Congregational Studies

Ego-affirming Evangelicalism: How a Hollywood Church Appropriates Religion for Workers in the Creative Class

by Gerardo Marti

The “creative class” is a growing stratum of American labor consisting of nomadic workers who master self-promotion... more The “creative class” is a growing stratum of American labor consisting of nomadic workers who master self-promotion for economic survival. Using ethnographic and interview data from a Los Angeles church with a majority of attenders working in the entertainment industry, the paper demonstrates how a congregation oriented around a softer form of Word of Faith/Prosperity theology provides moral guidance for creative class believers. Their personal pursuit of fame and fortune is viewed as a veneer for the real self who not only lives by God's standards but also interacts with broader society in solidarity with others in their moral community with the goal of fulfilling religious aspirations. The resulting ego-affirming evangelicalism suggests that congregations that accommodate individual “greatness” within a cohesive community will be embraced by creative class workers who seek both inspiration for daily work and consolation for the isolation and fatigue experienced through their occupational challenges.

"Reconceiving the Congregation as a Source of Authenticity"

by Mathew Guest

In Garnet, J. et al (eds) Redefining Christian Britain: Post-1945 Perspectives, London: SCM, 2007, pp. 63-72.

This chapter focuses on the different forms and functions which Christian congregations in Britain have adopted in... more This chapter focuses on the different forms and functions which Christian congregations in Britain have adopted in recent years, faced with a cultural context characterised by a fragmentation of local communities and the elevation of consumerist values. In deliberate contrast to visions of post-Christian Britain which emphasise secularisation and the inexorable breakdown of tradition, the intention here is to highlight creative processes of reconfiguration which illustrate the capacity of Christian collectives to adapt to cultural change. Alternative forms of Christian community are then explored through the examples of cell churches, parachurches and web-based communities.

A Place to Belong: Small Group Involvement in Religious Congregations

by Andrew Whitehead

Financial Commitment Within Federations of Small Groups: The Effect of Cell‐Based Congregational Structure on Individual Giving

by Andrew Whitehead

Anne Venn's *A Wise Virgins Lamp Burning* (1658) in the Household of Anne Dunch, Sister-in-law to Richard Cromwell

by Rachel Adcock

published in Notes & Queries (2010), online edn

Congregational Studies: Taking Stock

by Mathew Guest

Co-authored with Linda Woodhead and Karin Tusting. pp. 1-23 of Congregational Studies in the UK: Christianity in a Post-Christian Context ed. by Mathew Guest, Karin Tusting and Linda Woodhead (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004)

This chapter charts the development of congregational studies  - analyses of local Christian congregations - in... more This chapter charts the development of congregational studies  - analyses of local Christian congregations - in the UK from the 1950s onwards. It draws comparisons with similar studies in the USA, and offers insights into how the evolution of dominant approaches and perspectives has been shaped by changes in the wider cultural climate.

New Paradigm Christianity and Commitment-formation: The Case of Hope Filipino (Singapore)

by Jayeel Cornelio

Cornelio, Jayeel. 2008. “New Paradigm Christianity and Commitment-formation: The Case of Hope Filipino (Singapore).”... more Cornelio, Jayeel. 2008. “New Paradigm Christianity and Commitment-formation: The Case of Hope Filipino (Singapore).” In Abby Day, ed., Religion and the Individual: Belief, Practice, Identity, 65-77. Aldershot: Ashgate

Book Abstract:

What does religion mean to the individual?

How are people religious and what do their beliefs, practices and identities mean to them?

The individual's place within studies of religion has tended to be overlooked recently in favour of macro analyses. Religion and the Individual draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity. Using original case studies and other work firmly placed in the empirical, contributors discuss what religious belief means to the individual. They examine how people embody what religion means to them through practice, considering the different meanings that people attach to religion and the social expressions of their personal understandings and the ways in which religion shapes how people see themselves in relation to others. This work is cross-cultural, with contributions from Asia, Europe and North America.

Contents: Introduction, Abby Day; Part I Belief: Cultural intensification: a theory for religion, Douglas Davies; Speaking personally: women making meaning through subjectivised belief, Janet Eccles; Young people's spirituality and the meaning of prayer, Sylvia Collins-Mayo; Who are the believers of religion in China?, Xiaowen Lu, Richard O'Leary and Yaojun Li. Part II Practice: New paradigm Christianity and commitment-formation: the case of Hope Filipino (Singapore), Jayeel Serrano Cornelio; A peaceable common: gathered wisdom from exemplar Muslim and Christian peacemakers, Kevin S. Reimer, Alvin C. Dueck, Joshua P. Morgan and Deborah E. Kessel; Autonomous conformism – the paradox of entrepreneurial Protestantism. Spring harvest: a case study, Rob Warner; Social vs. spiritual capital in explaining philanthropic giving in a Muslim setting: the case of Turkey, Ali Çarkoglu. Part III Identity: Development of the religious self: a theoretical foundation for measuring religious identity, David M. Bell; Accommodating the individual and the social, the religious and the secular: modelling the parameters of discourse in 'religious' contexts, Peter Collins; Religion and the individual: a socio-legal perspective, Russell Sandberg; Freedom in chains: religion as an enabler and constraint in the lives of gay male Anglican clergy, Michael Keenan; Religious identity and millenarian belief in Santo Daime, Andrew Dawson; Index.

About the Editor: Dr Abby Day is based at the University of Sussex, UK.

Reviews: 'This volume brings together a significant set of reflections on the meaning of religion for the individual as well as society. In doing so it makes a timely and valuable contribution to our understanding both of individualizing tendencies within religion, and of appropriate theoretical and methodological responses to that shift.'
Professor Linda Woodhead, Director AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, Lancaster University, UK

The Minister is Lay: Social Organization in New Paradigm Christianity

by Jayeel Cornelio

Cornelio, Jayeel. 2007. “The Minister is Lay: Social Organization in New Paradigm Christianity.” Global Missiology.... more Cornelio, Jayeel. 2007. “The Minister is Lay: Social Organization in New Paradigm Christianity.” Global Missiology. Online Journal.


Love seems to be in the air for many of the red-shirted members of Hope Filipino.  On this particular Sunday afternoon, the church-owned Nexus Auditorium, located in a shopping center in Singapore’s prominent Orchard Road, conveys the vibrancy of Valentine’s season.  Instead of a familiar Christian song, setting the mood for the inflowing audience is one of Kenny G’s romantic hits, a tangible indication that this is not ordinary church.  The Sunday service, redesigned for evangelistic purposes, expects a greater number of non-Christian visitors as a result of the pre-Valentine Matthew Care Group .  With friends meeting and ushers greeting at the front door, the auditorium is in a warm atmosphere. 

A new form of Protestant Christianity is gaining influence in many parts of urbanizing Asia today.  But it remains overlooked by the academe.  Considering the rapid growth of many of these churches in America, Miller (1997) is convinced that this culturally adaptive form of Christianity is bound to shape the future of the faith.  Precipitated by the global movement of believers and such cultural forms as music and literature it has influenced, the rise of new paradigm churches in many parts of the world – Asia included – becomes increasingly visible (see Miller 1997; Miller 1998; Connell 2005; Cruz 2006; Cornelio 2006).  Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, and Singapore are some of the Asian cities sheltering new paradigm churches today.  But as the available literature mainly looks at the Western experience (see Miller 1997; Miller 1998; Connell 2005; Cruz 2006), this becomes a notable inquiry for academics observing religion in Asia.   

By looking more closely at a new paradigm congregation in Singapore, this research attempts to one, provide a more enriching perspective on the rather limited material on new paradigm Christianity with specific emphasis on its social organization, and two, bring into academic discourse its contextualization within Asian modernity.  The highly accessible social organization is characterized by a blurred distinction between clergy and laity, with the latter fulfilling many, if not all, important ministerial functions.  New paradigm Christianity, in this sense, presents itself as a radical progression from the routinized forms of charisma one can anticipate in mainline Protestantism.  The most pertinent sociological question deals with the ability of new paradigm Christianity to facilitate leadership development among its lay members so effectively that the church becomes central to the life-decisions of its adherents.  How is church involvement viewed by its faithful?  Do certain beliefs, principles, or thoughts condition social action within the congregation?  What kind of social organization materializes out of these dynamics?  A critical consideration is new paradigm Christianity’s promise of a postmodern reintegration of the profane with the sacred, a dichotomy generally reinforced by modernist consciousness in liberal Protestantism.  Ensuing this reintegration is the empowering rereading of the belief in the individual priesthood of believers, which is further explained in light of late modernity or postmodernity.

Enriching the current literature is the unique positionality of this research’s empirical subject – a congregation of overseas professionals in a commercially advanced society.  The analysis draws from the experience of Hope Filipino Singapore, a congregation subsumed under 2,500-strong Hope Church Singapore, which belongs to a missionary-sending new paradigm movement that originated in Bangkok, Thailand.  At nine years, Hope Filipino sees more than 500 attending its Sunday service and weekly care group and discipleship activities.  A couple of members and leaders are non-Filipinos, particularly those that pioneered the congregation.  Though young, it is determined to bring 1,000 Filipinos into church by 2007.  Relative to the empirical subjects examined in the existing literature, the congregation’s small yet increasing membership base presents an opportunity for a systematically closer analysis of its social organization.  I conducted interviews with individuals carefully selected to provide balanced representation based on gender, leadership position, and length of stay in the church.  A participant observation of a Sunday service also forms part of the fieldwork.