The Distinctive Characteristics of Religious Leadership: A Case Study of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the United States
The Distinctive Characteristics of Religious Leadership: A Case Study of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the United States
Stephen Bialowas | 2016
Abstract
Religion and religious leadership continue to have a profound influence on society. However, there is a shortage of scholarly research on religious leadership, especially regarding the characteristics that are distinctive of religious leadership as compared with leadership in general (Ehrlich, 2001; Lindt, 2005; McClymond, 2001). The current study is designed to fill some of the gap in the literature through a qualitative research strategy in the form of a case study on the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, commonly known as the Foursquare Church, a Pentecostal Christian denomination with a network of over 1,600 churches in the United States. The study collected data on the distinctive characteristics of Foursquare leadership by examining four core documents of the church and the church’s website and through semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with eight prominent national leaders of the organization. The researcher then analyzed the data through a systematic coding process to identify key themes related to Foursquare leader characteristics and then categorized them. The study also compared the characteristics of Foursquare leadership to the characteristics of leadership as described by Weber’s (1963) theory of religious leadership and with five contemporary leadership theories to discover similarities and differences. The results indicated there were several similarities and differences between Foursquare leadership and leadership described by Weber’s theory and the five contemporary leadership theories. The findings show that Foursquare leadership has much in common with leadership described by the five contemporary theories, but only Weber’s theory accounted for the distinctly religious characteristics of Foursquare leaders. The study concluded that religious leadership as practiced in the Foursquare Church is best described by a combination of the five contemporary theories and Weber’s theory. Discussion describes the implications and limitations of the study as well as recommendations for future research regarding religious leadership.