Taking Things Gradually? Change, Growth and Organizational Structures

Abstract

When earlier findings on the organization of congregations were drawn together in Chapter 2, four major themes were distinguished. Two of those themes — organizational goals and the roles of ministers — have now been re-examined drawing on the case studies. This chapter returns to the two other themes identified earlier; organizational change and denominational structures. It also comments on some other issues, broadly to do with organizational structure, raised in the case study interviews. Like the issues surrounding the roles of lay people, congregational structures have been little mentioned by previous researchers.