Organizational Assimilation and the Ethicality of Church Member Retention

• In Event: Organizing in Religious Settings

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the assimilation of church members, to interrogate the ethicality of efforts to retain church members, and to offer a model of church member retention based on the salient themes which emerged from the research. This discussion is rooted in the data reported by numerous Caucasian and African American church members from four congregations. This research may be appealing to scholars interested in the socializing experiences of organizational members as well as practitioners seeking both to help congregations expand and to maximize member effectiveness.

Author

• Denise Gates, TAMIU