Emerging Trends in Congregational Engagement and Leadership
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 April 2025 | Viewed by 501
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recent local and global phenomena are altering—or have the potential to alter—congregational life in profound ways. Congregations and their leaders are reckoning with and responding to the impacts of COVID-19, racialized and/or religious violence and nationalist movements, climate change, globalization, political instability, immigration, demographic shifts around age, ethnicity, and gender, technological advancements, and more, all at varying degrees and with mixed results. The aim of this Special Issue is to coalesce some of the emerging trends related to how congregations and their leaders are (or are not) responding to such phenomena. How are congregations engaging with these issues within their faith communities, in their broader communities and regions, and beyond? How are leaders of such congregations perceiving these phenomena, and what impacts does this have on their leadership and on the congregation as a whole?
The study of congregational life and leadership is an interdisciplinary endeavor that draws upon sociological, anthropological, political, historical, ecclesial, and other frameworks and methods. As such, we invite research articles and reviews from a variety of disciplines that address any aspect of the Special Issue topic, including (but not limited to) the following:
- How individual congregations are responding to issues, trends, or events that have impacted them, their local and/or regional communities, or beyond;
- Patterns of engagement or response across multiple congregations to particular local and/or global phenomena;
- Congregational leader perceptions of, and/or responses to, present issues, trends, or events;
- Emerging models, practices, or attributes of religious leadership that elicit congregational responses to, or engagements of, local and/or global phenomena.
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor or to the Assistant Editor Ms. Violet Li ([email protected]) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Kristina I. Lizardy-Hajbi
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- congregations
- religious leadership
- clergy
- COVID-19
- climate change
- immigration
- demographics
- globalization
- race/ethnicity
- religious nationalism
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