"Mit einem Email-Newsletter landen Ihre Informationen direkt im Postfach von Interessierten. Aber wie geht man das Thema Newsletter überhaupt an? Und ist ein Newsletter nicht eigentlich ein aussterbendes Medium? In unserem über 30-seitigen PDF-Guide klären wir diese Fragen und viele mehr. Warum b
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raucht eine Gemeinde einen Email-Newsletter? Wie genau erstellt man einen Newsletter? Wie kann man Leser:innen für den Newsletter gewinnen? Woran kann man den Erfolg eines Newsletters messen?" (https://explore.churchdesk.com)
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"This exploratory study uses the Design Thinking framework and starts by mapping elements related to church growth from different works of literature and local successful churches’ experiences. Using this list of elements, a survey was designed to provide an overview of the existing internal resou
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rces (including the availability of time, talents, etc.) and willingness for change within Mountainside Lutheran Church. Using this mapping, a list of projects was then proposed to enable Mountainside Lutheran Church to implement with the aim of producing future growth. These findings were also presented to the Parish Council, and Elders group using the Design Thinking framework. Several ministry focus areas were found including: 1. The youth group ministry as the focus to change the church’s worship experience. 2. The need to reactivate cell groups and welcoming team to enhance support to families, couples and newcomers. 3. A focus on online ministry to strengthen spiritual support to members and outreach to new generations and different ethnic groups. 4. The development of new creative community services, including childcare and other language classes. 5. The organisation of more fellowship events for friendship among new immigrants. From here it is suggested that actions should be formulated with the help of the Congregation Life Committee of the church. With the implementation of Design Thinking and the development of continual Design Thinking skills within the church, it is expected that reviews and improvement will help these projects." (Abstract)
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"Kaum ein Thema schwebt so drohend über Kirchengemeinden wie das Thema Strukturprozesse. Wir sind überzeugt, dass diese Herausforderung leichter bewältigt werden kann, wenn man von Menschen lernen kann, die aus der Praxis berichten können. Wir sind täglich in Kontakt mit tausenden Gemeinden ver
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schiedener Konfessionen. Diesen Einblick möchten wir mit Ihnen teilen. Auf über 20 Seiten haben wir in diesem Guide die Kerninhalte zahlreicher Gespräche mit Gemeinden und Expert:innen aus der Gemeinde- und Organisationsberatung für Sie zusammengefasst." (https://explore.churchdesk.com)
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"As there are many and sometimes ambivalent intersections of health and religion, strategic collaborations with religious opinion leaders in health campaigns have been increasingly explored. Despite the known influence of distinct contextual factors within emergency and non-emergency settings, exist
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ing research seldom distinguishes between those different factors and their impact on the inclusion of religious leaders as health messengers. To compare the contextual factors of religious leaders as health messengers during emergency and non-emergency situations in a setting with high religious affiliations, this study used a qualitative approach and triangulated the perspectives of three different samples, including (religious) opinion leaders, members of religious communities, and developers of health communication strategies in Sierra Leone. The results provide multifaceted insights into contextual factors applicable to emergency and non-emergency settings as well as the risks and opportunities. Recommendations for the incorporation of religious leaders in health promotion activities in consideration of different contextual factors are provided." (Abstract)
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"In diesem Guide unterstützen wir Sie im Aufbau Ihrer Gemeindewebseite. Vom System, über Inhalt hin zu SEO - auf über 20 Seiten erklären wir Ihnen Begriffe, klären Grundfragen und geben Ihnen konkrete Tipps. Was macht eine gute Webseite aus? Wie finde ich das richtige System? Wie fülle ich mei
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ne Webseite mit Bild- und Textinhalten? Was ist SEO und wie hilft es meiner Gemeindewebseite?" (https://explore.churchdesk.com)
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"The dynamics of religion and religious practices are examined using various communication theories and paradigms to extrapolate how religion is designed, packaged, disseminated, and interpreted among Nigerians. Contributors trace the evolution and development of this problem to colonialism. The con
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tributors measure the impact of religious media messages from three perspectives: the impact of the messages themselves; the impact of the medium used in transmitting the message as in the McLuhan philosophy, “the medium is the message”; and the impact from the power of the source – the religious or political leaders (Opinion Leader) who exert influence on opinion followers. In this book, the contributors examine how religion is considered a propagandistic venture whereby capitalism and monetary gain are the norms, minimizing core religious values, traditional teachings, and methods of worship." (Publisher description)
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"This special issue explores the power of games to shape worldviews, share perspectives, develop religious identities and provoke ethical reflection. Contributors bring together ideas from classrooms of philosophy and religious studies with case studies fromreligious communities and companies engage
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d in game design, and reflect on their own experiences as makers, players, teachersand critics of games. This introduction proposesaconcept of formative gamingto explain this multidisciplinary, multi-context approach. The issue includes four articles, two reports and an interview, and this introduction briefly summarises each contribution before identifying the key themes and shared questions that emerge across the collection." (Page 1)
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"In this study of Tapestry, a church-run foster youth mentoring network, and St. Sebastian’s Summer Camp, a predominantly Latinx church-run community day camp, I develop and document one promising pairing in response to this quandary: an adapted form of Digital Storytelling (Lambert, 2012) as a co
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mmunal spiritual practice appropriate to what I call faith-adjacent spaces. Such spaces are convened by modes of activity separate from formal institutional programs and rituals but still connected to religion in meaningful, visible ways. In this participatory multimodal ethnography, I draw on socio-spatial and narrative analytic frameworks to reveal and explore (1) organizational practices of belonging that already exist at Tapestry, (2) the function of new collaboratively designed Digital Storytelling practices at Tapestry and St. Sebastian’s, and (3) the role of my various researcher-facilitator identities in this work. I present these findings in the form of a four-part audio documentary that interweaves recordings from my ethnographic fieldwork, excerpts from the artifacts that participants and I co-created, audio engagements with academic and practitioner literature, and researcher narrative and analysis." (Abstract)
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"Es ist erstaunlich, dass der römisch-katholische Radio-Priester Charles Coughlin – Vertreter der amerikanischen Religiösen Rechten, Antikommunist, Antisemit, Demagoge und Zeitzeuge der ersten America First-Bewegung – hierzulande so gut wie unbekannt ist. Ebenso erstaunlich ist, dass er bis vo
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r kurzem in den USA, einem Land, in dem allsonntäglich Millionen Menschen seinen politischen Predigten lauschten, nahezu vollständig in Vergessenheit geraten war. Coughlins Geschichte weist viele Aspekte auf, die auch gegenwärtig in Gesellschaft und Politik, nicht nur in den USA, eine Rolle spielen: die Nutzung neuer Medien für die Verbreitung von alternativen Fakten und Verschwörungstheorien, der Erfolg populistischer Versprechungen, Narzissmus, die Konfrontation von Demagogie und wehrhafter Demokratie. Der Politikwissenschaftler Helmut Klumpjan schildert das politisch-religiöse Leben Father Coughlins, erklärt den historischen und politischen Kontext seiner Zeit (1891–1979) und misst zuletzt den Wegbereiter des Hate Radio an seinem eigenen Idol: Wie gelingt es einem Menschen, der sich das Liebes-Motto einer christlichen Heiligen auf die Fahne geschrieben hat, dennoch Hass zu verbreiten?" (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"As the online space becomes increasingly centre stage in the fight against antisemitism, this guide from ISD and B’nai B’rith International, in partnership with UNESCO, aims to build capacity among civil society to tackle this growing threat. Recognising the enormous capacity for positive actio
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n that the digital space offers, this practical and action-oriented resource aims to consolidate knowledge and provide a wide range of policy and community avenues for action. The guide provides an overview of the online antisemitism threat landscape, a summary of existing policy responses on an international and national level across a range of European contexts, and a broad set of recommendations for civil society engagement with governments, platforms and wider communities to address this challenge." (About this report)
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"This study has been conducted at Radio Maria Rwanda (RMR) for establishing different challenges related to the management of volunteers at RMR, from recruitment to their retention. The study assessed how volunteers are recruited at RMR, what motivated them to volunteer at this radio station, how th
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eir recruitment process influenced their motivation and the challenges that they faced while they worked at RMR. The descriptive research design adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection from a sample comprising 91 volunteers and 4 staff members of RMR. The data collected were analysed by SPSS and Nvivo software. The findings of the study reveal that the process of volunteer’s recruitment and retention at RMR was characterised by several challenges which required strong strategies to overcome them, such as ineffective communication of volunteering needs at this radio station, insufficient documents on the daily management of volunteers, a high number of unemployed volunteers linked to their ineffective identification and selection, insufficient equipment, lack of regular training and evaluation, etc. The study concludes that several people responded to the call of volunteering at RMR but this radio station necessitated more improvements to strengthen its strategies of volunteers’ management for being more efficient and productive. The study recommends that RMR should redefine its internal strategies of volunteers’ identification, screening and selection as well as their regular evaluation, training, equipment and communicating effectively with them." (Abstract)
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"This book explores marketing as a genuine component of religious traditions. It investigates the theme across a large historical and geographical area, and in a variety of expressions, ranging from 3rd BCE Maya stucco friezes, early Christian writings, and 9th CE Cambodian inscriptions, right down
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to modern-day propaganda and recruitment strategies adopted by the ISIS jihadi movement, Falun Gong, Muslim Varkaris, spirit mediums in India and Thailand, Thai Buddhist monasteries, and the Vatican. The book is unique in its theme and scope. The chapters were written without a single controlling agenda, but all emphasize the need to view our modern consumer society as only one among many historical conditions that have shaped religious marketing. In fact, it will become clear from reading through the chapters that marketing and propaganda are inherent in religions and their teachings. The broad scope of the book shows religious marketing as embedded in and responding to diverse cultural settings, rather than as an isolated component of utility maximization. It allows us to understand religious marketing as a large window into the mental and cultural landscapes of the studied communities. This will have an eye-opening methodological impact on an area of studies that often limits itself to a narrow view of interactions between two opposing fields: spirituality and the market." (Publisher description)
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"Guided by the relational prayer theory (Baesler, 2002), this paper analyzed how Catholics flipped their homes as church to be saved from COVID-19 uncertainties by attending online masses at the Manila Cathedral (MC). Through Facebook Analytics, the study determined the number of attendees to online
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masses from March 2020 to March 2021. Implications of mass attendance to spirituality were validated by a survey of 104 MC online mass subscribers through snowball sampling. As triangulate measure, two key informants were interviewed. More than 200,000 tuned in to online masses monthly with an average of 69,863 with the highest frequencies on Sundays. Survey results revealed that one out of three respondents attended the 8:00 AM Sunday mass without fail and who prayed together as a family using smart television. They prayed not to get sick and were thankful for answered prayers and blessings received despite the crisis. As a form of mission and indulgence, they help others and donate to the church or pray fervently to ask for forgiveness. Given the choice, an overwhelming majority wants to physically attend the mass to confess and receive the Holy Communion. It can be surmised that flipping church services from offline to online became a regular Sunday ritual which implies that spirituality can occur anytime, anywhere, especially during a pandemic." (Abstract)
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