected from these celebrations. The theological impact is considered in light of Amy Plantinga Pauw’s wisdom ecclesiology. For Pauw, the church has largely neglected the ordinary-time dimension of the Christian life. The result is a Christian life disconnected from creaturely existence and God’s ongoing work of creation.

This paper explores the possibility of ordinary time festivals as a way to embody Pauw’s wisdom ecclesiology. A harvest festival in Scotland, a spin and fibre festival in Australia and a local community festival in Aotearoa New Zealand are analyzed. These festivals are argued to embody Pauw’s themes of making new, longing, giving, suffering, rejoicing and joining hands. Hence, ordinary time festivals offer ecclesiologically formed ways for the church to embody wisdom ecclesiology. They enable a theological formed way of joining hands with God’s ongoing work in creation during ordinary time.

Built for Change resourcing Transformative Possibilities for Christian Leadership in Higher Education

Lovely to see my 2016 book, Built for change: A practical theology of innovation and collaboration, referenced in a recent journal article in Black Theology out of South Africa.

Gordon E. Dames, “Transformative Possibilities of Pedagogics for Christian Leadership in Higher Education – a South African Practical Theology Perspective,” Black Theology here.

Built for change gets a nod in footnote 2 (of 176!) to support Gordon Dames’ claim that “The question of what we teach in the Christian academy presupposes collaboration and innovation.” The article goes on to argue for a new approach to leadership education, using an educational praxis to teach dispositions of ethical-justice and peace.

Gordon Dames is a Professor in Practical Theology at the University of South Africa and it’s just lovely to have my book being read in the context of educational transformation in the cultural complexity of South Africa.

The Power of the Dog: a theological film review

Monthly I write a film review for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Stretching back to 2005, some 165 plus films later, here is the review for December 2021.

The Power of the Dog
Reviewed by Steve Taylor

After a twelve-year silence, New Zealand director, Jane Campion, plays again. Acclaimed for her work on The Piano, Campion takes us to 1920’s Montana. Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons) are brothers. Strikingly different, they share the lonely task of raising cattle on their parents’ ranch. Tensions are heightened when George marries, bringing Rose (Kirsten Dunst) to the family homestead.

A star cast offers powerful performances. Highlights include Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the talented, yet grief-stricken Phil, and Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Rose’s enigmatic son.

Amid a star cast, the films’ most important character is never seen. In a cowboy world of word of few words, the death twenty-five years ago of ranchhand Bronco Henry is a grief that refuses to be forgotten. It is intriguing to watch a film haunted by the main character’s absence, the unprocessed grief a festering wound, demanding attention.

The film is based on a novel by Thomas Savage. In books, words provide interior insight into motives. In films, the inner monologue can either be verbalised or visualised. Or, as in The Power of the Dog, a lack of words becomes a deliberate tool that deepens mystery and builds suspense.

In 1920’s Montana, anthrax is a killer, deadly to cows and humans. In a scene-setting cattle drive, a dead cow draws the attention of Phil and his faithful cattle dog. It wasn’t until 1937 that Max Sterne developed a vaccine. While this new vaccine was to bring immediate good news for humans working with cattle, its’ development was a few years after the movie’s final dramatic scenes.

The movies’ title is a quoting of Christian Scripture. In a final dramatic scene, Peter reads the words from a Funeral Order of the Service. Psalm 22:20 become the last words spoken in the movie: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.”

Psalm 22 is a Psalm of lament. The hearer is invited to share in the experiences of a man needing deliverance, a person surrounded by enemies like prowling dogs (verse 16).

In history, the Christian church has connected Psalm 22 with the death of Jesus. In the drama of the cross, Jesus’ last words include the voicing of verse 1: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Yet in the drama of Jesus’ death, his final words also include a prayer that enemies might be forgiven.

The crucifixion thus presents a compelling contrast with the dramatic scenes that end The Power of the Dog. What emerges in the life and death of Jesus is a radically different understanding of justice. Isolated like Rose, Jesus offers a cry of forsakenness rather than a cry for rescue. Mocked like Peter, Jesus places the demand for justice in the hands of God. Such radical trust challenges the human seeking of deliverance, so dramatically enacted in The Power of the Dog.

(For those placed in Covid-19 red traffic lights, The Power of the Dog is available on Netflix from 1 December).