FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Vision 5:9 partners are taking the next step to understand what leads to greater fruit
28 September 2009 (London, England) – After months of preparation, the Fruitful Practices Task Force is about to begin a new round of surveys and interviews in November. This new cycle of research will help Vision 5:9 Partners understand the context and the activities of practitioners that promote the emergence, vitality, and multiplication of fellowships of Jesus followers in Muslim societies. The study aims to produce clearer understanding of Fruitful Practices. The Fruitful Practices Task Force will contact each Vision 5:9 Partner with instructions on how to participate in this research. Once results are analysed, all Partners will have access to the insights that this new research will produce.
The study has two components: a survey and a series of in-depth interviews. An independent advisory group of research experts has given input throughout the process.
The first component, the survey, will provide a broad view of the Vision 5:9 work among Muslim peoples today. The research team of the Fruitful Practices task force has designed the survey tool to for use with a large, representative number of field workers. The tool may be administered as a web-based survey, a paper questionnaire, or a verbal interview.
The second component of the research, the in-depth interviews, will concentrate on a select number of teams that represent different stages of the work and a broad spectrum of the Vision 5:9 community. Researchers will interview team members about their experiences and activities, which should result in deeper insights.
During his 19th century tenure as Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, James C. Maxwell produced ground-breaking work demonstrating the relationship between electricity, magnetism and light. Professor Maxwell had Psalm 111:2 engraved above the main entrance to the laboratory where he worked: The works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. Johannes Kepler, who is credited with discovering the elliptical orbits of the planets, once said that science is merely “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” For these scientists, their faith inspired confidence that Creation exhibits an order whose mysteries are accessible to reason.
In a similar way, our faith allows us to watch and learn from the works that the Father is doing in, through, and around His people as we establish communities of Jesus followers among Muslim peoples. The research team of the Fruitful Practices Task Force has already begun to give us a better picture of these works. This team of experienced researchers from Vision 5:9 Partners have carefully reviewed surveys, small group discussions and interviews from the 2007 Global Trends/Fruitful Practices consultation and identified a list of Fruitful Practices. Now, they have constructed new research instruments for our ongoing efforts to discern what the Lord is doing among us.
We look forward to working with you on this research project and believe that through it many Muslims will realise the blessing promised through Abraham and found in Jesus.
Press Contacts:
Eric Adams
Fruitful Practice Research
info@fruitfulpractice.org