ecclesial practices 3 (2016) 94-119 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/22144471-00301006 brill.com/ep 1 * Frances Nelson and Rosser Johnson were supervisors for Mike Crudge who graduated in 2013 with a PhD (Communication Studies) on which this article is based. 1 C. E. Shannon and W. Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press, 1948). Communication, Church and Society: A Story of Qualitative Enquiry Mike Crudge Centre for Lifelong Learning, Carey Baptist College, Auckland mike.crudge@carey.ac.nz Frances Nelson Senior Lecturer and Head of Postgraduate Studies, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology frances.nelson@aut.ac.nz Rosser Johnson Associate Dean (Postgraduate Studies), Design & Creative Technologies Faculty, Auckland University of Technology rjohnson@aut.ac.nz Abstract The purpose of this paper is to show how a communication problem was identified between the church and society in New Zealand. The hypothesis was that the way the church presents itself to contemporary society creates a disconnect between the two. As the church is not seen as relevant, those exploring spirituality may therefore never consider the church or Christian spiritualty as being helpful in their exploration. This research looked at whether society (receivers of church communication) and church leaders (as representative of the source of the church’s communication) had the same concept in mind when referring to ‘church’. The theoretical underpinnings of the research started with the basic Shannon-Weaver model of communication.1 The methodology was shaped by the framework of critical studies, and ‘thick