Missionary Teams as Complex Adaptive Systems: Understanding the Impact of Multiple Embedding Contexts on Team Coherence

December 3, 2025

Missionary Teams as Complex Adaptive Systems: Understanding the Impact of Multiple Embedding Contexts on Team Coherence

Jeffrey James Singfiel | 2019

Abstract

This dissertation applied one model of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory to missionary teams to determine the impact of their multiple embedded contexts on team coherence. The literature on missionary teams falls into two broad approaches: scholars contributing to member care literature with few contributions to the leadership of missionary teams, and professional and trade writers addressing practitioners. None of these approaches examine missionary teams as a group phenomenon. This study explored a missionary team as a group phenomenon using CAS theory, thus addressing a gap in the missionary literature and utilizing the recent applications of CAS theory in groups. The CAS literature indicated a group’s contextual environments impact the coherence of the team. This study asked the research question, to what degree do a missionary group’s various environments or multiple embedded contexts impact the coherence of the group? To answer the research question, a single case study methodology was used to examine 1 missionary team operating in Europe. The embedded contexts included its sending organization, U.S. partner churches, and local partners in the host country. The research confirmed these embedded contexts do impact team coherence through the flow of their resources and attempts to address their own fitness needs. Implications for researchers and practitioners, the significance of the study, and its limitations conclude the study. Recommendations for future research include further exploration into the local and global CAS dynamics of missionary groups, particularly the impact of the team’s local resource network.

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