Abstract:

This research aims to study the impact of custom mobile church apps on church development in the mobile era. Church apps, which provide real-time messaging, social networking, real-time remote service, special interest groups, online giving, events and calendar, archive and many more, have become a trendy approach for churches to keep their members connected and engaged. However, there is still much speculation as to how fruitful using a church app is. Our research will explore three questions: (1) How do and can churches creatively engage their members through apps? (2) What are the most effective and/or commonly used features of church apps? (3) What are the impacts of such approach on church development in terms of quantity and quality, e.g. reaching more people, boosting giving, and increasing effectiveness in sharing gospel?

This research draws on the complementary expertise of the researchers. Joy Tong is a visiting assistant professor in the Sociology department, Purdue. She has published articles related to Christianity in the US, Singapore and China. Charlie Hu is a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, Purdue. He is an expert on mobile technology and app design and has published intensively on the technology. For this research, we have tentatively selected a typical evangelical midsized church in the Midwest -- Upper Room Community Church -- as our target, and we will custom-design an app for the church to be popularized among its members. The app will use crowd-sourcing to collect fine-grained usage information of various networking capabilities. Through data analysis, participant observation and interview with its church leaders and members, we expect our research to shed lights on our research questions whether and how well-designed mobile apps can effectively promote church growth.

Keywords: mobile apps, church apps, online social networks, church growth

Indigenous cultures, particularly minority cultures continue to bore the brunt of cultural subjugation and domination, cultural hybridization and cultural erosion through influence of information technology. The electronic media, especially the western media has been perceived of as “profaning” and “contaminating” indigenous values in Africa and other third world countries. Some countries have therefore taken radical steps towards restricting access to the electronic media. How effective is the approach of limiting access to the perceived “contaminating” western media? Is it not like trying to stop a flowing river with a net? Instead of limiting access to electronic media as a way of preserving vulnerable indigenous cultural values, it is argued in this paper that careful, innovative exploitation of the very same electronic media by religionists and theologians can yield handsome dividends through raising awareness and reviving dying and dead indigenous traditions. However, to what extent has the training of average third world religionists prepared them for blending of their subject knowledge with information technology concepts? How relevant is information technology training in religious studies curriculum? It is argued in this paper that taking information technology as a core course in the curriculum and not as just as an addendum as is the present scenario, can really guarantee a lively presence of the endangered cultures and values under the threat of mutation and or ultimate extinction. The paper is informed by post colonial theory that seeks to explore the reasons behind the low motivation of propagating African indigenous values by most Africans.

The attached document is a proposal for a yet-completed study to be considered for inclusion in the upcoming Annual Conference on Information and Religion by Roger Chabot, a PhD student at Western University in London, Ontario.

Reel Religion and Real Clergy: A Comparison of Information Use by the Fictional and Factual Faithful

A proposal by:

Marianne Ryan, Associate University Librarian for Public Services at Northwestern University Library

and

Mark Stover, Dean of the Library at California State University, Northridge

Annual Conference on Information and Religion

Kent State University

Abstract:

From its inception, cinema has been used to portray the information seeking and dissemination practices of clergy and, by extension, to present perspectives on religion and religious organizations. Initially fairly simplistic, these depictions of priests, ministers, rabbis, and nuns have become more sophisticated over time, keeping pace with changing social mores and evolving technologies.

In this session, presenters will explore this aspect of how clergy are portrayed in film. They will examine a decade-by-decade sample of cinematic clergy and suggest how these figures searched for, received, and shared information. The presenters will compare film depictions of information use behavior among clergy with analogous practices among actual faith-based professionals. They will also explore ways in which clergy in the movies used information (and information technology) in their roles in ways which may have influenced viewers’ perceptions of religion and religious groups.

Keywords:

Clergy; Cinema; Information Technology

The purpose of this paper is to provide a launching point, or discussion of some possible frameworks for conceptualizing the intersection of information seeking in on- and off- line mediated religious environments, using internet enabled apps such as the YouversionTM Bible. The author would like to note that this paper is a work in progress and not a finished product. Due to the breadth and complexity of the subject, this paper serves to highlight what the author perceives to be some key issues in the developing world of the Internet of Things (IOT) and brings together ideas, ruminations, and a possible conceptual framework. Much of this topic deserves further exploration beyond the attempted scope of this paper.