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Modern Megachurch Organization In The United States (2005-2013) : An Exploratory Organizational Study Of The American Megachurch Phenomenon., Robert Lee Shelby Jr.
Modern Megachurch Organization In The United States (2005-2013) : An Exploratory Organizational Study Of The American Megachurch Phenomenon., Robert Lee Shelby Jr.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation study explores the applicability of two for-profit organizational theories on a non-profit sector. Theoretical concepts from organizational ecology (OE) and new institutional sociology (NIS) provide the framework for exploring modern megachurches as an organizational phenomenon in the United States between 2005 and 2013. Modern megachurches are modern in the sense they really began to be an organizational population starting in the 1970s and 1980s. These churches are distinctively from the Protestant Christian tradition having 2,000 or more attendees (Thumma & Travis, 2007; Hartford Institute for Religion Research, n.d.). Three empirical chapters test several hypotheses germane to these aforementioned …