The Organization Structure of Churches: A Preliminary Model

From recent work on formal organization structure, in particular that of the `Aston school', a causal model for the analysis of churches is developed. This postulates the primacy of belief systems in determining the operational goals of churches, their subsequent membership, size and resource position, and consequential upon this, their organization structure. It is pointed out that a model developed from the sociology of organizations, rather than from the sociology of religion, would lay less stress on beliefs and more on resources.