Steven Goulstone is a current Master of Applied Theology student at Carey Baptist College, pastor with Wellington South Baptist Church, and co-host of The Changes Ahead Podcast.
Agency is the ability to make decisions and act on them without feeling controlled or pressured by external forces. All of us have agency, and whenever we relate we can either support each other’s agency or restrict it.
How have you experienced your own personal agency being supported or restricted in your local Baptist church context?
And what of those in pastoral roles? How might the ways pastors relate to people either support or restrict the agency of others? Do pastors always recognise how factors, for example the age of congregants, might affect how people are empowered or disempowered in church life?
These are questions about power and how it is used.
As a Baptist pastor, I’ve been interested in these kinds of dynamics in church spaces for some time now and that has led me to pursue a Master of Applied theology at Carey. My research question is:
‘How do 25 to 35 year old Baptists in Aotearoa experience their agency being supported or thwarted in their churches?’
Invitation
If you are in this age group and attend a Baptist church in Aotearoa, I would love to invite you to participate in an interview. The interview will take up to 75 minutes. It will be a semi-structured convesation, guided by a few key questions, but shaped by your own stories and reflections. There are no “right answers” – I’m interested in whatever you have experienced, noticed, or wondered about.
My hope is that what I learn through this process will help Baptist pastors and church leaders reflect more deeply on the way power and influence are used – and how all who attend Baptist churches can be better supported in exercising their agency, and especially those in the 25 to 35 age group.
To take part, you need to:
- Be a regular NZ Baptist church attender
- Be aged between 25 and 35 at the time of the interview
- Not be in a senior leadership position of the church you attend, or the wider Baptist Union of New Zealand (though holding a formal leadership role other than being in senior leadership is welcome).
If this sounds like you, please get in touch with me by 22 August 2025 at [email protected].
This research has been approved by the Carey Baptist College Ethics Committee. Your participation is entirely voluntary. If you express interest, I will send you a Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form that oultine details around confidentiality, possible publications, timeline and other relevant information. I am also very happy to answer any questions you might have in the lead up.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to hearing from you and for your voice to be a part of shaping how pastors and leaders of Baptist churches can better support the agency of church comminities in the future.
If you are not in the 25-35 age range and can think of peope who are who might be wiling to particpapte – please pass this information on to them, or even place it in your church newsetter.
Image credit: Charis Fotheringham, National Hui 2022
