An Update from Wycliffe's Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research

Wycliffe’s Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR) has been having an exciting summer season of research with our newly launched Divine Pulse Project. We are investigating three critical streams of the Canadian Church’s story, each guided by one of our 2024 Research Fellows: Church Birth (Dr James Watson), Church Decline (Dr Wing Wong), and “Great” Churches (Dr Elizabeth Millar).

We launched our project in early June with an introductory survey for all Canadian congregations. It asks what participation in parish life looks like and how key leaders and members currently define “great” churches. We are still recruiting leaders and congregants, so you are encouraged to participate in the 15–20-minute survey at https://ciecr.wycliffecollege.ca/participate/.

Dr Watson has been visiting a wide range of southern Ontario church plants and interviewing national and regional denominational leaders about how they resource their new congregations. He is witnessing first-hand the emerging new churches that are increasingly defining the next era.

In late July, we began circulating a second survey, designed by Dr Wong, that considers the values, impact, and adaptability of Canadian congregations (share your experience at ciecr.wycliffecollege.ca/participate-follow-up-congregational-survey/).

Our most recent appointment, Dr Millar, has been busy scheduling and conducting interviews with a wide variety of congregations that have demonstrated exceptional and consistent growth in the last two decades.

Our whole team will be presenting our early findings in October at the esteemed Society for the Scientific Study of Religion/Religious Research Association 2024 conference, and full reports are slated to be released in December.

Beyond supporting denominational policy making, we are hopeful this research will be a practical boon to Wycliffe students. Our goal is to provide students with the most current congregational data and to facilitate opportunities to build their research and analytical skills to the benefit of the Canadian Christian Church.