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Research on House Churches

Greetings, Saints- I'm passing along an email I gotResearch some time ago:  

Hi, my name is Todd Hobart and I am a Ph.D. student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. I have been looking into researching house church networks as a part of my dissertation when I ran across the Columbia/Willamette Simple Church Cooperative and Summit Fellowships. I have been trying to get a handle on how all of the groups/churches fit together and cooperate with one another, and I am interested in possibly studying these groups as a part of my dissertation.

 

The way I am doing my research involves a visit to the area where I can attend group gatherings and interview leaders among the various house churches. It would be over an extended weekend, something like a Friday-Tuesday, or something like that. I have also included a form with this email that talks a little bit more about the research and the process. Though I am still in school at Luther Seminary in Minnesota, I am working in the Seattle area while I finish up my research, so I am not too far away.

So, do you think the groups down there would be open to this sort of thing?

So, are y'all interested? Feel free to append your comments! You can ask for the information Todd referred to and I'll send it to you.

 

 

  • By Summiteer at Mar 25 2008 - 2:53pm
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Research on House Churches

Hi, Todd,

May the Lord Jesus grant you the desire of your heart !

A great work of research into churches that reproduce through small groups, that could provide an example of research into lively simple churches, was done ten years ago by Mikel Neumann, reported in his book, Small Groups for Urban Cultures (Wm. Carey Library). He used a mixed-methods approach that has proved very helpful in several culture zones and countries.

Galen

Galen Currah 2148 S.E. 113th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97216 galen@currah.us Home 503.253.0931, mobile 503.737.4301

  • By galencurrah at Mar 27 2008 - 10:12am
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research

Galen, thanks for passing that along, I appreciate it.  That sounds like exactly the sort of book that would be helpful for this research.  I too am attempting a mixed-methods approach, so it will be interesting to see how he did his work.  I actually took a short class from you back when Western Seminary had a branch campus up in Seattle.  It used the book Creating Understanding.  It would be good to connect again if it works out for me to come down and study some of the house churches.

thanks, Todd

  • By toddh at Apr 8 2008 - 9:27am
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