Interpretational
Biases-
there are interpretations and then there are interpretations
Interpretation of research in the
phenomenological method according to Michael Crotty aims at “putting oneself in
the place of the other.”[1]
It is a purposeful exercise in order to gain a fresh perspective of the world.
It is appropriate to identify my particular location in the milieu of this
research and recognizes its influence upon my opinions and conclusions.
The experience and background of
being engaged in an alternative missional ecclesia actually helps in the
ability to interpret the experience of the study group. Engaging in the
“hermeneutical circle”[2]
as Martin Heidegger suggests is appropriate because the interpretation comes
out of participation. Rather than gather understanding from an outsider’s
perspective of the circle and analyze experience as objective, an external
perspective, the researcher leaps into the circle of meaning. By following the
phenomenological approach the study becomes an exercise in seeking to
understand the experiences, practices, and strategies of the alternative
missional ecclesia in Portland through the advantage and perspective of my
background and experience. To suggest otherwise would be misleading about
having an expectation of complete neutrality and objectivity.
Insider’s View
Don
Browning states, “Most of us stand on the boundary: religious communities
attract us; we may even participate in them; but we also wonder if they make
sense.”[3]
Browning’s comment resonates with this practitioner. Does church make sense?
The research for this project began after I finished an eighteen month
assignment, which ended in May of 2010, as the pastor of a Friends’ Church in
Vancouver Washington. The motivation for this project was fostered by a deep
desire to make sense of the experience that was steeped in strong traditions
and to explore what other alternatives exist. What is clear to me from the
experience is that often churches are well established in their traditions to
the extent that innovations are met with deep suspicion and resistance. Two
questions fueled the initiation of the project: First, does the potential exist
to reestablish churches as an incarnational and missional community and how
might this be accomplished? Second, is it more advantageous to establish new
churches which are contextual, incarnational and missional from their
beginning? Third, how might the practices and strategies of the Positive
Deviance approach be effective in ecclesial contexts?
In October
of 2010, shortly before beginning the research for this project, my wife and I
started an alternative missional church as an expression of the desire to learn
and grow toward a contextual and theological praxis that meaningfully met the needs
of the community. The experience has established both an insider’s perspective
into the dynamics of the Attractional, Propositional and Colonial form of
church, as well as an insider’s view of being a practitioner of an alternative
missional church. The insider’s perspective into traditional and alternative
missional church gives an outlet for the application of the research findings.
Therefore,
when approaching the study group I recognized that I came not just as a
researcher, but as a practitioner: as a Christ follower (Christian), as an
ordained pastor, and a missional church practitioner and participant. The
research contained within this study occurs more from an emic rather than an etic
approach. Ferraro, a noted anthropologist, describes the differences,
The emic
approach refers to the insider view, which seeks to describe another culture in
terms of the categories, concepts, and perceptions of the people being studied.
By contrast, the etic approach refers to the outsider view, in which anthropologists
use their own categories and concepts to describe the culture under analysis.[4]
The result is an ability to connect with the native
informants within each alternative missional ecclesia, enhancing the research.
The questions for the research group were guided by my background and
interests. The lack of detachment allowed the subjects to feel a kindred
connection and produced an eager participation. The research was not bogged
down by the typical dilemma an outsider may have faced attempting the same
research of the contextualization practices and strategies. Nevertheless, it is
true that my religious and missional participation coupled with personal
knowledge and experiences do inevitably influence my research methodology.
[1] Michael
Crotty, The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the
Research Process (SAGE, 1998), 83–86.
[2] Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
(Wiley-Blackwell, 1962), 168–154, 194, 363.
[3] Don S.
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic
Proposals (Fortress Press, 1996), 1.
[4] Ferraro,
Cultural Anthropology, 17.
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