Annual Progress Report...Yes it's true!

Guess what? I'm actually making progress on my research! No Really...at least I think I am.

This week:

1. I submitted my paper for the graduate student competition of the Canadian Association for Information Science . My paper proposal " Seeking God’s will: the experience of information seeking by leaders of a church in transition" already had been accepted for the conference. I was invited to participate in the competition based on my proposal.
   
2. I was also notified that another article "Preaching and the Internet: Dipping into a shallow pool or beginning a deeper conversation?" has been accepted for publication with the Journal of Religious & Theological Information vol. 9 (1).
3. I also found out that my proposal "Little Church on the Internet: a case study of one church's online engagement" has been accepted for the 7th Annual International Conference on Media, Religion and Culture in August. Now I just have to write the paper. :-)
   

I've enjoyed the research I've done this year, and I have learned a lot. It regrettably has taken a backseat to my daytime librarian job and progress has been too slow! Now I just need to get some more teaching experience. Anyone looking for an Instructor of Librarianship or Sociology of Religion?

Now time to start thinking about that dissertation...

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The weight of leadership

At the end of the day you need to make a decision. You've gathered a lot of information. You've weighed it and sifted it. Now what are you going to do.

Churches and church decision-making are not getting much good press these days. Some church leaders have made very bad decisions and the consequences of these decisions needs to be addressed. There are also those who have axes to grind, like atheist Richard Dawkins, who are delighting in these crises. Quick to condemn, much slower to head to the slums and alleyways to care for the sick and the poor.

In my reading and research thus far, I am finding leaders who are very concerned to do what is right and to do no harm. Their office weighs heavily on them. They think, they pray, and they talk to those they serve. They want to follow God's leading and get it right. Most of the time they do. Sometimes they don't. It is the memories of the times they didn't that motivates them to greater care.

They depend of God's leading. They believe he can and will lead them. They believe he speaks through the Bible. They believe God stirs up their hearts. They believe he speaks through the people and circumstances around them. More than coincidence: it is God at work.

On the face of it, it is a decision making process like any other. Sometimes the church's work looks a lot like the work of the Kiwanas or the Shriners. But Church leaders see it slightly differently: it is God's work, and they hope they are doing it God's way.

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Holy Holograms Batman!

Sorry couldn't resist! I've been busy for a while and have neglected my posting but someone pointed this article out and I just had to share. Increasingly larger churches with satellite campuses are turning to linked video conference to share services. Locally Stoneridge Fellowship Church in Sackville, NS is using this technology with its first satellite church in Hubbards, NS and hopes to plant more of these distance campuses. As I understand it, some aspects of the service like worship are local and other parts like preaching as shared experiences.

But looking at a big screen still seems...um..maybe impersonal. But wait technology to the rescue. A recent article in Out of Ur online mag discusses the use of holographic technology to bring the pastor virtually in your midst. Is it realistic? Check out the pic below; one of these pastors is not really there.


We went to Pier21 immigration museum yesterday. For those of you who haven't been there it chronicles the history of immigration to Canada through the experience of this one entry point. There is a multimedia presentation using holograms that is older technology but is still striking. What if it was realtime? What if it were interactive? What if you could manipulate the image so pastor could drop a few pounds? Sorry...the photoshop possibilities are amazing. :)

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Spring is in the air...

and with it conference registrations! I found out Friday that the proposal I'd submitted for the Canadian Association for Information Science conference has been accepted. This will be part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held in Montreal this May 28-June 4. The extended abstract I submitted was an overview of the research I have done this far on the information seeking behaviour of leaders seeking the will of God for their churches. It is an ethnographic study which simply means I am creating a description of a particular group of people's way of living and interacting with the world around them. I am trying to understand that world from the perspective of my respondents, the folks I'm interviewing. We do it by talking to people, observing people, and gathering documents and artifacts. Most of the time when people think about ethnography the image is of anthropologists like Malinowski living in remote jungles, writing about the exotic and strange. But ethnography as a research methodology can help us understand ourselves but making us question what we do, why we do it and what does this say about how we understand the world and our place in it.

In my research I am concerned with how my respondents are seeking the will of God for their church. They value the Bible in this process and they believe in prayer. Whether I understand the will of God as they do is not important. It is their world view I'm trying to understand (though it might make me ask important questions about mine.) They believe prayer is important and that it makes a difference. It is important to them so it is important to me as a researcher. Sometimes sharing their beliefs makes the task harder I think. It might be too easy to make assumptions and forget to ask important questions. When it is very different it is easy to come up with lots of questions. So I'll continue to ask questions of my respondents and hopefully of myself. Maybe I'll see my own world a little clearer in the end.

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