What is ‘Appreciating Theology’ ?

Appreciating theology is the title of our church project where we will be exploring faith and work. The project is also a university research study. The term ‘appreciating theology’ reflects the type of research approach I am using for the project. The research approach has two parts. The first is something called appreciative inquiry (AI), which is a form of action research (Cooperrider, et al., 2008). The clue is in the name – this type of research ends with actions. The project is not purely theoretical, it will have actions, things we will put in place in the church to help us in the area of our faith and work as part of our whole-life discipleship approach to Christianity. AI is a specific form of action research, unlike other forms of action research it does not focus on problems to be fixed. AI is a positive approach to situations that concentrates on an individual’s positive experiences that are shared by telling their stories. AI asks people to share positive memories from the past and to describe their hopes and dreams for a better future. This approach reminds me of this scripture:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things. ~ Philippians 4:8 NKJV

The appreciative inquiry model has five stages, which uses terminology we maybe would not use in our everyday life. To help make this model less academic and more user friendly, I have renamed the stages using terms I hope everyone will recognize and understand:

1. Let’s Chat
2. Let’s Learn 
3. Let’s Do 
4. Let’s Reflect 

Each of these stages are explained within this Blog. 

I have combined the AI model with something called theological action research, as this is a study that has theology at the centre. Theological action research (Cameron, et al., 2010) was developed as a way to ensure that reflection was completely theological. Theological action research uses something called the ‘Four Voices of Theology’ to assist in theological reflection.  We will be using the Four Voices model to reflect on the information gathered during the Let’s Chat stage of the project. 

This would be described as a ‘practical theology’ research project. Practical theology looks at theology in our everyday activities.

For the purpose of this research project:

Appreciative Inquiry + Theological Action Research = ‘Appreciating Theology’

The diagram below shows how all this comes together as a model I have called ‘appreciating theology’.

I am sharing the detail of the model for those who like to know the specifics, if you participate in the study, you don’t need to know this level of detail. We will work through the stages of the model together. You can be involved as much as you want within the project ranging from doing one Let’s Chat session, which lasts approximately 45 minutes, to being fully involved in all of the four stages of the model, which will take a couple of hours each month for approximately 12 to 18 months for the project to collect meaningful information.

 I am looking for a number of people to share their stories about faith and work. If you would like to be involved, please contact me via this blog, if you  go to the Contact tab you can email me. There are no right or wrong answers, everyone’s story is of value and of equal status, should you be a paid employee a carer, homemaker, a foster carer, or retired. If you would like to know more detail about the Let’s Chat session , please click this link which takes you to a recording of an Appreciative Inquiry briefing session I held recently with members of Kingdom Culture Church. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dpwp8UGaKQ5R6yQ_Lik9yh5-KDF8pITR/view?usp=sharing

The briefing session explains the project aim, background and the Let’s Chat stage in a little more detail. There is still time to join us as we embark on this exciting journey together. 

Speak soon

Jean

Cameron, H., Bhatti, D., Duce, C., Sweeney, J. and Watkins, C. (2010) Talking about God in practice. London, SCM Press.

Cooperrider, D. L., Whitney, D. and Stavros, J. M. (2008) Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: For leaders of change. Second ed. USA, Crown Custom Publishing Inc