NCSR 2008 - Urban Diversity and Religious Traditions
13-15 August 2008, Åbo Akademi University

Congregational development in the folk church: investigating change

Turid Skorpe Lannem, MF Norwegian School of Theology

This paper presents an empirical project examining congregational development in local congregations. The project is part of a larger, mainly theological project with both analytical and methodological approaches and aims. This PhD-project will take a sociological approach and examine congregational development in a folk church context, namely the Church of Norway. In this presentation, I will outline the context in which congregational development has become a new area of high priority within Church of Norway, emphasizing the so called missional church paradigm and the cultural analysis often met in congregational development literature and seminars, and how this challenge and relate to a folk church and people who belong to it.