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Tech Trend Paper 5 is Out

Drawing on our findings from our third report “‘ We’re Still Here’: Reflections of the Post-Pandemic Digital Church research team has produced its fifth and finalTech Trend Paper. Churches Still Need Help: A Reflection of Churches’ Digital Needs in a Post-Pandemic Era". This report explores the current challenges and needs that congregations continue to face related to technology use. This report provides another in-depth analysis of key themes raised in the Tech in Churches During COVID-19 Research Project The full paper is available electronically at https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/200613
 

Final Project Report is Published  

The third and final research report of the "Tech in Churches During Covid-19" research project is now published. “‘We’re Still Here’: Reflections of the Post-Pandemic Digital Church” presents findings from a survey of 246 Indiana church leaders who received technology grants from the Center for Congregations in 2020. The focus of this report is to see how technological decisions and attitudes changed throughout the global pandemic and to compare their practices and beliefs about technology before, during and after the pandemic. 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.
 

Tech Trend Paper 4 is Out 

Drawing on our findings from our second report Mission to Serve Tech: Churches Lock Down" Technology During The Global Pandemic, the research team has produced its fourth Tech Trend Paper. It is titled, "Diverse Congregations, Similar Experiences: How Pastors of Different Ethnic and Racial Churches Encountered Similar Issues and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic". The report looks at the fact that while churches across Indiana come from diverse racial and ethnicbackgrounds, the Covid-19 pandemic created a similar shared experience across these churches. Despite their diversity and varying access to digital resources
churches exhibited surprisingly similar views when
approaching digital challenges and opportunities with the same set of assumptions about churches and technologies.
The full paper is available electronically at https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/198162

VIDEO OFFERS PROJECT AND RESEARCH OVERVIEW TO DATE 

Dr Campbell made an online presentation to the Department of Communication at Texas A&M Univeristy on the background and development of the Tech in Churches During Covid-19 Project. She provides an overview of how this work highlights creative responses to studying important questions of how the global pandemic has impacted scholarly research, especially related to studying religious organization responses to technological and media changes occurring at this time.

Video of presentation can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Df9u5ktvk