Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 353

C. Early on adopt the role of “Participant Observer.”

1. Gathering data and analyzing it is hard work.

2. “What am I supposed to be seeing?” – common query during first stage of ethnographic work

3. James Spradley, Ethnographic Interviewing (1980)

a. Three parts: actor, activity, place

b. Nine basic questions of observation in any context: space, object, act, activity, event, time, actor, goal, and feeling

4. Write down everything in detail – form hypotheses – test them

D. Learning the territory: mapping

1. “Determining what is where and why”: its purpose?

a. Helps us learn how people use space

b. Builds rapport by asking non-threatening questions

c. Learn indigenous terms, categories and points of interest and importance

2. Architectural maps – what is located where and why

3. Geographic areas – paths, landmarks, edges, districts, to help determine areas of safety and danger for specific persons

E. Getting the pulse: interviewing key members of the community

1. The importance of relationships for information: one relationship is worth a dozen surveys.

a. Targets key members of influence

b. Gain opportunity to get direct interpretation from someone who is from the culture

c. Allow you to demonstrate interest and respect to people of the community