Sunday, February 13, 2011
emerging churches 10 years on: progress update
Today was another step in my research into emerging churches 10 years on. This is involving interviews, surveys and focus groups.
Today I visited Cityside Baptist in Auckland. They had very kindly offered me their “sermon slot.” So I took some time to introduce myself and my research with them 10 years ago, and then gave them some space to fill out a 22 question survey form.
The questions are grouped in three categories
- some are taken from the national census and thus allow comparison of the congregation against their suburb, city and country
- some are taken from the National Church Life Survey and thus allow comparison against their denomination and the church in general
- some are uniquely related to questions about faith and culture today
At the end of the day, 47 people completed survey forms.
What is amazing is that ten years ago when I conducted a similar survey at Cityside, guess how many people completed survey forms?
You guessed it. 47!
Amazing.
The next step is to start to analyse the data. The plan is to return perhaps in the middle of the year to run some focus groups – to present the survey data and invite them to help me interpret it. Plus I am aiming to present the research more formally at an Ecclesiology and ethnography academic conference in Durham, UK, in mid-September. And then, if all goes really well, I’ll roll it together with my PhD and look for a publisher.
But for today, I thankful for Cityside and pondering with amazement the number 47.
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