Worship arts technology used by early twenty-first century urban Baptist churches in Northwestern Texas: An analysis

Date

2003-08

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

Historically, the Church has responded cautiously to the implementation of new technology. Considering the upheavals that past technological developments have brought about, the Church's response is understandable. Recent renewal of the arts in Christian worship has led many churches to reevaluate their stance concerning the accompanying technology. As a result, scores of churches are seeking ways to implement the latest technological developments into their church's existing worship programs.

This dissertation is an investigation into the utilization of worship arts technology by Baptist churches. In addition, this study examines the relationship of key church characteristics (i.e., denominational affiliation, organizational age, church size, church growth, church income, and worship style) to the utilization of worship arts technology. A questionnaire was sent to all of the individual expressions of Baptist faith within the geographical area of the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive and correlative statistical techniques. The degree of relationship between the use of worship arts technology and the key church characteristics was established based on the results of these analyses.

The findings demonstrated that the churches' denominational affiliation, organizational age, per capita financial contributions, and worship style had little relationship to the use of worship arts technology. However, the relationship of membership size, attendance size, membership growth, and attendance growth was considerably greater. Furthermore, the results showed a significant increase in the use of worship arts technology when churches included the fine arts disciplines of music, drama, and visual art in their worship programs.

Description

Keywords

Baptists, Church management, Church music, Sacred music

Citation