Just about every religious group out there is producing materials to assist congregations in this difficult time. In addition to whatever your own denomination may be providing, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship is compiling things that many Protestant leaders may find useful. Click here.
If you want to learn from someone who’s already been thinking about new ways to gather, check out Sacred Design Lab and Casper ter Kuile’s twitter feed: @caspertk.
There have been tons of interesting news stories about how religious communities are adapting. Here’s one about an innovative approach that is actually a throwback to Robert Schuler’s early days – a drive-in church. If your local news outlets have published something interesting about congregational life, why not share it on the Studying Congregations Facebook page.
Russell Jeung, one of the former “Engaged Scholars” sponsored by the Congregational Studies Team, proved just how “engaged” he is with this story on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on March 27. As an Asian Studies scholar, he has written extensively about Asian American religious communities, but he also studies what happens when being Asian makes people the target of fear and hatred.
Commonweal magazine has just published an exciting collection of reflections on the challenges and opportunities facing Catholic parishes today. Among those featured is another of our “engaged scholars,” Brett Hoover.
And when we return to meeting in person, The Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference is planned for 22-24 September, at Durham University (UK). This conference is part of The Network for Ecclesiology & Ethnography, which seeks to draw together scholars working with theological approaches to qualitative research on the Christian Church. They welcome papers that explore the dynamic relationship between the theological and the lived in ecclesiology
