The church and digital transformation

Purpose and goal:

This pre-study aimed to plan a project that makes visible organizational choices in the church´s digital transformation for a sustainable societal development. The aim of the pre-study was an anchored project plan with the Swedish Pentecostal movement as an example. It was achieved, which resulted in a full-scale project application to VINNOVA.

Expected results and effects:

Results from the pre-study and the expected effect of management´s involvement can be summarized as follows. Negative consequences of the church´s digital transformation were not expected. A new full-scale project has been proposed, which is expected to result in practically useful knowledge, methods and tools for a better understanding of the negative consequences of digital transformation and cross-border strategy work for digital transformation that balances between choices. The result from the pre-study form a basis for new theoretical development.

Approach and implementation:

A clinical research method was applied in collaboration between researchers and practitioners to, with support in theory, make diagnoses about challenges in the business and develop change interventions such as funding for problem solving. Thirteen people participated in the pre-study. The empirical material included ten interviews and five workshops, which were recorded and transcribed, as well as internal documents and external information about the project parties´ activities, as well as the Pentecostal organization in the church sector.