Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Our new Weekly Update format focuses on a single report or update. This week, it’s from the EFC Centre for Research on Church and Faith.
The Centre for Research on Church and Faith is announcing a change of leadership. Lindsay Callaway will be taking over as director, succeeding Rick Hiemstra, who is moving into a new role at the EFC as vice president of ministry and public engagement, effective June 1.
Callaway has been with the EFC since 2019, first as a research assistant, then researcher, then senior researcher. She has contributed to the Parenting Faith study on how parents disciple their children in the home, and the Significant Church study on Canadian congregations with less than 150 average attendance.
She has graduate degrees in systematic theology and bioethics from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and she lives in Ottawa.
Partnership projects on women, social media
The Centre for Research on Church and Faith recently released the final report for the National Study on Women in Canadian Evangelical Churches. The report (Lindsay Callaway is coauthor and lead researcher) draws on a robust dataset of 74 interviews and over 2,000 survey responses to explore the lives of Canadian evangelical women.
It explores where women are flourishing, where they encounter limits and how churches might more faithfully support their participation in the life and ministry of the church for the good of the whole church.
The Centre is also partnering on a study of how social media engagement affects the faith of Canadian youth. The #influencing_faith_study is focused on youth in Canadian evangelical youth ministries, and it’s also researching how Canadian evangelical youth ministry workers use social media in their ministries.
Youth survey participants needed!
Both the national youth survey on social media and the survey for youth ministry workers urgently need additional participants. They are still open until the end of May. The first step for youth participation is a parent information letter that enables parents to make an informed decision with their youth about their youth’s participation in the study.
Upcoming project on pastoral vocation
The Centre’s next nationwide research project will study pastoral needs and vocational barriers.
The collaboration (including a Propel Lilly grant with Northwest Seminary) will ask: “How many churches need pastors in Canada, and what are barriers and opportunities to discerning and sustaining pastoral vocations?” The research is split in two tracks.
The first track is a needs analysis to determine historic, current and future pastoral workforce needs. It will look at EFC-affiliated congregations and data such as pastoral positions and vacancies, appointment terms, age, expected retirement and strategies for identifying and equipping candidates.
The second track looks at career entry and retention. What factors inform how pastors discern ministry vocation and sustain their ministry?
This phased, qualitative and quantitative study will draw on denominational leaders, Christian higher education leaders and church leaders. Its primary population will be Canadians currently in (and discerning) pastoral roles.
This new project will be a huge help to address, in an evidence-based way, current and future pastoral needs in Canada.
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