1. My overall aim and current working title (1/1/10) for my research is:

How do English Christian churches use websites and other online tools to communicate theological, community and practical information to, and within, their congregations and the wider public?

2. The aims and objectives are:

2.1.              To establish if English churches are using websites and collaborative (Web 2.0) tools to publish information for their congregation and the wider community.

2.2.              To identify the emphasis given to congregation and wider community as comprising different audiences for church websites

2.3.              To establish the number of physical churches with a purpose built website (as opposed to a third party directory listing).

2.4.              Of those churches with purpose built websites, to investigate by means of content analysis:

2.4.1.          Whether content is originated on a church-by-church basis or produced centrally by a third party and syndicated

2.4.2.          Who is employed (professional staff or volunteers) to design, manage and edit content for their sites

2.4.3.          If churches use interactive tools and allow user-generated content

2.4.4.          If churches place restrictions on who has authority to publish information

2.4.5.          Whether there are variations in the prevalence of different information topics across denominations

2.4.6.          How current is the information presented on church websites

2.5.              Establish the likely theological and philosophical differences that may exist between denominations websites

2.5.1. To investigate whether inter- and intra-denominational differences are present in approaches to publishing church information on a website

2.6.              To gain an insight into church leaders’ understanding of websites as a medium of communication; and what influence the personal views of the leadership may have on a church’s web presence.

3.  The current research questions are:

3.1.              To what extent are individual churches using websites to publish information for their local communities as well as their congregations?  (Objectives 2.1 & 2.2)

3.2.              In what ways do the existence, content and currency of church websites vary by denomination? (Objective 2.5.1)

3.3.              Do individual churches embrace the use of email, websites and other online collaborative tools to explicitly invite multi-way communication: within their congregations; between church leaders and congregations; and to the wider public? (Objectives 2.4.3 & 2.4.4)

3.4.              What are the decision making processes, and who are the people making decisions, on what and how to publish information via websites or the level of interactivity permitted? (Objective 2.4.1, 2.4.2 & 2.4.4)

3.5.              To what extent is the willingness of these decision makers to use internet based communication influenced by theological arguments? (Objective 2.5 & 2.6)