Research Nugget
A Key Learning from the Dissertation Entitled:
The Spiritual Development of Online Church Attendees Compared with Traditional Church Attendees
Dr. Pamela Grayson
@LadyPGrayson
This dissertation sought to determine if there was a difference in the spiritual development of those that attend church online versus those that attend church locally at a brick and mortar location. An additional piece this study discussed was the differences in the leadership of a traditional church versus an online organization.
This study discussed traditional church polity which consists of traditional hierarchy that includes titled leaders such as bishops, elders, ministers, reverends, laypersons, and so forth in ascending order. When it comes to the leadership of the online church, the leader is considered to be a digital pastor. “A digital pastor is someone who is forerunning the technological advances in communication and integrating them faithfully into the life of his or her traditional church” (Wise, 2009, p. 1).
One of the key differences in digital pastorship and traditional pastorship is the removal of the traditional hierarchy. Under traditional church polity, if someone wanted to reach the leader, they had to go through staff or hierarchy. In digital leadership, having to go through layers of subordinates is removed. The leader is reachable directly through social media apps, emails, and other types of digital communications.
This truth became very evident to me while completing my study. I was working with a local church through members I personally knew to try to gain the right contacts to escalate the request to the leadership for participation in my study. This would have resulted in multiple meetings, creating multiple decision makers while subsequently delaying the study process perhaps by weeks. One day, while on Twitter, I saw the pastor of this church tweeting. I immediately tweeted him a request to meet with him regarding my study. I met with the pastor the following week, my study was on the church’s website within that week. Traditional hierarchy, as it did with other churches that participated in my study, would have dragged this process out to a much longer timeline. Digital leadership has key differences. While there are key disadvantages to the removal of traditional hierarchy or gatekeepers, in this case, the lack of hierarchy permitted this life-changing, study-saving event.
Wise, J. (2009). Why You’ll Need a Digital Pastor. Retrieved from http://bedeviant.com/need-a-digital-pastor
Click here to read Dr. Pamela Grayson's study A Key Learning from the Dissertation Entitled: The Spiritual Development of Online Church Attendees Compared with Traditional Church Attendees
This study discussed traditional church polity which consists of traditional hierarchy that includes titled leaders such as bishops, elders, ministers, reverends, laypersons, and so forth in ascending order. When it comes to the leadership of the online church, the leader is considered to be a digital pastor. “A digital pastor is someone who is forerunning the technological advances in communication and integrating them faithfully into the life of his or her traditional church” (Wise, 2009, p. 1).
One of the key differences in digital pastorship and traditional pastorship is the removal of the traditional hierarchy. Under traditional church polity, if someone wanted to reach the leader, they had to go through staff or hierarchy. In digital leadership, having to go through layers of subordinates is removed. The leader is reachable directly through social media apps, emails, and other types of digital communications.
This truth became very evident to me while completing my study. I was working with a local church through members I personally knew to try to gain the right contacts to escalate the request to the leadership for participation in my study. This would have resulted in multiple meetings, creating multiple decision makers while subsequently delaying the study process perhaps by weeks. One day, while on Twitter, I saw the pastor of this church tweeting. I immediately tweeted him a request to meet with him regarding my study. I met with the pastor the following week, my study was on the church’s website within that week. Traditional hierarchy, as it did with other churches that participated in my study, would have dragged this process out to a much longer timeline. Digital leadership has key differences. While there are key disadvantages to the removal of traditional hierarchy or gatekeepers, in this case, the lack of hierarchy permitted this life-changing, study-saving event.
Wise, J. (2009). Why You’ll Need a Digital Pastor. Retrieved from http://bedeviant.com/need-a-digital-pastor
Click here to read Dr. Pamela Grayson's study A Key Learning from the Dissertation Entitled: The Spiritual Development of Online Church Attendees Compared with Traditional Church Attendees