We're excited to announce the debut of Faith Trends, a new EFC podcast to serve the Church and the academy
In our research at the EFC, we talk with many pastors who are in the trenches of ministry and feel disconnected from the denominations and seminaries that exist to support them.
Our work also brings us into contact with academics and researchers who lament that their dissertations are collecting dust in musty libraries or their mother’s bookshelf. There is a disconnect between the Church and the academy.
Faith Trends Podcast is launching this month as an initiative of the EFC’s research department to better connect research with its ministry implications for the Church in Canada. Our vision for the podcast is to highlight Canadian researchers, both established and emerging, and provide a platform for their work. We want to help build a bridge connecting researchers to ministry practitioners who might benefit from their work.
Often the outworking of a research project is motivated by a deeply personal desire to know and love God and his people more. We’ve seen this in the interviews we’ve done so far in the PhD work of a pastoral spouse who wanted to learn how pastors develop resilience in ministry (episode 3, Margaret Clarke) and the research on Gen-Z and evangelism that flowed from an impassioned desire for the next generation to know Jesus (episode 2, Shaila Visser and Tim Gonsalves).
Research doesn’t exist to benefit just the researcher, but to benefit the wider research population and community. In their efforts to count the number of Christians in Canada, for example, researchers Bruce Guenther and Jonathan Chadwick need co-operation from the community of believers to accomplish their task. Their work will help churches and denominational leaders better understand the religious landscape in Canada and their place within it (episode 1, Bruce Guenther and Jonathan Chadwick). This is definitely a place and a space where we are stronger together.
We want to help build a bridge connecting Canadian researchers to ministry practitioners
With
Faith Trends we’re excited to provide a glimpse into the heart and community behind research that is happening for the Church in Canada. The Canadian Church is often exposed to research and literature that is written from an American perspective that doesn’t acknowledge the many cultural and regional distinctives in Canada. We will highlight researchers and the research that helps us understand who we are as Canadians and the Canadian Church.
Each monthly episode will include a 30- to 40-minute conversation with a researcher, followed by a debrief with the EFC research department about their impressions and the takeaways. We hope listeners will reach out to connect with the people and the work we feature in the podcast, so that they can benefit in their ministry. We believe researchers will also benefit from hearing from frontline ministry workers. We anticipate relationships developing and informed change happening in the Church through conversations that connect research with ministry.
Find the first few episodes, plus links to this new series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Soundcloud, at www.TheEFC.ca/Podcasts.