Perspectives from Ethnography: Applications in Mission and Urban Theology

Abstract

The growth of mission, ministry and evangelism courses, in which the study of social contexts is used as a way of developing the church's engagement with its social context, has taken urban theology and mission into new areas of research and investigation. This paper reflects on the potential contribution ethnography can make in such studies. The paper concludes that social research in the service of mission and the church's social engagement needs to be more rigorous in its approach, especially in the understanding of participant observation, the ethics of fieldwork, methods and theory of data collection and the study of ritual.