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University of Warwick Institutional Repository: a Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Phd at The University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/55811 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Proselytism, Retention and Re-affiliation: ' The Hybridisation of an Assembly of God Church by Malcolm Gold A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of Warwick, Department of Sociology November 2000 Table of Contents Figures and Tables i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii 1. "In the beginning" 1 Methodology 6 My Intellectual Autobiography 20 The research 25 Summation 29 2. Conversion: "It was on a Sunday, somebody touched me! " 33 Secularisation 34 Rational choice theory 51 Researching the City Christian Centre 63 Conversion - its significance to the believer 65 3. Circulation, Homogeneity and the Hybrid Church 89 Circulation 90 Towards homogeneity 103 The Hybrid Church 122 4. Worship 130 Fig Tree Gospel Hall 1979-1983: The plan and design 131 The Programme (a Sunday morning Breaking of Bread service in 1979) 137 The City Christian Centre 1984-1988 (a Sundaymorning praise and worship service in 1986) 149 The service 152 The City Christian Centre 1988 -present (a Sunday morning Celebration service in 1998) 162 Summation 173 5. Theology: "If you have your Bibles with you... " 181 A unified front 181 Betweenand 'behind' the lines 192 Pigs in the Parlour 198 Personality change 211 Heaven on Earth 214 The `restoration' ofthe City Christian Centre 218 Pentecostal Theology and Women 237 6. History, Leadership and Organisation 253 The Wider Context 256 PhaseI. - From `curseto blessing'- the `Fig Tree' 260 PhaseIT From `blessingto curse' 267 PhaseIII: Establishing a leadership trend 271 PhaseIV. -A new kind of shepherd 279 Phase Y." The end of an era 300 Summary 308 7. The Concept of `Class' in the Hybrid Church 318 Class 320 Conceptionsof Class at the City Christian Centre 343 Wealth and Prosperity 352 8. Conclusion 380 Circulation of the Saints 381 The Notion of Hybridity 386 The Complexity of Change 397 The 'Free Rider'Problem 400 Secularisation Theory 402 Appendix 1 412 Appendix 2 416 Bibliography 417 FIGURES Fig. I- Fig Tree Gospel Hall 1979 (former hall) 134 ....................................................... Fig. 2- City Christian Centre 1986 (former hall) 150 ....................................................... Fig. 3- City Christian Centre 1998 (new building) 165 ................................................... Fig. 4- City Christian Centre: Attendance 1972-2000 345 .................................... Fig. 5- City Christian Centre: C2 DE 346 and employment categorymembers ........... Fig. 6- City Christian Centre: AB and C employment category members............ 347 Fig. 7- City Christian Centre: Total membership and occupational categories 348 overview ........................................................................................ TABLES Table Dimensions 224 I- of theological change ............................................................... Table 2- Participation in the Fig Tree Mission's businessmeetings as a% of actual 279 membership......................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements I am indebted to my supervisor, James Beckford. I consider myself most privileged to have been a recipient of his vast intellect and scholarly wisdom. For his insight, direction and support I offer my sincere thanks. I am also indebted to the subjects of this work, the believers at the church in Kingston. "There are degrees of intimacy of course, but as I was greeted by my `brothers and sisters in Christ' I could feel the irresistibility of our kinship. " ii Abstract This study provides a qualitative analysis of an Assembly of God Pentecostal church in the North East of England. The research employed an ethnographic framework incorporating overt participant observation and in-depth interviews over the period of one year at the City Christian Centre. In addition, a number of other churches (of varying denominations) were visited and observed. In this work, former interpretations within the sociology of religion, regarding membership and recruitment, are challenged and new perspectives offered. Few ethnographic studies of conservative evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom exist and quantitative work on this group, generally, has failed to define significant concepts such as salvation and conversion adequately. While such concepts remain foundational to the conservative evangelical believer, a significant transformation of religious expression is taking place within contemporary British Pentecostalism. This thesis gives an account of a synthesis between classical Pentecostals and the Charismatic movement that is creating a distinct form of spiritual expression resulting in a hybrid church. This fusion of traditions affects congregations in a number of important areas. Expressions of praise and worship, theological interpretations and church leadership each reflect the dynamics of the hybrid church. So in addition, does a shift in class composition. Once the preserve of the working classes, Pentecostalism in Britain is now much more socially and economically diverse in its membership. This thesiscomes at an interestingtime for the sociologyof religion. Much is said about a resurgence of interest in religion, this is partly due to its persistence in society. Much work has focused on church demographics and secularisation, this work, however, shifts the emphasisaway from religious decline to religious adaptation and change. iii "In the beginning" "In The Beginning" The purpose of this thesis is to explore changes over time within a fundamental Christian church and to do so within a distinctive ethnographic context. The first component of this aim draws upon many prevailing concepts within the sociology of religion and attempts to offer new perspectives on such notions as conversion, church membership, church `hopping' or `switching', and the changes which are taking place within the Pentecostal movement as it synthesiseswith the Charismatic and Restorationist strands of contemporary Christianity. The second component offers a new approach to the study of religious groups in that it adopts many of the underlying principles found in feminist researchmethodology. Few sociological studies of fundamental Christian groups have been undertaken within a British context. Noticeable exceptions are found in the work of Beckford (1975), Calley (1965), Toulis (1997), Van Zandt (1991), Wilson (1961). Elsewhere we may look to the work of Ammerman (1987), Blumhoffer (1989a, 1989b,1993), Jules-Rosette (1975), Lofland (1981), Neitz (1987), Poloma (1989), Warner (1988). Within these studies, issues relating to the subjectivity of the researcherin relation to their subject matter have elicited familiar sociological stances. The methodology developed within this project challenges some of the former social scientific taboos concerning researcherobjectivity and bias and "In the beginning" opens up the possibility of a distinctly new approach to the study of congregations and religious phenomena. This thesis is a case study of an Assembly of God church in the North East of England. The Assemblies of God are currently the largest Pentecostal denomination in England and Wales. The Elim Pentecostal Church has a higher membership than the Assemblies of God in Scotland and considerably more in Northern Ireland with over 14,000 Elim members in Northern Ireland compared to 1,200 in the Assemblies. The total membership within the United Kingdom of these two Pentecostal denominations has been estimated for the year 2000 at 61,150 in the AOG and 69,320 in the Elim churches. The number of actual church congregations is higher within the AOG: 664 compared to 613 Elim churches, so too is the estimated number of ministers serving in each denomination: 836 (AOG), 688 (Elim). Appendix 1 provides statistical information for both the AOG and Elim Churches since 1980 onwards. I include the figures for the New Testament Church of God to show a comparison of size. The New Testament Church of God is currently the third largest Pentecostal group in the United Kingdom but numerically much smaller than the other two. Statistical information of this kind is necessary to provide a general context of the wider research field. The greater part of this work however, shall be micro in nature and will focus primarily on the dynamics of a single case study - the City Christian Centre (formerly the Fig Tree Gospel Hall). In this chapter, I will "In the beginning" discuss the methodological approach to my research after outlining the direction this thesis will take. Later in this chapter (and drawing from distinctly feminist developments within ethnographic study) I will include a short autobiographical account. In so doing I will be acknowledging my own subjectivity regarding this project and including myself as part of it. In chapter two I will review the sociological literature and concepts pertaining to fundamental religious affiliation. Specifically, I will suggest that secularisation theory has reached a stage of conceptual entropy and can no longer claim
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