Richard N. Pitt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814768235
- eISBN:
- 9780814768259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814768235.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explains why most men and women are unlikely to find full-time paid positions in their local Church of God in Christ (COGIC) churches and how this situation handicaps opportunities to ...
More
This chapter explains why most men and women are unlikely to find full-time paid positions in their local Church of God in Christ (COGIC) churches and how this situation handicaps opportunities to serve in the kinds of positions, even as unpaid laborers, where their peers in other denominations might be found. It shows how they construct a new framework for understanding religious labor in order to legitimate their continued secular employment, arguing that the rhetorics these ministers deploy in talking about their secular work and their calls to ministry help them overcome the structural constraints that might otherwise hinder a coherent sense of themselves as religious laborers.Less
This chapter explains why most men and women are unlikely to find full-time paid positions in their local Church of God in Christ (COGIC) churches and how this situation handicaps opportunities to serve in the kinds of positions, even as unpaid laborers, where their peers in other denominations might be found. It shows how they construct a new framework for understanding religious labor in order to legitimate their continued secular employment, arguing that the rhetorics these ministers deploy in talking about their secular work and their calls to ministry help them overcome the structural constraints that might otherwise hinder a coherent sense of themselves as religious laborers.
Richard N. Pitt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814768235
- eISBN:
- 9780814768259
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814768235.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter offers a glimpse into the role originating congregations play in enhancing the very strong beliefs ministers have that they have been called to religious labor. It examines processes ...
More
This chapter offers a glimpse into the role originating congregations play in enhancing the very strong beliefs ministers have that they have been called to religious labor. It examines processes that, when viewed through a social psychological lens, explain why even clearly noncompetent candidates continue to pursue the credential. In particular, religious communities' reluctance to directly reject ministers' sense that they are called inadvertently strengthens aspirants' commitments to the called identity. In a process of acceptance herein referred to as “the horizontal call” (contrasted with the “vertical” call, which refers to interactions with the divine), the call creates a social identity—someone has to accept that ministry, if being a “minister” is to truly mean anything.Less
This chapter offers a glimpse into the role originating congregations play in enhancing the very strong beliefs ministers have that they have been called to religious labor. It examines processes that, when viewed through a social psychological lens, explain why even clearly noncompetent candidates continue to pursue the credential. In particular, religious communities' reluctance to directly reject ministers' sense that they are called inadvertently strengthens aspirants' commitments to the called identity. In a process of acceptance herein referred to as “the horizontal call” (contrasted with the “vertical” call, which refers to interactions with the divine), the call creates a social identity—someone has to accept that ministry, if being a “minister” is to truly mean anything.
