Study On The Christian Church As A Social Organization

As one of the units of social systems, social organizations are what we touchupon in our daily lives. But in current China, with the rapid transformation of thesociety and the pursuit of interests, multi-values have a great impact on human minds.People confront with fragmented society with the decay of the traditional ethics,which result in the decay of traditional authorities and the traditional society.Under such social circumstances, people were puzzled and lack of the sense ofbelongings as well as identity.In current China, such hierarchical social organizations as enterprises,governments and institutions of higher learning are great in number, but otherorganizations are not adequately developed.In contrast with the limited functions and the absence of this kind of socialorganizations, Christianism is booming in China. Such contradictions demands for thespecial theoretical meanings and the realistic needs for church organizations ofChristianism.With the theory of social organization as theoretical framework, and the ideatypeput forward by Max Weber, this thesis draws an outline of social organizaion ofideatype, and makes an analysis of the organizations characteristics of Christianchurch from the following aspects, that is to say, the goals, structures and thefunctions of organizations.First of all, this Christian church not only has relatively definite long-term goals,it also establishes gradual goals with local characteristics. The individual goals andthe gradual goals should be based on long-term goals of the Christian church.Secondly, this Christian church has complete and hierarchical organizations andsystems of rules and regulations. Different levels have different rights and obligationsand the division of work is definite. There is a corporate representative who has beenauthenticated by specialized agency and will be in charge of all affairs of the Christianchurch.Besides, there is a management committee voted by the disciples, which is incharge of relevant affairs. Clergies will provide the religious spiritual servicesaccording to China Christian Council Regulations, and six functional groups had beenset up according to demands. Thirdly, a mature action model has come into being because the religiousspiritual services is well planned and arranged, and there are fixed time, contents aswell as presiders.As far as secular businesses are concerned, the corporate representative, theelders and deacons, the functional groups as well as the disciples plays respectiveroles and carry out corresponding responsibilities. They will obey the Christianchurches of the higher level, the regulations and work arrangement of both thisChristian church and other relevant sectors. If there is interaction between his churchand the outside churches, he is sure to act reasonably and legally.Last but not least, this Christian church has a great influnce on the lives of theinvidivuals, hence it affects the corresponding social lives of this area. As far as theindividuals are concerned, this Christian church influences the functions ofpsychology adpation. As for the social lives, social integration is its embodiment, andconservation and fatalism are the negative function.In short, the Christian church of G county is not a simple, primitive and lowlyorganizazed disciple organization. On the contrary, it is a relatively standard, wellorganized, fledgling in bureaucratization and properly functioned social organization.Besides, the good organization of the Christian church of G county is not totallyout of spontaneity, but the adaption to relevant government sectors, religiousorganizations of a higher level as well as the “Two Conferences”(the NationalPeople’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), that isto say, the government plays an important role in the Christian church.At the same time, the author thinks the development of the church reflects thetransitional period of current society, people can not be endowed with the sense ofbelongs and identity by the fragmented society. It is because of the absence of thiskind of social organization and endeavors of Christian churches that makes theChristian churches and disciple groups develop rapidly.