Church History Research - The Three Types of Research Topics

Church History Research - The Three Types of Research TopicsChurch history research can be quite a task because you never know what will be included in the study. While conducting your research, keep in mind that not all research papers are the same. You can find information on an ancestor, your own ancestors, or even a person who has died in the past. While you may have already researched the information, you may still want to refine your research to make it more accurate.Start with the three basic categories of topics: origins, movement, and locations. It's important to keep a chronological form of understanding history. This way, when you conduct the research you will have a chronological picture. There are also two types of locations.The first type is a physical location where the church once was or currently is. In addition, the location might be a physical location in the bible, a physical location in a place, or a specific place in the bible. You can use a map, historical maps , or a knowledge of how the geography of a particular area changes over time to help in your research.The second type of location is the past church location. If you know the church, the congregation, or the dates of their presence in the church, you can look at their histories from biblical times. If you are doing the research on a physical location, the historians of the church can give you the names of the individual who the church used as a pastor, or the dates that the church was active in the community. For example, if the church is located in a larger city, you could use a census record or a history book to locate the congregation.For your church history research, you should consider the year when the history was recorded. Your research should start in the year the church was founded. During this time, there were several people that would add their opinions on how the church should operate. These church members included laymen, clergymen, and pastors. You may also want to tak e into consideration how the people felt about the church and its ministers.Over time, some of these church members would leave the church, but some stayed on until the church became more successful. Eventually, the church became large enough that they needed more space. At this point, there were a variety of groups and congregations in the church, including members from different denominations.As you conduct your church history research, you will probably find that the original doctrines, policies, and beliefs of the church will have changed over time. During this time, people would leave the church as a result of decisions that they made. There were also legal actions taken by people. One of the leaders of the church may have considered a change in policy but they didn't have the support to change their minds.When you conduct your church history research, be sure to consider the other opinions that were voiced at the time. If you are researching a person who left the church, do yo u know what type of reactions they experienced after leaving? When you compare their personal stories to those of the people who remained in the church, you will find a very clear picture of the things that were said by the church at the time. This information will be invaluable to the church when preparing for the service. If you are looking for a challenge, try conducting church history research for the past 20 years.