A 26-Year Journey of Multifaith Cooperation

For more than two decades researchers from across religious backgrounds have set aside their differences to create surveys about congregational life in the United States. Over the years, Faith Communities Today members have come to realize they have more in common than one might think, and have created inter-religious relationships that go deeper than the research that originally brought them together.

Discerning the essence and mission of the church in the midst of COVID-19

This article reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic gives the church an opportunity to reconsider what the centre of God’s mission is for the congregation. It will engage on the implications of its reflections for public practical theology and congregational development. Spurred by an electronic opinion poll carried out by the author on six focus groups on WhatsApp platforms, averaging 200 participants each, during the lockdown days in Ghana, the question was put, “What one thing do you miss about church during the lock down period?” Majority of respondents mentioned communal fellowship (Konoinia) as the most missed aspect of congregational life. This article reflects on suggestions engendered by this observation and how it helps congregations to discern what makes them relevant to their members. Thus, helping congregations to envision the future, invoke dreams of a new creation where a return to normality will birth a world in which the church would take a new shape, presenting a fresh sense of missional community able to bring God to the people of our day.

Partners, Not Providers: A Collaboration Typology for Congregations and Community

Scholars have long been interested in nonprofits, religious congregations, and their collaborative activity. This research builds upon past large-scale studies of congregations to suggest a nuanced understanding of how clergy approach congregational partnerships and make decisions about collaborating with community organizations. Using qualitative data from a geographically bounded sample of 30 Protestant congregations and grounded theory methodology, we suggest that clergy view their congregations as serving a different purpose from nonprofit partners and navigate numerous tensions inherent in congregational life in their pursuit of collaborative activity. We introduce a new typology of congregational collaboration that posits collaboration as a strategy for providing material and spiritual resources, in and outside of their congregations.

Intergenerational Ministry—a Forty-year Perspective: 1980–2020

This article traces the historical development of the field of intergenerational Christian education and formation over the past forty years with the aim of demonstrating its steady growth in scholarship and ministry and its promise for the future of congregational life and discipleship. The article highlights significant movements, terms, figures, publications, and ministry expressions that surfaced over two twenty-year periods, each part set in the narrative and from the perspective of two different scholars. This article concludes with a brief address of the implications for preparing educational and ministry leaders. Although far from exhaustive, this article offers the reader an abbreviated primer of the past four decades of intergenerational ministry and scholarship.

Ginān as Tafsīr Literature: The Exegetical Dimensions of a Tradition

The Ginān tradition form a special place in devotional and religious life in the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah. Ginānrecitations are ubiquitous in Ismā’īlī devotional life; played in homes, cars, and recited in Jamatkhana on auspicious religious occasions. Ginān recitation likewise comprise a central element of the congregational life of the Shia Imami Ismaili community within Jamā‘atKhāna. The vast corpus of the Ginān literature has long formed part of the spiritual heritage of the South-Asian Ismā’īlī community, and especially in Sindhi, Khoja and Gujarati South Asian communities. This study uses the genre of the Ginān to critically engage the boundary frameworks that can be considered tafsīrliterature and argues that the ginānic narrative are not only communal ‘liturgical’, but highly exegetical and theologically complex examples of a Subcontinent vernacular Shī’ī exegetical tradition.

Mening och samhörighet

Meaning and Belonging: Young Adults in Today’s Pentecostal Congregations in Sweden The focus of this article is to explore where and how young adults in the contemporary Swedish Pentecostal movement experience meaning and belonging in their congregation and what impact meaning and belonging have for them. This article builds on a study from 2019, in which young adults in today’s Swedish Pentecostal congregations described their beliefs and their congregational life; Gemenskap, individualism och andlighet. Tro och församlingsliv bland unga vuxna i den samtida svenska pingströrelsen (Sand, 2019). The data was collected through interviews and a survey, in which both young-adult members and leaders were questioned. The results from the 2019-study will in this article be analysed and discussed based on Meredith B. McGuire’s theory on meaning and belonging in Religion: The Social Context (2008). In addition, the results will also be compared with related research. The results show the young adults mostly experience meaning and belonging in the smaller gatherings the congregations offer. The smaller groups offer the opportunity to form close bonds to other members and the possibility to strengthen their faith. The groups also work as a “safe haven” where the members can share their everyday life and personal challenges. Although the large parish community in the congregations can provide both meaning and belonging, such as volunteering in the church activities, worship and prayer during the Sunday services; they do not produce that to the same extent as the smaller gatherings. This article shows that the experience of meaning and belonging is important both for the development of the young adults’ faith and their belonging in the congregations.

Russian-Speaking Jewry Communal and Congregational Life Abroad: the Role of Language

The authors explore the Russian Jews diaspora which represents the viable mechanisms of real functioning in a host society. The article marks three criteria that help to be navigated among the options how the Russian Jewish immigration in the UK pans out in terms of: a) preserving the mother tongue, b) sticking to the home culture and c) whether the Russian Jews choose to adopt the host culture, whether they partly integrate into it or they fully assimilate.

Whose Bodies? Bringing Gender Into Interaction Ritual Chain Theory

The goal of this paper is to bring gender into the theory of interaction ritual chains. While this theory focuses on how bodies emotionally respond within interactions, it ignores how the sex–gender system impacts bodies. The cultural norms for women and men shape how bodies react emotionally in rituals. To demonstrate the need for interaction rituals to account for gender, I explore how gendered feeling rules affect ritual outcomes in religious congregations. Using multilevel regressions to analyze data from the 2001 US Congregational Life Survey, I show that men have lower levels of emotional energy than women. Additionally, the gender ratio has an effect, and individuals who are in congregations with higher percentages of men experience lower levels of emotional energy. This effect is more powerful for men than it is for women. I conclude by stating that interaction ritual theory must account for the gendered identities of its participants.

Religious Organizations and Homosexuality: The Acceptance of Gays and Lesbians in American Congregations

The participation of gays and lesbians in all aspects of society is continually disputed in the United States. Religion is one of the key battlegrounds. The extent to which religious congregations include lesbians and gays in congregational life is vital to the wider debate over homosexuality because congregations consistently influence more Americans than any other voluntary social institution (Putnam 2000). Using nationally representative data from the 2006-2007 National Congregations Study this analysis investigates the level of acceptance of gays and lesbians within congregations as well as which congregations are most likely to allow lesbians and gays to become involved. I find that religious tradition, theological and political ideology, location, and demographic composition of congregations all influence the degree to which gays and lesbians are included into congregational life.