Final Project: Proposal
For the final project in this course, I propose to combine the methods of narrative analysis and autoethnography to examine the Christian church and my faith in its current state. With guidance from Jesse Stevenson, an associate pastor at Port City Community Church (PC3), I will do an autoethnography to examine the role that faith has played in my life until this point, and what part it may play in my future path. I will analyze how the church has affected my life through a large lens, focusing on a few key moments that had specific influences on me as a Christian. Some topics that will play a large role in my autoethnographic essay are my family, my traditional upbringing, music and different types of church services. I chose PC3 as my source of guidance because I became familiar with the organization through observation and analysis in our ethnographic project. During my observation of the church services I came to respect the organization and their mission statement, and realized that I have grown away from God and the church while I have been here in Wilmington. Through an autoethnographic essay and analysis, I will be able to retrace my steps through faith to understand the factors that took me away from religion over the past few years and why things happened the way they did. I feel very strongly about autoethnography because of the impact that our class’ first autoethnographic project had on me. I found that this type of self-reflection can be therapeutic, especially on these types of issues that I don’t normally dwell on.
While doing this autoethnography for self exploration, it will also be founded in research to see if there have been other projects to determine a reason for young adults to stray from the path of faith while studying in college. I have found two sources that relate to this subject, entitled “Religious Beliefs and Scholarship: A Complex Relationship” and “The Effects of Communication, Religiosity, and Organizational Support on Student Commitment at a Church-Related University.” These sources discuss issues in communication and religious belief both on and off campus (at religiously affiliated schools). The source that addresses organizational support will be especially important for me to possibly identify why I, along with other students in similar situations, may have drifted away from faith while in school.
The interview/discussion with Mr. Stevenson will serve as a source for my autoethnography, but will also be my interview for narrative analysis. After or during our discussion of faith in my life, I will ask him for his faith story, and how he became an associate pastor. I will stress the questions about his faith while he was at the period of time when he was at the crossroad that I am at now. With the advice from Dr. Scott, I have decided to shift the interview from myself to Mr. Stevenson with the question, “Will you tell me your story?” It is likely that Mr. Stevenson has told this story several times and will be comfortable telling me how he came to be in his position in the church, but I have to be sure to relate my story to his by asking about specific periods in his life and his faith journey.
My primary goal in this project is to use the two research methods to uncover the steps in my past that led to my current position in faith, and what my role will be in the future through self reflection and academic research. I will use narrative analysis to discuss the role that faith and the church have played in the life of Jesse Stevenson, and to compare his story to mine.
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