ABSTRACT
We have explored the emerging new field of religious and faith-based organizations and their management; we have offered working definitions of religious and faith-based organizations; and we have discussed how such organizations should be studied. We have studied the congregation, the fundamental religious organization; we have discussed different kinds of federation; we have discussed the governance of these organizations; and we have asked how faith-based organizations fit into the picture. Of particular issues which face religious and faith-based organizations and their management we have studied the concept of membership, the secularization process, and the position of the clergy. Finally, we have located religious and faithbased organizations in civil society and shown their importance to it, and we have made suggestions as to how religious and faith-based organizations should be led. There would be a long list of the things which we have not done. In particular, we have not submitted our material to theological analysis, and we have not drawn detailed conclusions about how religious and faith-based organizations should be managed. What we have done is to lay the foundations on which both of these tasks might be attempted. Both tasks are essential, for religious and faith-based organizations need to be appropriately managed if they are to be effective, and because religious organizations ‘produce the sacred’ (Wuthnow 1994) theological analysis of our material and social science analysis of any theology of religious organizations are both both appropriate and necessary. I shall make no attempt here to summarize the content of the somewhat
diverse material in this book. I merely wish to draw attention to two hypotheses which might help future study of this emerging field.
