Official Project Proposal

Though I originally developed a research project centered around the phenomenon of evangelizing, or spreading the gospel, to different Discourses, I’ve decided to switch gears and instead focus on those who play a pivotal role in the sharing of the gospel, pastors. As a member of an urban evangelical church, the Axis Church, I am intrigued with how senior pastor Jeremy Rose communicates with the church body and goes about his duty as one who preaches the salvation of Jesus Christ. Even more intriguing is his influence on the church body and how hints of his personality and theology become mixed within the personalities and theologies of those who learn from him.

What I ask is this: how is a particular church’s head pastor reflected in his/her congregation? What sorts of mannerisms or beliefs do regular attenders of a church pick up from their pastor? Is it healthy admiration? Is it unwanted? Does the church itself notice the occurrence? Does the pastor? How do both feel about it?

I plan on examining two different churches, one being the previously mentioned Axis Church and another to be determined. Apart from the initial pastor-to-congregation study, I will compare the findings from each church, look for similarities, and point out the differing aspects and attempt to explain why they differ. I will conduct interviews with both parties, the pastor and the regular attenders. I will look at things such as a pastor’s typical Sunday, how the church worships, how the pastor preaches, etc. Given this, the project will also be examination-heavy. I am eager to pick out another church to research as well as begin to develop criteria and questions. I am sure this will be an enlightening and memorable project for me, as one who is very attached to the church and would possibly like to be involved with one in the future as a career.

Ideas for Research Project

I've got a pretty solid idea of what I'd like to do for my research project. At the moment, I just need to choose between the two perspectives that it entails.

As a religion major and a Christian, I've become increasingly interested in how one goes about "evangelizing" or sharing the gospel and converting others to Christianity. This too has been fueled by my commitment to a church in north Nashville called The Axis Church. It was strategically planted in the Salemtown neighborhood, a low-income, predominantly African American part of town. My pastor, who is white, and having grown up as the son of a pastor, has encountered throughout his life a great number of different social groups, all bound by Christ. He feels very at home in Salemtown and equipped to administer the gospel to anyone, white, black, homeless, etc, who enters the Axis Church.

So for my project I'd like to examine and investigate how one goes about evangelizing to different Discourses. The core is obviously the same, the gospel remains the same in any circumstance, but I'd like to narrow in on vocabulary, body language, tone of voice, really specific speech patterns, and see how one might go about talking about Jesus to different socio-economic groups. Is there a huge difference? Where are the links?

What I need to decide is whether I'd like to approach this from the pastor's perspective, or the people's perspective, or both. This will be an interview-heavy topic. What I will need to do is interview a WIDE range of people; I am aware that a relationship with Christ is a very personal thing and no two people have come to Christ in the exact same way: however, I want to see if any trends occur.

We'll see where this takes me.

Clash of Discourse

In class, we talked about Discourse. One develops this during childhood, growing up and becoming familiar with certain types of communication, actions, and language specific to his/her family. This is called the "primary" Discourse. But we also develop "secondary" Discourses throughout life as we enter into society and into different cultures and contexts. We have a unique Discourse as a student, an employee, and a friend, all the while retaining the original manner of socializing we learned as a child. The trick is to know when and how to shift between Discourses as appropriate for the occasion; not to create a new identity or destroy another, but to allow them to coexist.

Our assignment was to find a video clip which showcased an obvious clash of Discourses. This could occur between people because of norms, appearance, status, etc. I've chosen a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit performed in the 90's by Mike Myers and Chris Farley. Here the obvious clash of Discourse involves language and culture, as an American man ends up trying to survive on a Japanese game show without knowing any Japanese. Even though the skit features North American actors, the differences between Japanese and American culture are great; writing, body language, dress, are all examples. "Rory" the American totally stands out amongst his fellow contestants. He is shocked to see them willingly cutting off their own fingers, while they seem unfazed. Really notice how Farley portrays the stereotypical American with his vocabulary and conversation. It's a lighthearted look at a very real and very wide culture gap.

Goal for the Semester

I've always enjoyed writing, particularly poetry and short stories, but even a good essay or research paper here and there. One thing I always seek to improve upon, and something that I want to focus on this semester, is to be able to write with less contemplation. Even now as I'm typing this paragraph, I find myself stopping to tweak certain words and make it as "pristine" as possible. I don't need to spend all that time trying to make it perfect. It's not that I want to write more sloppily, I would like to be able to make my point as clear and effortlessly as possible. More often than not, the revisions I make don't sound like something I would say. I'd like to develop a writing style that sits nicely somewhere between informal and elegant. My classes this semester are filled with enough time and writing assignments needed to produce at least a small change in my current style. It should be a good year.