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The purpose of this paper is to present a research from a study undertaken with Methodist circuit ministers in the UK and those that work closely with them. It considers in what way and to what extent ministers think of themselves as managers and to what extent and in what way they are expected to perform as managers by those they work with.

The research that informs this paper was gathered through a qualitative study which involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 participants both Methodist ministers and those who worked closely with them.

The study shows that, whilst those who work with ministers typically do not problematize management and expect managers to be able to perform management tasks, the ministers themselves are ambiguous about or rejecting of the discourse of management.

The relatively small sample size limits generalizability.

The study challenges trainers in this context and in other contexts where the “language” of management is contested or rejected to find a discourse of management which is acceptable.

The study contributes to the small body of literature on management and the development of managers within religious organizations. It contributes to the literature on managerial identity and the importance of management language in becoming a manager by presenting an example where this language and identity is contested or rejected.

This paper aims to explore the experiences of church ministers who played the role of transitional leaders in congregational situations involving conflict.

Grounded theory was chosen as a suitable approach to investigate phenomena that occasionally penetrate religious publications and even less frequently scholarly management journals. Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted with six church ministers who had been transitional leaders in one Christian denomination in New Zealand.

Participants indicated that the drivers of transitional ministry were conflict, dysfunction and loss of direction; the goals were to heal the damage caused by conflict and restore functionality and well-being; the process, underpinned by a leadership philosophy of affirmation, trust-building, engagement and communication, involved working with church members to instil hope, establish operational structures, identify and resolve dysfunction, envision a future and ultimately recruit a permanent minister.

The limitations of a small sample size in one Christian denomination could be addressed by using wider samples in other contexts. It is suggested that insights into transitional leadership after conflict will be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners in other religious organizations, the wider non-profit sector and the private sector. Future research into the impact of transitional leadership, against a background of conflict and organizational change, will add to this empirical foundation.

The model of transitional ministry is a unique contribution to religious literature and practice. It also offers insight into how other types of organization could deal with the exit of its permanent leader, in circumstances of conflict, and manage the transition phase of a temporary replacement, so that the organization returns to a state of well-being with a renewed sense of purpose.

It is now fashionable to suggest that the Celtic regions of the United Kingdom are the internal colonies of the central English state and that they have been, particularly since the rapid industrialization of the nineteenth century, subject to a penetrating anglicization of their culture and institutions. In terms of the internal colonialism thesis, it can be argued that the cultural nationalism of Scotland which was developed in the nineteenth century was an attempt to maintain the distinctiveness of civil society in Scotland in the context of massive regional economic imbalance. The Scottish intelligentsia, dominated by Edinburgh lawyers and Presbyterian ministers, can thus be compared with the intelligentsia of Third World societies undergoing a process of de‐colonization where separate cultural identities have to be preserved or, if necessary, constructed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contextual determinants of transition from expatriation to migration (TEM) among ministers of religion originating from the developing world.

The authors used in-depth analysis of narratives of four African religious ministers working in France, plus interviews with their five superiors and three host country national colleagues.

The findings point to personal-level, organisational-level and country-level contextual determinants, which come into play as levers or barriers in the “TEM” process.

The study identifies a new category of global mobility research at the intersection of expatriation and migration and develops a theoretical framework which points to the positive and negative influence of three-layered contextual determinants on how expatriated low-status church ministers from the developing world become migrants. The authors found a so far unreported determinant of the personal context: the role of a world view: very visible as “God centrality” in the participants. Results also shed new light on the international careers of this overlooked category of “non-traditional expatriates” from Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to extend understandings of the demand-side view of strategy and how organizations co-create value with stakeholders. Through an iterative process of theory development, data collection, data analysis and writing, the authors propose a value co-creation perspective that more fully takes into account stakeholder complexity.

The empirical data derives from a wider exploratory study on value creation and competitive advantage in Christian churches in Canada. Here the authors explore one case study from that wider study and analyze interviews with church members and leaders.

The authors discuss two mutually constitutive processes of value co-creation, building a culture of community and enacting relational and shared leadership.

The authors propose a stakeholder-complex understanding of value creation where stakeholders can enact multiple roles, often simultaneously, in co-creation and where products/services are consumed for their symbolic, rather than material value. Further, co-creation may involve ongoing interactions and value creation can occur in non-monetary transactions.

The authors offer, through an empirical exploration of a religious organization, an illustrative account of how value co-creation might be tied to stakeholder complexity. This study stretches the boundaries of mainstream strategy research by challenging two fundamental assumptions: that stakeholder roles must be distinct and that “value” must be clearly defined and explicitly linked to exchange value.

This study of budgeting practices and attitudes to budgeting in a local church uses Booth's (1993) framework to consider the potential conflict between the “sacred” agenda of the church and the “secular” nature of accounting.

Over a six‐month period, the author conducted a series of semi‐structured interviews with key church leaders, and studied financial reports and the minutes of church meetings.

Clergy and lay people alike, far from viewing accounting as an unwelcome intrusion into their church's sacred agenda, integrated belief in their church's mission with the need to raise and manage the money necessary to mobilise that mission.

Religion and religious organizations occupy a greater importance in society than academic accounting research would indicate, and this paper represents a response to that academic blind spot. Opportunities abound for further studies of the contribution accounting makes to other religious organizations, and to non‐profit organizations whose goals are not primarily wealth creation.

All organizations, even those with a sacred agenda, need to confront the reality of money and accounting if they are to achieve success. If they are unable to obtain or account for the resources they need for their mission, their ability to fulfil that mission is likely to be compromised.

By portraying accounting as an enabling and liberating contributor to a church's fulfilment of its spiritual mission, this study demonstrates that attitudes to accounting are inextricably intertwined with religious beliefs, and that accounting can be a valuable tool in a cooperative attempt to implement a spiritual vision.

Our Dublin correspondent telegraphed last night:

In 1840 the ancient city of Brechin was the kind of community which was ceasing to be important. It was a market town of some 6000 people set in the fertile countryside of Angus in North East Scotland. During the Age of Improvement market towns had become wealthy by selling hitherto novel and expensive goods and services to the surrounding countrypeople who purchased them with the profits of capitalistic agriculture. Now the initiative was slipping away to cities like nearby Dundee and the emergent industrial centres of the central belt of Scotland. Nevertheless the town had a flax mill, a bleachfield, several linen works and two distilleries. There was also work for nine ministers, nine lawyers and nine doctors. The ministers and lawyers were particularly important: the former propounded rival arguments about church government, the latter formalised and interpreted the resulting conflicts. Their part in this cameo of library history calls for some explanation.

This chapter focuses on donating to the church on the part of Wesleyan Methodists in the Kingdom of Tonga. It illuminates the dynamism and tension emerging between religious faith and economic practice. Quantitative analysis of income and expenditures are combined with qualitative observations of villagers' actions and discourse in this microanalysis of donating events, which seeks to comprehend the situation from point of view of the local adherents. It concludes that what might appear in Tonga on the surface to be a purely competitive practice is actually a complex blend of competition and cooperation, with the latter probably having a larger role than the former in these transactions.

This paper examines themes that emerge from supporting adults who have been sexually violated by Church ministers and clergy. The author suggests that despite obstacles put in place by churches of all denominations, victims are beginning to speak out.