forms, as opposed to the structured organizations in Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran traditions. 17 Secondly, the concept “spirituality” is used here in the same integrative and contextual sense that is used by Ellis and Ulrik Josefsson, among others. Josefsson defines spirituality as the interaction between doctrine, patterns of action, and basic attitudes–or the knowing, doing and being of faith– that is construed in a given historic and social context. 18 Ellis draws on Philip Sheldrake, who describes spirituality as “the conjunction of theology, prayer and practical Christianity.” Since this entails what Christians think, pray, believe, and act in the practice of their faith, it is deeply embodied. 19 Furthermore, Ellis emphasizes the importance of the worship service (the liturgy) for the formation of spirituality. 20 Thirdly, understanding the design of the survey is important for understanding the results. The respondents in this study were strategically chosen. 10-25 congregations from each denomination were asked to participate, and each congregation was represented by three persons: the lead pastor and two volunteers, one man and one woman, aged 35-55. This means that the respondents were people in leadership positions and were deeply involved in the congregations and/or the denominations. Furthermore, the survey was based and structured on “Natural Church Development,” (NCD) a tool developed to evaluate and promote growth in Free churches. 21 In other words, there are specific ideals and assumptions about what church is and ought to be, which influenced the design of the survey—assumptions and ideals that the respondents likely would recognize and even hold. 22 I will return to the implications of this for the interpretation of the results below.
Ellis 2004, p. 25–27. Josefsson 2005, p. 26–34. 19 Ellis 2004, p. 14. 20 The connection between spirituality and liturgy in Free church and/or Pentecostal churches has been thoroughly discussed by several theologians in the last two decades. See for example Daniel E. Albrecht in his Rites in the Spirit: A liturgical approach to Pentecostal Spirituality (1999), Simon Chan’s Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshipping Community (2006) and Martin Lindhard’s Practicing the faith: the ritual life of Pentecostal Charismatic Churches (2011). 21 http://www.ncd-international.org/public/;jsessionid=92547168830C6941B2B1A9B492CF83BB#modal-close 22 All four denominations offer NCD as a tool at their official websites. See for example https://forsamlingsutveckling.se/ , the UC document Färdväg, Eriksson & Nygren 2008, p. 3–4, and PM’s website https://www.pingst.se/forsamling/resurs/forsamlingsutveckling/ However, NCD has also been criticized, and is not embraced whole17 18
94
