Research Opportunity for children's and family ministry in small churches
Hi everyone,
I have a research opportunity in the field of children's and family ministry. I need five children's ministry leaders to help me out. If you are interested in participating as subjects and fellow researchers in this project, please contact me asap with your name, location and church name, plus approximate church size, both entire attendance and children's attendance on a typical weekend. I will notify this list when positions are filled. Thanks!
Here are the details.
1. This is a case-study/ethnographic research study. Names of churches and participants will be closely guarded and will not appear in publicized documentation in any form, whether web or print. All personally identifiable information will be kept strictly confidential. In fact, I do not need to know the names of the people you interview in your church.
2. I intend to research the children's and family ministries of five churches, including the leaders of each ministry, plus from one to five families in each church.
3. I am seeking five children's ministry leaders. You may be either part-time or full-time, volunteer or paid. Male or female. Married or single. Your title is not as important as your role. In other words, you don't need to have a title such as children's and family minister. Nor does your church necessarily need to have a well-developed family ministry. Leaders of small churches are especially invited to apply.
4. Your church may be located either in North America, or in another part of the world, such as Europe, Australia, New Zealand, or in a Majority World country.
5. Your role will be to help me gather data concerning one to five families in your church, specifically with regard to how they function on a daily basis. It will require about four hours of your time per family. Also, I will ask you to fill out a questionaire about your church and yourself in terms of your leadership role.
6. We will communicate via email and possibly at least once on the phone, at my expense.
7. Closing date for applying for this opportunity is Thursday, July 31 at 11 pm EST.
8. Benefits to you: While I cannot afford to compensate you financially for your time and effort, I will offer you free ministry coaching/consulting via the web and by phone for one year, beginning on January 1, 2009. Phone conversations are limited to six sessions of 1/2 hour each, to be used as you need them. Normally, about once every two months works best. Emails are unlimited. Plus, if you request it, I will add you to my dissertation email list so that you may see the results of what I actually write based on the research. This keeps me accountable to you and gives you the benefit of your hard work!
9. My dissertation topic is: Praxis of Nurture and Mission in the Small Church: A Practical Theology of Children's and Family Ministry.
Again, if you are interested in participating as subjects and fellow researchers in this project, please contact me asap with your name, location and church name, plus approximate church size, both entire attendance and children's attendance on a typical weekend. I will notify this list when positions are filled. Thanks!
Glen Woods
I have a research opportunity in the field of children's and family ministry. I need five children's ministry leaders to help me out. If you are interested in participating as subjects and fellow researchers in this project, please contact me asap with your name, location and church name, plus approximate church size, both entire attendance and children's attendance on a typical weekend. I will notify this list when positions are filled. Thanks!
Here are the details.
1. This is a case-study/ethnographic research study. Names of churches and participants will be closely guarded and will not appear in publicized documentation in any form, whether web or print. All personally identifiable information will be kept strictly confidential. In fact, I do not need to know the names of the people you interview in your church.
2. I intend to research the children's and family ministries of five churches, including the leaders of each ministry, plus from one to five families in each church.
3. I am seeking five children's ministry leaders. You may be either part-time or full-time, volunteer or paid. Male or female. Married or single. Your title is not as important as your role. In other words, you don't need to have a title such as children's and family minister. Nor does your church necessarily need to have a well-developed family ministry. Leaders of small churches are especially invited to apply.
4. Your church may be located either in North America, or in another part of the world, such as Europe, Australia, New Zealand, or in a Majority World country.
5. Your role will be to help me gather data concerning one to five families in your church, specifically with regard to how they function on a daily basis. It will require about four hours of your time per family. Also, I will ask you to fill out a questionaire about your church and yourself in terms of your leadership role.
6. We will communicate via email and possibly at least once on the phone, at my expense.
7. Closing date for applying for this opportunity is Thursday, July 31 at 11 pm EST.
8. Benefits to you: While I cannot afford to compensate you financially for your time and effort, I will offer you free ministry coaching/consulting via the web and by phone for one year, beginning on January 1, 2009. Phone conversations are limited to six sessions of 1/2 hour each, to be used as you need them. Normally, about once every two months works best. Emails are unlimited. Plus, if you request it, I will add you to my dissertation email list so that you may see the results of what I actually write based on the research. This keeps me accountable to you and gives you the benefit of your hard work!
9. My dissertation topic is: Praxis of Nurture and Mission in the Small Church: A Practical Theology of Children's and Family Ministry.
Again, if you are interested in participating as subjects and fellow researchers in this project, please contact me asap with your name, location and church name, plus approximate church size, both entire attendance and children's attendance on a typical weekend. I will notify this list when positions are filled. Thanks!
Glen Woods
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Glen Woods on -
Quick update: Two of the five positions have been filled. Three remain. Why not contact me to learn more?
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Permalink Reply by Ms. Bonnie on -
I might be interested in this project. Can you please contact me with more information about yourself? I will check with the church office and get actual numbers on attendance, but roughly we run about 150 adults and 50 kids during one service on Sunday mornings. The church is Grace Christian Church in Tinton Falls, NJ.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Woods on
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Hi Ms. Bonnie,
Thanks for expressing interest.
I am not sure how to private message on this forum, so I will just post the information here. I am a volunteer part-time children's pastor at Portland Open Bible Church in Portland, Oregon, plus a doctoral student in the dissertation phase of my studies at Western Seminary in Portland. You can read my ministry resume here. I blog a www.glenwoods.net
My church has about 280 people, with around 60 kids, birth through 12 years old. This is down from about 450 people with about 100 kids from three years ago. So, we are evaluating our ministries and my dissertation is a part of that process.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. At this point I have filled three positions and two remain open.
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Permalink Reply by Ms. Bonnie on
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I just figured this out. You can email me through the system. Just look for the little envelope and then page down to 'send a message to friends.' You'll have to un-check everyone else to talk directly to me.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Woods on
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Four of the five positions have been filled. One remains. I know of at least one church who is considering it, so if you are interested, let me know!
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Permalink Reply by Laurie Nash on -
Hi Glen,
Did you get the people that you require?
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Permalink Reply by Glen Woods on
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Hi Laurie,
Thanks so much for asking. Yes, I did get all the churches at this point. The only caveat is that I may add one additional church in order to provide a baseline from a different theological perspective. For example, the churches I have on board are primarily evangelical in persuasion. I am looking for one church that is mainline, such as Episcopal or United Methodist, so that I can gather data from a high ownership family in a congregation from a different perspective. Another option would be to study a high ownership church (and family within it) from the Majority world, which is seeing significant growth as a result.
Having said that, are you interested in learning more?
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Permalink Reply by Laurie Nash on
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Hi Glen,
Can't help you out there - I am from an evangelical church (Assemblies of God). I would love to hear how your research goes. I would be very interested in anyone ever does research like this with an Australian perspective as it would be good to know if the same sort of data that is gathered from US churches relates to Australia as well.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Woods on
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Hi Laurie,
If you are interested, you can email me directly at glen @ glenwoods.net to request inclusion in an email list to read the actual dissertation as it is written. I have a small list of people like yourself who have requested to be included so they can read the final copies of the first, second and third drafts. Let me know.
As for your question about how the research might relate to the Australian context, I agree that it would be an interesting study. If this was a PhD study I would certainly make it more extensive and invite a broader base of participation. However, it is a DMin study so I really have to be careful about not over reaching the intended scope. I really do appreciate your interest. Always feel free to ask questions or give feedback!
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