Andrew Finlay Walls (1928–2021)

Andrew Walls, a pioneering historian of Christian missions, was the architect of the study of World Christianity. Trained as a patristic scholar, he went to Sierra Leone in 1957 to teach at Fourah Bay College. There and at the University of Nsukka in Nigeria (1962–66) he became a student of the growing churches of Africa. At the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh (1966–97), he became a scholar of renown, establishing the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, and supervising students who became leaders in church and academy. His legacy is preserved in institutions across the globe, a host of articles, and his former students.

Youthful Church: A Study Of British Christian Youth Events And Community Culture

Within contemporary culture, events dominate our leisure activities, and churches are not exempt from this trend. In the context of a study of church youth events, this research focuses on the wellbeing aspects of three growing churches and their youth events activities. In exploring the conceptualization of the eventization of faith, the research considers aspects of youth development, including wellbeing, from a Christian perspective. The aim of the paper is to identify and consider the influences of wellbeing in the purposes, content and outcomes of such faith events and their contribution to wellbeing in these temporary youthful church communities. It examines the concept of wellbeing through the cultural medium of events, focusing on case studies of the youth events of three independent, non-denominational, evangelical churches in the United Kingdom.

Utilizing Brief Spiritual Assessments with Clients who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

In recent years social work has increasingly focused on spirituality and religion as key elements of cultural competency. The Joint Commission—the nation's largest health care accrediting organization—as well as many other accrediting bodies require spiritual assessments in hospitals and many other mental health settings. Consequently, specific intervention strategies have been fostered in order to provide the most appropriate interventions for religious clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest and one of the faster growing churches in the United States. In an effort to facilitate cultural competence with clients who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, a brief spiritual assessment instrument was developed. This mixed-method study asked experts in Church culture (N = 100) to identify the degree of cultural consistency, strengths, and limitations of the brief spiritual assessment instrument. Results indicate that the framework is consistent with Church culture and a number of practice-oriented implications are offered.

The Experience Megachurch: Lakewood, Hillsong, and The Pragmatics and Semiotics of “Inspiration”

Megachurches, although differing in terms of denominational affiliation (or relative lack thereof), spatial logic, liturgy, teaching, and congregational demographics, share the common trait of size and are often fast-growing churches as well. This is particularly true of what might be called (following scholarship on the “experience economy”) the “experience megachurch”: those with a broad attractive appeal, large and growing congregations, and relative freedom from traditional Christian spatial-architectural constraints, rituals, and denominational histories. Such experience megachurches share an emphasis on offering their congregations an “inspiring” experience of the reality of God’s existence and presence in the church. Applying theories of pragmatics, semiotics, and bodily discipline, this article examines two experience megachurches (Lakewood in Houston, U.S.A., and Hillsong, headquartered in Sydney, Australia) to offer a taxonomy of megachurch praxis.

Of Tremor and Transition

At the turn of the twentieth century, a “New South” of industry, cities, and commerce promised to modernize the American South. Amid much regional change, southern evangelicals commonly comprehended and universally lamented a spiritual crisis. Despite growing churches, rising salaries, enhanced public prestige, and expanding congregations, southern white Protestant ministers perceived only a landscape of empty churches, disrespected preachers, indolent congregants, and a hostile public. Within their insular denominational worlds, southern religious leaders such as Baylor president William Carey Crane outlined the contours of their anxieties. But if a deep-seated sense of widespread crisis confronted religious Texans, a new generation of emerging leaders such as J. B. Cranfill promised a way out: they could fight in the public sphere. Senator Morris Sheppard and others increasingly imagined that the politics of prohibition could free religious southerners from their perceived crisis and reclaim an imagined golden age for American religion.