Pat Keifert and Pat Taylor Ellison at the Utrecht Conference: Surprised by God
By Pat Taylor Ellison

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Doing theology in, with, under, against, and for local churches: What means do the scholar, spiritual leader, and public have at hand to gather, examine, narrate, interpret their past and present situation in order to open themselves up to discernment of God's calling of them into God's mission?

We will show how history, demographic trends, and finance are theological, and how scripture, formation of Christian community, and worship form empirical reality.

Researching local churches and the various publics they serve as well as the academic institutions that serve them must involve quantitative methods meant to predict and control, qualitative interpretive methods that help us understand, and qualitative critical methods that help us to unmask systemic distortions. All three methodologies help us carry out the key moves from first naiveté to critical moment to second naiveté that can lead to emancipation and movement.

Wherever the church is sleeping when there is God's mission to be done, what can help us wake up? The call of God, right out of the pages of the Word, experienced in a one-on-one manner with a stranger, is one way to wake up and see what we have been sleeping through and who is calling us into God's work already in progress. As we build that habit of dwelling in the Word, we gather numbers and stories that predict, and explain, and that emancipate.

Pat Taylor Ellison, Ph.D., is the managing director of research for Church Innovations.