a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

esearch is concentrated on a few districts in Rajasthan. Bryman suggests that ‘in
qualitative research, the orientation to sampling is more likely to be guided by a
preference for theoretical sampling than with the kind of statistical sampling.’ 106
Silverman states that ‘purposive sampling’ as an important method of selection
and says that it is often regarded as being synonymous with theoretical sampling.
‘Purposive sampling demands that we think critically about the parameters of the
population we are interested in and choose our sample case carefully on this
basis.’ 107 The current research focused chiefly on three districts, namely Jaipur,
Udaipur and Banaswara. Along with convenience and accessibility, there are other
grounds that guided this selection. These districts have a higher Pentecostal
population, and so most senior leaders are from these districts only. As most
organizations have their base in these districts all the leaders who were
interviewed were from these districts except a few who were from Ajmer and
Dungarpur. However, for the purpose of participant observation and group
interviews, the congregations as well as focus groups were chosen from Udaipur
district due to easy access and the convenience of travel. Two rural congregations,
Ebenezer church and Immanuel church, were chosen because one had a
Rajasthani pastor and the other had a south Indian pastor, and the urban church,
RPC, was multi-cultural and had both south Indian and Rajasthani pastors.
The second phase included in-depth interviews of individuals, focus groups and
participant observation of three congregations and the leaders’ meeting. The
106 Bryman, Social Research Methods, 102.
107 David Silverman, Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook (London: SAGE
Publications, 2000), 104-05. According to him, the only difference between theoretical sampling
and purposive sampling occurs when the intention behind purposive sampling is not theoretically
defined (p.105).
37