Abstract

The thesis of this study is that renewal efforts characterized by a partnership between empowering leadership and an engaged grassroots will, over time, experience a greater degree of renewal than organizations whose renewal efforts are initiated and driven exclusively at the executive level. Further conclusions are that renewal efforts must be a custom job, expansion probably works best when preceded by renewal, and organizations must confront and deal with the problem of escalating commitments. The thesis examines the dimensions of organizational renewal in religious organizations with respect to regional jurisdictions and establishes the criteria for measuring renewal. Renewal is defined as a change in structure, culture, standards or norms without altering the fundamental purpose and identity of an organization. Renewal can also mean whatever it takes to preserve or regain the health and vitality of an organization as opposed to allowing the organization to grow stagnant, unproductive, and die of entropy. Changes that are made by an organization to allow it to return to its raison d'être demonstrate the qualities of organizational renewal as defined in this project. The literature for both management and religious organizations reveals an absence of material addressing renewal in terms of initiating a planned change. Further, religious organizations are bereft of material focused on renewal at the level of regional jurisdictions. The two notable exceptions to the above are Hurst (1995) and Payne and Beazley (2000) whose material is reviewed at length. Three case studies provide the laboratory in which the model of renewal is tested. A series of interviews and examination of documents from two North American districts in the Church of the Nazarene give examples of renewal efforts. These case studies are compared and contrasted with an analysis of the secondary literature on the Dutch Catholic renewal in the 1960's.