I am also grateful to the faith communities and pastoral leaders who embraced me and enriched my understanding of community along the way: Pastor Paul Dickson and Grace Baptist Church, Brockport, New York; Dr. Denny Burk and Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky; and Pastor Randy Sass and Brockport Free Methodist Church, Brockport, New York.
INTRODUCTION
Dorothy Sayers described Acedia (often misidentified as sloth) as "complicit with the other sins and their worst punishment. It's the reskinning of the same thing on the inside."87 The purpose of discipleship is not superficial but transformational (metamorphosis) (Rom 12 :1-2).
The purpose of phase 1 was to collect data on SBC churches and identify the churches that met the criteria of revitalization. The data for this phase was
A composite individualism and collectivism score, as well as a collectivism-individualism differential score, were calculated for each Phase 3 respondent. The qualitative interviews provided further understanding and insight into the relationship between individualistic and collectivist tendencies and church revitalization. The following sections describe the purpose and design of each component and part of the study.
In an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the purpose of the quantitative strand was to identify the types of individuals (or churches in this case) to be selected for the qualitative strand.7 The first three research questions were addressed in the quantitative strand. The purpose of phase 1 was to collect data on SBC churches and identify churches that met the criteria for revitalization. The purpose of this phase was to find out how church revitalization leaders from phase 1 churches self-assessed important factors in their church.
The purpose of this phase was to discover how church revitalization leaders from phase 1 churches self-assessed significant factors in their church’s
The qualitative component was performed individually by each member of the research team and focused on their aspects of relevance to church revitalization.9 In an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the qualitative data drawn from participants are identified in the quantitative component and help when explaining in more detail, describe the first quantitative results.10 The next section describes the purpose and components of the qualitative part. The goal of this phase was to explore how sociocultural orientation influenced a revitalization leader's perspective and contributed to the revitalization of.
The purpose of this phase was to explore how socio-cultural orientation impacted a revitalization leader’s perspective and contributed to the revitalization of
The research design allowed the qualitative strand to inform the results of the quantitative strand. The specifics of the survey are provided in the section on instruments and as a whole. This limitation produced a list of twelve churches that were invited to participate in the qualitative phase 4 of the study (semi-structured interviews).
Davis, author of Revitalize: Biblical Keys to Helping Your Church Come Alive Again (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2017); Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, revitalization pastors and coauthors of Transformative Discipleship: How People Really Grow (Nashville: B & H, 2012); and Joseph Stephen Hudson, author of "A Competency Model for Church Revitalization in Southern Baptist Convention Churches: A Mixed Methods Study" (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017). Members of the research team audited the content and process, together with the project supervisor. The research design implemented for this study was an explanatory mixed-methods study that examined SBC churches in four distinct phases.1 The quantitative sequence consisted of three phases.
Delimitations
This delineation reduced the potential population of the research sample to 716 churches, which represents 5.24 percent of those churches originally identified as failing between 2006 and 2011.3.
Delimitations and Protocol
To encourage more responses, the research team sent paper copies of the survey with a return postage-paid envelope to 466 churches in April 2019. This effort was followed by additional efforts via email and phone calls to encourage survey completion. The final number of completed surveys resulted in a research population of 145 out of 466 potential respondents, resulting in a confidence level of 6.71.
Delimitation and Protocol
It was my original intention to select the four respondents with the highest ranking in each of the four aspects. I later determined that assessing the revival experience of church leaders according to each of these aspects would make each aspect population too small to be helpful. Each respondent's I score was developed by adding the respondent's Horizontal Individualism (HI) and Vertical Individualism (VI) scores (I = HI + VI).
Similarly, each respondent's C-score is derived by adding the respondent's Horizontal Collectivism (HC) scores and Vertical Collectivism (VC) scores (C = HC + VC). Statistical analysis of the four facet scores, as well as the obtained I and C scores, were obtained by running the general data analysis routines against the data in Excel (see Table 7). Histograms showing the distribution of derived I and derived C scores were also produced (see Figures 8 and 9).
Individualism (Full Scale)
Collectivism (Full Scale)
Initial consideration of the respondent's I and C scores revealed that simply selecting respondents with the highest I and C scores would prove problematic, as several respondents scored high on both aspects.6 Therefore, a second derived measure, the respondent's C-I score (C-I = C – I ), representing the difference between each. Statistical analysis of the C-I results of the respondents was obtained by running general data analysis routines against the data in Excel. Based on the near-normal distribution of the respondent's C-I scores, respondents whose C-I scores were greater than one standard deviation from the mean of the distribution were invited to participate in the follow-up study.
Z scores were calculated for the C-I scores of all respondents relative to all respondents.7 Positive Z scores represent the relative strength of collectivist orientation relative to the sample mean. 7 As Neil Salkind writes, a respondent's Z score is the standard score, which is "the result of dividing the amount by which the raw score differs from the mean of the distribution by the standard deviation." As such, a respondent's Z score represents the number of standard deviations to the right (positive) or left (negative) of the sample mean.
Collectivism-Individualism (Full Scale)
Protocol and Participants
The first statement addresses the level of importance assigned by the respondent to building momentum in the revitalization process.38 Responses, according to the respondents' C-I scores, are detailed with percentages in Table 30. Question 22's second statement addresses the level of importance assigned by the respondent to conceptual thinking in the revitalization process.39 Answer, according to the respondents' C-I score, is detailed with percentages in table 31. Question 22's sixth statement deals with the respondent's assigned level of importance of gospel orientation in the revitalization process.43 Answer, acc. the respondents' C-I score, is detailed in percentages in table 35.
The eighth statement in question 22 deals with the respondent's attributed level of importance of information search in the revitalization process. 45 The answers, according to the C-I results of the respondents, are shown in detail in percentages in table 37. The ninth statement in question 22 deals with the respondent's attributed level of importance. initiatives in the revitalization process.46 The answers, according to the C-I scores of the respondents, are broken down in detail by percentage in table 38. The fifteenth statement of question 22 deals with the level of importance of transparency in the revitalization process, which the respondent attributed.52 Answers, according to the respondents Results C-I are detailed in percentages in Table 44.
The first sub-question asks respondents to rate their church's unity before revitalization.61 Responses according to respondents' C-I scores are detailed in percentages in Table 52. Q1 Individualists were slightly more than twice as likely to rate their church as united than Q4 -collectivists. to some extent. Q4 Collectivists were nearly two and a half times as likely to rate their church's unity during revitalization as somewhat unified as Q1 Individualists.
Collectivists in the fourth quarter (90.9 percent) were nearly 80 percent more likely than individuals in the first quarter (55.6 percent) to rate their church as somewhat unified during revitalization. Q4 collectivists were nearly 64 percent (63.7 percent) more likely than Q1 individualists to rate the unity of their post-revitalization church as very unified. Can respondents identify planned events and/or programs that increased their sense of unity and community during the revitalization.
Interviews
Five of the twelve revitalization churches (three individualist and two collectivist) conduct these interviews, with three (two individualists and one collectivist) sharing a meal with potential members. Four of the first quarter's six individualists indicated that their church still holds traditional monthly business meetings. In contrast, none of the fourth-quarter collectivist pastors reported holding monthly business meetings at their church.
While each of these crises was reported, only Pastor Q1-4 considered the impact of the perceived crisis to be significant in relation to the revitalization process, and noted. Notably, only two of the six collectivist pastors in the fourth quarter reported dealing with perceived crises. Pastor Q1-2 described the dissolution of a church which had been a flagship of the SBC in the 1970s and 1980s.
What impact does the socio-cultural orientation of a revitalizing pastor have on subjective measures of church revitalization?
When asked about the importance of teamwork and collaboration in the revitalization process, the following trends were observed:103. Q4 Collectivists are more than one and a half times more likely than Q1 Individualists (66.7 percent to 25 percent) to rate this practice as very important. A general trend, with increasing levels of collectivism resulting in increasing levels of importance, is present at the least important and at least a little important levels.
All fourth-quarter collectivists and collectivists in general who find this practice important (96 percent) do so at the "at least important" level. Q4 Collectivists are twice as likely as Q1 Individualists and Individualists (44.4 percent to 22.2 percent) to strongly agree with this statement. There is a general trend of increasing collectivity resulting in higher levels of agreement at the "strongly agree" and "at least agree" levels.
Individualists in the first quarter were slightly more than twice as likely as collectivists in the fourth quarter (55.5 percent vs. 27.3 percent) to rate their church as somewhat unified. Q4 collectivists were nearly 80 percent more likely than Q1 individualists (90 percent vs. 55.6 percent) to rate their church as unified to some degree during revitalization. Q4 collectivists were nearly 64 percent (63.7 percent) more likely than Q1 individualists (72.7 percent vs. 44.4 percent) to rate the unity of their post-revitalization church as very unified.
Almost all revitalization pastors indicated that the expectation for active participation of all members increased dramatically during the revitalization of their church. All of the revitalization pastors indicated that increased intergenerational interaction was a beneficial element of their church's revitalization. In phase 2 of the study, 145 revitalization pastors completed a survey instrument about their revitalization experiences.
CONCLUSIONS
The first is that the state of the church in America in general and the SBC in particular is a state of decline. Data analysis also shed light on Research Question 2, showing that of the 13,656 churches in decline, only 5.24 percent eventually experienced revival. A manifestation of this emphasis in this research was that nearly every revitalized church experienced a transformation of the role of the deacon(s) from one of organizational leadership to one of service-based ministry.
These are so numerous, and so common, that the comparison of the Christian community with a "family" must be regarded as the most significant metaphorical use of all.21. The cyclical reinforcing dynamics of cultural cause and effect suggest that revitalization pastors who view the church as a family will lead as a relational parent. Such an understanding of the obligation of intentional communion is consistent with Greg Ogden's description of appropriate biblical communion (see Table 1).
