Sociological theme: Church Impact
on community
KEY SKILLS: COMMUNICATION
SOCIOLOGICAL SKILL: INTERPRETATION
The following message is from the website of a Church of England church in Mid-Cheshire.
Welcome to St John’s Church. We hope that you will come and spend time with us and, if
you live locally, that you will quickly feel at home with us and part of the community here. Our
life at St John’s centres on God and our worship of him. Our faith is firmly based upon what
we learn of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) through his word, the Bible.
We are far from a perfect bunch! But we trust that you will find us to be a group of people who
continually seek, through worship, study and prayer, to know and love the Lord Jesus ever
more deeply and with the help of his Holy Spirit, to live out the Gospel in our families, daily
lives and in the community.
We welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, but recognise that children and sometimes
the elderly or disabled have special needs. For the children there is a large Sunday school. If
you are elderly or disabled and would like particular help, say with transport to the church or
some other way, please let us know at the office (01606-783063) and we will try to help.
This message gives only a general idea of some of what goes on in our church. Much has not
been mentioned because of space but the Welcome Table in the Church Centre, the weekly
notice sheets and this web site (just click for a diary of events) should provide you with more
detailed information on what is happening at any particular time.
Questions: Knowledge and Interpretation
1. What contribution does this church make to the community (as far as can be seen
from this statement and from what you know about churches in general).
2. Would you feel welcome if this was all you knew about the church and wanted to go?
3. In what way does this church help to bind the community together?
4. How would the experience of going here differ from going to a different place of
worship (e.g. a mosque)?
5. In what way would going to a Mosque be the same as going to this church?
Methodology problem
How would you investigate why people go to places of worship? What problems
would the method you suggested have?
Evaluation
What would be the functionalist view of this church and how would this differ from the
Marxist view?
© 2015 – WJEC / CBAC