Unite without Uniform: Networked Growth via Group Tensions

• In Event: 40868 - Social and Organizational Forces Influencing Religious Actors

Abstract

How do international nongovernmental organizations maintain shared identity and purpose while managing internal conflicts? This paper examines this question through a case study of the BoL Global Apostolic Network (BGAN), a transnational Evangelical network originating from Taiwan. Specifically, instead of drawing a top-down hierarchical religious network structure, it asks, “How BGAN religious leaders navigate intragroup cultural differences while maintaining a unified identity in their network expansion efforts?”
Based on thirty-nine interviews with BGAN pastors from Taiwan and Northern Thailand, the study reveals that BGAN branches maintain varying relationships with the network's core through different levels of structural and cultural dependencies while operating within an integrative, polycentric network. These dependencies produce four types of actors: innovators, followers, struggling members, and detaching members. Three of these types pursue the shared identity of Mission and Unity through diverse strategies, contributing to BGAN's expansion, while detaching members gradually leaving the network when structural needs remain unmet. In other words, how a BGAN branch positions itself in the shared goal of expansion can be mapped by its structural and cultural dependencies on the BGAN core.
The BGAN case demonstrates that successful international nongovernmental organizations can maintain cohesion while accommodating diversity. The network's polycentric structure with integrative ties enables local adaptation while preserving shared identity. This research advances the understanding of church expansion and religious organization by applying network theories to analyze the evolving dynamics of Evangelical movements in globalization. It also bridges discussions between cultural and structural approaches in network theory, encouraging attention to different traits of social ties within networks.

Keywords: Transnational Evangelical Movement, Religious organization, Church expansion, Intra-network conflicts, Group identity.

Author

• En-Ya Tsai, University of Notre Dame