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Just a few weeks ago, the first issue of a new journal, The Journal of Theologies and Cultures in Asia landed on the desk. This new journal is published by the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia and succeeds the PTCA Bulletin. It is handsomely printed and professionally presented, and it represents an important addition to Asian theological resources. This first issue is made up entirely of papers presented at the PTCA-sponsored seminar entitled Retrospect and Prospect of Doing Theology in Asia, held in Bangkok in July 2001.

If you are interested, subscriptions can be made through Man's Book Company in Hong Kong (info@mansbook.com). The editor is Simon S. M. Kwan, Chinese University of Hong Kong (smkwan@cuhk.edu.hk).

Citation for the first issue: Journal of Theologies and Cultures in Asia 1 (February 2002).

Over the last four years, the Office of History has run a series of hot season research projects involving seminarians from several of Thailand's seminaries. The first two projects, in 1998 and 1999, took place in the churches of the Musikee Association of the Karen Baptist Convention (KBC, comprising Districts 10 & 19 of the CCT). The 2000 project was done with (or, to) churches of District 4 (Phrae-Uttaradit) located in Uttaradit Province. Last year, 2001, we worked with the Pai Association churches of the KBC. The purpose of each project was to train students in basic historical research methods, especially oral history interviewing techniques, and then to turn them loose to discover the history of selected local churches for themselves. A total of 24 students participated in these projects.

This year, the Office ran three concurrent projects. The first began in mid-February and involved six Karen students from the Center for the Uplift of the Hill tribes (CUHT) studying the histories of churches in the Zion Association, KBC. The second project started in mid-March, involving eleven Lahu students from the Lahu Bible Institute (LBI) studying five selected churches of District 18 (a.k.a. the Lahu Baptist Convention). The third project began a week later with six students from the McGilvary Faculty of Theology, Payap University, doing a preliminary church life survey of District 4 churches in Phrae Province.

The Karen Project (Feb-Apr), conducted by Thra'mu (Teacher) Esther Danpongpee, relied on what has become our standard model for these hot season student research projects. She trained the students in oral history techniques and then sent them to ten churches. What was experimental this time was that in the past we have always done these projects with bachelors' level students and never with Bible school students. The six CUHT students, however, did a fine job, all but comparable to seminary students, and they came away with the same sense of appreciation for the importance of historical research for understanding local church life. The project ended with a one-day seminar attended by representatives of 16 of the 17 churches in the Zion Association, just over 40 participants in all. The highlight of that event (for

me, at least) was the opportunity to listen in (through translation) as church leaders discussed the historical and current relationship of Karen culture to the Karen church.

The Lahu Project (Mar-Apr), conducted by me, ran into some administrative difficulties and, unfortunately, had to be terminated early. This project also experimented with using Bible school students, but with two important differences from the Karen project. First, it involved all 11 second year students (where the Karen project took only selected students), and, second, I had taught the students a class in history research methods during the semester before hot season. Of the 11 students, six or seven did just as well as the Karen students. The others did not do very well, a lack of motivation being the basic problem. The students studied six churches scattered across the 18th District, their purpose being to collect data for a planned text on Lahu church history in northern Thailand. This project also experimented with trying to use an educational institution as its base, rather than a group of churches as we have always done in the past. It was at this point that the project ran into difficulties; it developed that LBI does not have the close relationship to the churches necessary to facilitate communication with them. We also failed to prepare sufficient churches for study, which is why the project had to end early. The lesson we learned was that our basic model-involving a smaller number of selected students studying a cluster of churches under the direct field supervision of our own staff-is the best. Trying to do scattered churches also proved to be very expensive in transportation costs. One other difference between the Karen and Lahu projects is that the Karen churches now have more experience with this historical research, while the Lahu churches do not and did not understand at all what the students were doing. Still, all of the students felt they had gained a better knowledge of local church life and a deeper commitment to using research for the benefit of the churches, and the project can be considered a limited success.

The Office of History, as always, is grateful for the support it receives from the Baptist Union of Sweden, which provided the funding for both of these projects.

The Fourth District Project (Mar-May) was also an experiment. Instead of studying the histories of selected churches, the project conducted a preliminary "church life survey" of all of the CCT's churches and a few organized groups (muad) in Phrae Province. The three student teams studied 14 congregations. They spent an average of 5 days with each congregation asking members to help them define what they think is a healthy church. The students led small group sessions, conducted individual interviews, and distributed a questionnaire, all directed at formulating a shared description of what a healthy church would look like in Phrae Province. The Office of History hopes to conduct an experimental church life survey in the Fourth District, and the purpose of this project was to gather data from the people in the churches themselves on what we should survey. Credit for this approach goes to Dr. Philip Hughes.

This project, jointly run by Ach. Sukonrak Punnya and myself, was one of the most successful hot season projects we have run. It identified a set of factors that church members believe contribute to church health, and the project questionnaire garnered a number of important insights. The six McGilvary Faculty of Theology students involved proved to be, collectively, the most dedicated and hard-working group of students we have had to date. We ended the project with a one-day seminar attended by some twenty district and local church leaders. HeRB will eventually

provide a full report on the results of the questionnaire, and the news item that follows contains a preliminary overview of the projects' findings.

As mentioned in the above news item, the Office of History sponsored a hot season research project among District Four churches located in Phrae Province. The project included a questionnaire distributed in all 14 churches involved. The students collected some 400 responses, representing roughly 1/5th or more of all of the members of those churches. The questionnaire was prepared with the students and had the purpose of learning what church members believe to be the key elements to church health in their churches. Some interesting results are:

When asked if a healthy church must have a pastor, 50% responded "absolutely necessary," 33.8% responded "necessary," and 8.7% responded "somewhat necessary." Responses to other questions, however, cast some doubt on the reliability of this data. We will see, below, that when asked to rate the importance comparatively of pastoral care and pastoral visitation along with six other local church ministries, both came out low. When asked, in another list, to rate individual church activities separately, the figures for pastoral care ranked sixth when then compared with the responses for the other items. It could be argued that the members see the need for a pastor but are less sure about the need of pastoral care, but the data from this questionnaire is too sketchy to decide if that is the case or not.

When asked if a healthy church must have enthusiastic worship (karn namusakarn baab raochai), 10.8% responded "absolutely must," 51.7% responded "must," and 26.5% responded "probably must." It should be noted that the Thai word implies worship somewhat akin to Pentecostal worship, esp. the use of drums and electric guitars, singing inspirational hymns, and a more free form in worship.

When asked if a healthy church should incorporate Thai traditions in its life, 10.7% responded "absolutely should," 35.8% responded "should," and 31.2% responded "probably should."

When asked if a healthy church should have close relations with its community, 37.2% responded "absolutely should," 49.5% responded "should," and 9.7% responded "probably should."

When asked if a healthy church must include well-to-do members, 49.4% responded negatively while 47.6 % responded positively; 3% responded, "not sure." When asked if a healthy church must be situated in well-to-do community, 48.7% responded negatively and 47% answered in the affirmative; 4.3% were not sure. It appeared that poorer, rural churches tended to answer that a healthy church does not have to have well-to-do members or be located in a well-to-do community.

When asked to weigh the relative importance of 8 local church ministries, the respondents collectively gave the following response: 1. worship (52.9% selected it as first), 2. Bible study, 3. evangelism, 4. stewardship, 5. family life ministry, 6. visitation of members, 7. pastoral care, 8. community service (51.3% rated it last). These results are in some doubt because, first, the order of responses is very close to the order in the questionnaire itself. It is also doubtful, second, that the respondents understood the distinction between visitation and pastoral care. From personal experience, however, I would say that results are not entirely skewed. It is interesting, for example, that the positions of Bible study and evangelism were

reversed in the questionnaire, where evangelism is listed first but Bible study was ranked higher. Community service, also, was not listed last.

In our summary of our findings that we presented to Fourth District leaders, we concluded that: First, church members value worship highly and want lively worship. It appears that they see worship as a key, perhaps the key component of a healthy church. Second, church members consistently gave high ratings to questions involving putting God first, church unity, and community relations. It appears that they believe that good relationships (with God, other members, and community) are another extremely important element in church health. Finally, we noted that 63.7% of the respondents are women. (When I asked our students why such a heavy proportion, they responded that it is mostly women who go to church in the Fourth District). It would seem that one important way to achieve healthy church life is to equip and empower women for ministry and leadership.

IF these findings are at all correct, they suggest that attention has to be given to the role of worship in church renewal. Developing spiritual and communal relations deserve nearly equal emphasis. Economic development, on the other hand, does not seem to be an issue for the members of District Four churches and particularly not an issue for poorer churches themselves.

On May 7-8, Herb Swanson with Ach. Prasit Pongudom, staff researcher with the Office of History, led a two day workshop on research methods for pastors. This workshop was the third in a series, which have involved roughly 20 pastors and CCT agency staff members in learning how to use questionnaires as tools for decision-making. At the last workshop, the participants agreed to carry out modest research projects in their churches and agencies, using questionnaires as the main tool of study. From previous experience, we expected a heavy drop out rate. That's what happened. There were only eight participants in the May workshop, including two new participants. A last minute schedule conflict prevented four other participants from attending. Only four individuals, all pastors, had made some progress on their projects; only one had satisfactorily completed her project. The other three seemed determined to finish their research as well, and we had a fruitful time going over draft questionnaires, discussing research tactics, and practicing the interpretation of data.

The topics of these four projects may be of interest to HeRB readers. The completed project looked at the attitudes of members of one small, rural First District church towards the hymns they were singing in worship. It specifically wanted to learn if using the CCT's denominational hymnal was an obstacle to the members. The pastor learned that it is and that the members want much more training and practice in its use. She stated that she felt the use of a questionnaire had been very helpful to her in improving her church's worship life. The three projects still in process are: (1) the study of member's attitudes in another rural First District church concerning tearing down their old church building and building a new one. The subject is controversial. (2) The pastor of an urban First District church with close ties to a Korean mission establishment intends to use a questionnaire to find out how the members of the church he serves feel about those ties. (3) The pastor of a Sixth District (Bangkok-Pitsanuloke) church wants to know how people of other faiths in the church's community feel about Christianity. All three of these pastors are highly motivated and the issues they are researching are pressing ones for their congregations. I expect that they will complete their research.

The Office of History is currently working with Evangelism Unit of the CCT, which unit also is responsible for Christian Education to initiate two new projects.

The first project will assemble a major bibliography of Thai-language materials concerning the churches in Thailand. There will be an emphasis on CCT-related materials. For the most part translated items will not be included. The Rev. Don Persons, who is on the staff of Lamp of Thailand, will be primarily responsible for the project. This project has just begun.

The second project intends to study two closely related subjects, namely evangelistic attitudes and practices in CCT churches and the attitudes CCT church members have towards people of other faiths. The project will proceed in two phases. Next February it will sponsor a two-day consultation on evangelism with northern Thais, discussing both northern Thai Christian attitudes towards people of other faiths and successful evangelistic strategies with them. This consultation will be funded by the Christian Identity in a Buddhist Context Project headed up by Dr. Don Swearer, which is being conducted with Herb's assistance. At the conclusion of that consultation, the Office of History and the Evangelism Unit will lay plans for a major CCT-wide survey on evangelism and attitudes towards people of other faiths, which is slated to be completed by the end of 2004.

The acronym stands for "International Association of Church-Related Research Organisations," and if you've never heard of it, not to worry. It doesn't exist-yet. Dr. Philip Hughes of the Christian Research Association (Australia) is floating the idea of an international organization for church-related researchers and research organizations. It would sponsor a research bulletin, a triennial conference, and a website. Philip describes three major objectives that such a body could help achieve, namely (1) share skills, resources, materials, and ideas among those engaged in church-related research; (2) encourage each other in conducting church-related research; and, (3) provide a basis for communication between people in church-related research.

At the moment, the IACRO is just an idea. If you are interested and would like further details or have suggestions, please contact Philip at p.hughes@cra.org.au