The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Volume 1, Issue 1 Is Now Published Online!

Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry

The FaithX Project, in partnership with Wipf and Stock Publishers, is proud to announce the release of our very first issue of the peer-reviewed academic journal, Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM).

You can view and download the articles by clicking here.

Table of Contents:

ISBN: 978-1-5326-8495-1

SOCIAL-SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

1) “Grenz and Franke’s Post-Foundationalism and the Religion Singularity“

By Jeshua B. Branch

2) “First Century Christian Diversity: Historical Evidence of a Social Phenomenon“

By John F. Lingelbach

INVITED POSITION PAPERS

3) “A Cultural Cognition Perspective on Religion Singularity: How Political Identity Influences Religious Affiliation“

By Kevin S. Seybold

4) “Is the Disintegration of Christianity a Problem—or Even a Surprise?“

By Jack David Eller

MINISTRY RESEARCH

5) “Conditions for the Great Religion Singularity“

By Brian D. McLaren

6) “Responses to the Religion Singularity: A Rejoinder”

By Darren M. Slade and Kenneth W. Howard

BOOK REVIEWS

7) “Crossing Boundaries, Redefining Faith”

By Robert D. Francis

Engaging the New Year

By Ken Howard

At FaithX, we are looking forward to engaging 2019 and we hope you are, too!

Our plans include:

Our FaithXperimental blog will include articles on:

  • Missional Engagement. Best practices for identifying engaging missional opportunities as they arise.
  • Mission Development and Redevelopment. Strategies for redeveloping existing congregations and planting new congregations, and how to know when each is appropriate.
  • Congregational Vitality and Sustainability. Articles on how to assess the health and long-term sustainability of congregations, and what to do about it.
  • Innovative and Experimental Faith Communities. We will be continuing our “Spotlight” articles, shining a light on more innovative and experimental faith communities, strategies, and ministries. If you would like to suggest a Spotlight article on your faith community or ministry, click here.
  • Contributions by Guest Bloggers. To let us know if you would like to be an occasional FaithXperimental contributor, click here.
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Why would I submit an article to SHERM Journal?

www.shermjournal.org

I am an established scholar, or

I am a tenure-track faculty member, or

I am a graduate student trying to gain an academic position:

Why would I submit an article to SHERM Journal?

It is true, on initial review, a journal dedicated to the socio-historical study of religion or the socio-historical study of ministry appears to be a niche publication with too small of an academic market, possibly making the publication a low-impact journal. There are simply far too many other psychological and sociological journal options out there for academics to submit their qualitative research and quantitative studies. But a socio-historical examination of religion and ministry is almost unheard of as a sub-discipline in religious studies. So, who practices that?

The answer is: just about everybody who studies religion. Let us explain.

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