NEW
Report 3
'We're Still Here'Reflections of the Post-Pandemic Digital Church
REPORT 3
'We’re Still Here’: Reflections of the Post-Pandemic Digital Church.
Report 3 presents findings from a survey of 246 Indiana church leaders who's congregations received technology grants from theCenter for Congregations in 2020. The focus of this report is to see how technological decisions and attitudes towards digital media change in these churches between 2020-2023. Overall, findings from this report demonstrate a positive shift between 2020 and 2023 in congregational attitudes towards technology and online services. It also highlights how the size of the congregation and the age of religious leaders making technology decisions influenced the type of digital media used and how churches adapted to digital tools.
Report 3 focuses on exploring the similarities and difference in congregations...
1Pre-Pandemic Views and Use of Technology (Before March 2020)
2How Congregations Engaged Technology During the Covid-19 Pandemic (March 2020 to Fall 2022
3Post-Pandemic Views and Use of Technology (Late Fall 2022 through Summer 2023)
Report 3
Campbell, Heidi A.;Osteen, Sophia; Sparks, Grayson (2023). 'We’re Still Here’: Reflections of the Post-Pandemic DigitalChurch. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/200172
Executive Summary
Campbell, Heidi; Osteen, Sophia (2023). Report 3- Executive Summary of 'We’re Still Here’: Reflections of the Post-Pandemic Digital Church. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/200606
All report documents are open access, and
available through the OAKTrust Digital Repository, based at Texas A&M University.
REPORT 2
Mission to Serve Tech: Churches "Lock Down" Technology During The Global Pandemic
Report 2 investigates data collected from 2700 Indiana churches who participated in the Center for Congregations' Connect Through Tech (CTT) grant program. This report analyzes CTT applications to t and final reports submitted by these churches, in order to learn how churches understood and perceived the role of churches, technology, and their changing relationship during the first two years of the pandemic. Report 2 centers on five questions explored through a content analysis research process, specifically:
1How do churches view technology and the internet? And how has this changed between the initial applications from 2020 to final reports submitted in 2021?
2How do churches conceive of and describe the church and its mission? And how has this changed between the initial applications from 2020 to final reports submitted in 2021?
3What do churches see their relationship to digital media in light of their technological engagement, during the pandemic?
4What kind of community do churches see themselves being? And has increased technology use shaped their understanding of community in any ways?
5What are the most notable challenges and opportunities did technology use and integration into church work create for congregations?
Report 2
Campbell, Heidi A; Daly, Jennifer; Osteen, Sophia A; Wallace, Andrea (2023). Mission to Serve Tech: Churches "Lock Down" Technology During The Global Pandemic. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/197075
Executive Summary
Campbell, Heidi; Daly,Jennifer (2023). Report 2- Executive Summary of Mission to Serve Tech:Churches "Lock Down" Technology During the Global Pandemic. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/197079
All report documents are open access, and
available through the OAKTrust Digital Repository, based at Texas A&M University.
REPORT 1
When Pastors put on the “Tech Hat”: How Churches Digitized during Covid-19
Report 1 analyzes themes from 50 Tech Talk Sessions with 478 church leaders hosted by the Center for Congregations in 2020 and 2021 discussing their technology use during the pandemic. This report looks at different churches' choices to implement digital media, and the unique technological demands they discovered in moving from traditional offline church, to doing online and hybrid forms. Report 1 centers on responses to four questions emerging from these discussions, specifically:
1Who are the people making technological decisions within churches right now?
2What challenges have churches faced in using and implementing technology during the pandemic?
3What were the prominent issues churches encountered in their transitioning of services into a new platform and a new culture?
4Are there any success stories worth noting or examples of unexpected outcomes or results of using technology?
Report 1
Campbell, Heidi A, and Osteen, Sophia (2021). When Pastors put on the “Tech Hat”: How Churches Digitized during Covid-19. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/194959
Executive Summary
Campbell, Heidi A (2021). Report 1- Executive Summary of "When Pastors put on the “Tech Hat”: How Churches Digitized during Covid-19". Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/194972
All report documents are open access, and
available through the OAKTrust Digital Repository, based at Texas A&M University.
Tech Trend Papers
These papers provide a concise, but in-depth analysis of key findings about churches and leaders engagement with technology discussed in project reports found above.
Tech Trend Paper 1 (Dec 2021)
Campbell, Heidi A (2021). Needed but Lacking: Impact of Pastors’ Technology Background During the Pandemic. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/195017
This paper discusses specific areas of technological knowledge and experience related to digital media that church leaders needed to understand to successfully transition to online worship services during the pandemic.
Tech Trend Paper 3 (April 2022)
Campbell, Heidi A; Jordan, Mandy (2022). The Digital Divide, Digital Reluctance and Its Impact on Pandemic Churches. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/195938
This paper explores how churches encountered and responded to challenges related to the Digital Divide, which was present within many churches but unnoticed prior to the pandemic.
Tech Trend Paper 2 (Feb 2022)
Campbell, Heidi A and Osteen, Sophia (2022). Embracing Pastoral Entrepreneurship during the Pandemic: Traits needed to be an Effective Digital Pastor.
Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/195453
This paper identifies and discusses five key traits pastors found essential to moving their services online , and reflect on how the pandemic required many pastors to step into a unique role as entrepreneurs.
Tech Trend Paper 4 (June 2023)
Campbell, Heidi A;Osteen, Sophia; Sparks, Grayson (2023). Diverse Congregations, Similar Experiences: How Pastors of Different Ethnic and Racial Churches Encountered Similar Issues and
Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/198162This paper explores how despite having differing access to resources and levels of technological preparedness, this study found that congregations fromdiverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in Indiana responded surprisingly similar to the digital shift that was required of their congregations during the
Covid-19 pandemic.Tech Trend Paper 5 (Dec 2023)
Campbell, Heidi A; Osteen, Sophia (2023). Churches Still Need Help: A Reflection of Churches’ Digital Needs in a Post-Pandemic Era. Available electronically from https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/200613
This report explores the current challenges and needs that congregations continue to face related to technology use. This work provides another in-depth analysis of key themes raised in the Tech in Churches During COVID-19 research project. The project explores the priorities of pastors implementing technological solutions during the pandemic, which became critical in helping churches transition to online gatherings in order to serve members during and post-pandemic life.
Research Articles
When Churches Discovered the Digital Divide
Campbell, H. A. (2023). When Churches Discovered the Digital Divide: Overcoming Technological Inaccessibility, Hesitancy & Digital Reluctance During the covid-19 Pandemic. Ecclesial Practices, 10(1), 36-61. https://doi.org/10.1163/22144417-bja10046
Available electronically from https://brill.com/view/journals/ep/10/1/article-p36_004.xml
Insights into Church Appropriation of Technology...
Campbell, H.A. & Osteen, S. (2021) “Insights into Church Appropriation and Views of Technology: First Glimpses into Research Findings”, in Revisiting the Distanced Church. (pp. 64-71), Texas: Digital Religion Publishing & OakTrust-TAMU Libraries.
Available electronically from https://doi.org/10.21423/revisitingthechurch
Technological Choices and Their Liturgical Implications
Campbell, H.A. & Osteen, S. (2024) "Technological Choices and Their Liturgical Implications: Challenges Encountered by Indiana Churches in the Pandemic Transition to Online Worship Services". Liturgy. 38:4, 52-59, DOI: 10.1080/0458063X.2023.2258058
Available electronically from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0458063X.2023.2258058?needAccess=true
How Pastoral Language about Technology Reflected Posthuman ideals...
Campbell, H.A. & Jones, G. (2022) "When the Church Embraced a Posthuman Future: How Pastoral Negotiations with Technology During the Covid-19 Pandemic Resulted in an Implicit Acceptance of Posthumanism”, in Postdigital TheologiesTechnology, Belief, and Practice, edited by J.Reader and M. Savin-Baden, Springer.
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