Introduksjon til kirkelig organisering og ledelse. Et verdibasert og praksisorientert perspektiv. Kap. 1

Abstract

This chapter introduces the subject matter of this book – church organizing and leadership – and key concepts. The book’s point of departure is recent reforms in the Church of Norway as well as broader cultural and societal changes. This chapter answers the question: How can organization and leadership in the Church of Norway be understood as values-based and practice-oriented? We provide a conceptual framework that serves as the epistemic anchoring of this anthology. First, an institutional values-based approach (Selznick, 1957) takes into account the values and identity of the church as a religious organization. Second, a practice-oriented approach (Mintzberg, 2009), grounded in empirical studies, emphasizes how practices are performed and understood by individual leaders and collectives. These main perspectives facilitate our contextual interest in the Church of Norway focusing on the congregational level embedded in various other levels and interactions between various actors, including leaders, clergy and lay people. We position the individual chapters within the conceptual framework of the book before summarizing its key contributions.