Sunday democracies: a mixed methods analysis of members’ perceptions of church authority and organizational dissent

ABSTRACT

Previous research has emphasized differences between churches and other types of organizations including the potential for leaders’ authority to be based on unassailable interpretations of Scripture and on divine callings. The present study examined members’ perceptions of church authority and the degree to which those perceptions affected their willingness to express dissenting opinions, a key feature of organizational democracy. Focus group participants described a fluid process as they negotiated how their voices would be heard in decision-making while simultaneously entrusting some decision-making to ordained leaders. That process sometimes involved seeing members’ voices as one expression of divine authority or compartmentalizing pastoral leadership to spiritual matters and democratic leadership to practical matters. Focus groups also emphasized the importance of church committees and transparency as integral practices for members’ voice in church decision-making. Surveys of a wider group of church members demonstrated that perceptions of democracy and divine authority influenced members’ willingness to express upward dissent, and to a lesser extent, lateral dissent. Results revealed how church members conceptualize their roles in decision-making, highlighting potential areas of conflict when leaders deviate from members’ expectations.

KEYWORDS:

• Churches as organizations
• divine authority
• organizational democracy
• organizational dissent

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of Study One was presented at NCA in 2013, and an earlier version of Study Two was presented at NCA in 2014.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported in part by a grant from the TCU Research and Creative Activities Fund.