Christianity In The Centre

Since the reform and opening up, China's NGOs(non-government organizations) have been developing rapidly. The development of NGOs needs driving forces, so what're exactly the factors affecting the existence, operation and development of the NGOs and how do they function? Factors affecting NGOs should be diverse. For different organizations, each role of the factors can not be the same.In this paper, participant observation is the main method, supplemented by interviews, structural functionalism as framework is employed to analyze a service center for people with intellectual disabilities, which is closely associated with religion.What does this paper want to study? In short, it is an attempt to find how religion functions in the "Center C". That is, I want to describe the emergence and development of religion in the organization, and its impacts on the organizational daily teaching, its influence on its service members and the roles it plays to back up its further development. Apart from the description, I tried to explain the mechanism, which is the ultimate goal of this study.The relevance between the research paradigm and the object of research makes the structure-function paradigm the one for this study. Because this research aims to describe and explain how a certain religion functions in a service centre, so obviously the most effective analytical framework for the study is the structural functionalist one. Participant observation and in-depth interview have been employed in the research to show the religious life in the centre, and by religious life, I mean the religious rituals, prayers and gatherings and my main concern is to understand the roles the religious life plays in the centre. Stories and poems of the care providers in the centre are also paid enough attention to illustrate the functions which Christianity has over the people in the centre, especially how it demarcates a work from a commitment.This paper ends with a conclusion that Christianity is most significant back-up for the centre to keep alive and develop further, and it can mobilize resources in the absence of the government, form support networks and establish commitment to the helping profession. What's more is that the religious rituals can provide the most effective communication between helpers and those in needs and among people relevant to the centre. Finally, the in the discussion sector, the paper discusses issues to which should have paid more attention in a longer dissertation.