Beyond the Great Commission: Exploring the Diversity of Churches as Public Service Organizations
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Christian churches in America have a strong commitment to serving the needy in their local communities; with the array of humanitarian services that churches offer today, the programming of these religious institutions increasingly resembles that of secular social service organizations. This is why churches as a homogenous organization type are consistently acknowledged in the literature on public service sectors for their collective impact on the public service fabric of the country. However, existing research has failed to acknowledge the circumstantial, organizational and theoretical distinctions between churches in the public service sector, nor how those distinctions are related to the diversity of ways in which churches engage with their communities. This study has two parts: the first is the analysis of interviews and census data to answer the questions, “What differences exist in how churches engage in public service? What factors correspond to these differences?” Findings show that the diversity of churches’ public service involvement comes primarily from ecological factors as well as church-level features and resource differences. Clergy visions for public service also play a role, except among three churches with similar intensities and modes of service but in which the theoretical views of service held by their clergy differ substantially. The second portion of this study further explores this finding among these three churches with the question, “What motivates clergy to do public service?” These motivations are understood through this study’s literary-historical analysis, as well as with observations of religious services and public service offerings. This array of research methods, despite its shortcomings, offers a promising direction for future research to evaluate churches and their leaders with more precise consideration for their variation as public service providers within their communities.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 22, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Kratzer, Sarah Priya |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Kahan, Michael Bruce |
| Advisor | Luhrmann, Tanya Marie |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Urban Studies |
Subjects
| Subject | church |
|---|---|
| Subject | service |
| Subject | public service |
| Subject | religious |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Kratzer, Sarah Priya. (2021). Beyond the Great Commission: Exploring the Diversity of Churches as Public Service Organizations. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/nh269mr1529
Collection
Stanford University Urban Studies Capstone Projects and Theses
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- Contact
- spkkratzer@gmail.com
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