Stephanie J. Coopman
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
San Jose State University
rogue@cruzio.com

Joy Hart
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of Louisville
jlhart01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu

James G. Hougland, Jr.  &
Dwight B. Billings
Department of Sociology
University of Kentucky
Hougland: soc125@pop.uky.edu
Billings: soc171@ukcc.uky.edu
 

 
Abstract

This essay examines the functions of stories in the talks given by church leaders in two Southern Appalachian denominations, Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee and Southern Baptist, in the 1950's. Speakers used stories primarily to manage meaning, thereby shaping the organizational realities of church members. Although there were few differences between the two denominations in the functions of stories, there were differences related to leaders' status. Ministers and lay leaders told the same number of stories; however, ministers told more stories concerned with managing meaning and lay leaders told more stories designed to reduce listener uncertainty. The implications of these findings are discussed.

In the summers of 1958 and 1959 hundreds of field workers conducted focus group interviews and surveys with residents of Appalachia as part of the Southern Appalachian Studies project. In addition, field workers audiotaped sermons and lay leader talks in the various churches located in the region. The goal was to develop a comprehensive view Appalachian life, including religious beliefs, political attitudes, health practices, and social relationships. While others have since studied particular regional artifacts, such as the influence of coal, or concentrated on specific geographical locations, such as southwestern Virginia, the Southern Appalachian Studies project remains the most extensive set of information on life in the Appalachian region of the United States (see Weatherford & Brewer, 1962, for a more complete description of the study).

Although data from the surveys were analyzed and published soon after the project was completed (see Ford, 1962; Weatherford & Brewer, 1962), nothing was done with the transcribed minister sermons and lay leader talks, which languished in cardboard boxes at Berea College. In our study, we examined some of these talks to identify how Southern Appalachian church leaders used stories in sermons and other formal contexts of organizational interaction. In the first section of the paper, we explain what is meant by "Appalachia" and discuss the centrality of religious organizations to Appalachian life. In addition, we note the rich oral tradition shared by religious denominations in the region. Second, we present the approach to understanding organizational phenomena employed in the study. Third, we offer our analysis and interpretation of church leader stories from two denominations, Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee and the Southern Baptist Convention. We conclude with the implications of our findings.

Religious Organizations in Appalachia

Ron Eller (1997), Director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky, argues that Appalachia has been defined in five ways: geographically, politically, culturally, socio-economically, and historically. Geographically, the Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New York to Alabama, define the Appalachian region, with Southern Appalachia defined by the Blue Ridge Mountains, Great Appalachia Valley, and Cumberland-Allegheny Highlands. The U.S. federal government defined Appalachia politically to create the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). This definition includes 399 counties in 13 states. The Commission divides the region into northern, central, and southern areas. Cultural Appalachia is divided into two distinct zones, north and south, which differ markedly in speech patterns, folklore, dietary preferences, and other cultural norms. The Appalachian Region has also been defined as a socio-economic unit different from other parts of the United States. This definition is based on several models, such as colonialism and dependency theory, and statistics concerning income and employment levels. Finally, Eller argues that the most useful definition of Appalachia is an historical one: "What ties mountain people together is not only the fact that they live in a particular section of the country, share certain cultural traits, or certain social conditions but the fact that they share a common historical experience that gives the region its distinctiveness." The sites we chose to examine clearly fit the geographical and political definitions of Southern Appalachia, and are in counties which historically have been considered in Southern Appalachia.

Local churches in Appalachia historically have been and still are central to everyday life. Developing an understanding of Appalachian life necessitates studying the area's religious organizations, the local churches (McCauley, 1995). As Brewer (1962) notes, "The church or parish is the religious unit closest to the people. Here persons participate in shared religious experiences through public worship, religious education, fellowships, and service projects" (p. 210). Jones (1991), discussing the importance of religion to Appalachians, states, "it was the church which helped sustain us [Appalachians] and made life worth living in grim situations. Religion shaped our lives, but at the same time we shaped our religion" (p. 170).

Religion in Appalachia is grounded in the oral tradition. This is evident in McCauley's (1990) description of Appalachian religious practices: "Worship--the preaching, singing, and praying--is the 'text,' the primary source document. So are the carefully sculpted conversion narratives and visions, dreams, and trances of religious experience" (p. 61, emphasis omitted). In addition, the orality which characterizes Appalachian religion is closely tied with the informality of its religious organizations (see Brewer, 1962). Moreover, it is this oral tradition which permits Appalachian churches to retain traditional values and beliefs while at the same time encouraging their creative expression. These traditional values are "transmitted through oral transmission and oral interpretive traditions" (McCauley, 1991). From a research perspective, this oral tradition has led to Appalachian religion's "virtual invisibility in the study of American religious history" (McCauley, 1991, p. 357).

Religious organizations are steeped in the tradition of storytelling, with church leaders serving as an important source of narratives which bring to life the values, beliefs, and practices of particular denominations. Church leaders play a critical role in interpreting religious philosophies, often using stories in presenting those interpretations. Although parishioners are far from passive beings, religious leaders fulfill a key role in influencing and shaping how church members structure their religious experiences.

Southern Baptist Convention and Church of God, Cleveland, TN

We focused on two large Evangelical denominations in Appalachia which are both well-known and well-represented in the region. We chose these particular Evangelical denominations to provide a contrast between the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition of the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, and the more dominant tradition of the Southern Baptist Convention (Mead, 1970). Additionally, we selected these denominations because the Southern Baptists were the largest denomination in the region (with close to one million members at the time data were collected), and, while considerably smaller, the Church of God was experiencing significant growth (Weatherford & Brewer, 1962).

The denominations' basic beliefs and practices are rooted in Evangelical philosophies which include salvation requiring repentance, God's forgiveness from sin, and a humbling of the self to God's will. Further, the Bible is interpreted literally as God's word, and one of the most important tasks for Evangelicals to perform is proselytizing, or "preaching God's word." For both denominations, a public recognition of being "born again" involves baptism by immersion. The process of salvation is closely linked with beliefs in Christ as Savior. Christ's death and resurrection parallel that of the born again experience (see Hunter, 1983, for further explanation of Evangelical beliefs as well as the Biblical Studies Foundation website's discussion of the basics of Christian life; see also Fr. J. Mahoney's website on religion and health care for useful descriptions of various religious "family" groupings).

In May 1963, the Southern Baptist Convention approved revisions to the organization's 1925 Statement of Baptist Faith and Message. These revisions were designed to clarify the 1925 Statement and incorporate language more fitting of the 1960s. The changes were not viewed as significantly altering the basic doctrines of the religion: "In no case has it [the more-recent committee] sought to delete from or to add to the basic contents of the 1925 Statement." SBCNet, the Southern Baptist Convention's official website, provides useful information concerning the organization's tenets and structure.

Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, was organized in 1886 in eastern Tennessee. With international headquarters in Cleveland, the Church of God has developed REACH 21, which seeks to take advantage of opportunities for spiritual and organizational growth in the 21st century. Similar to the Southern Baptist Convention, the Church of God has an official homepage outlining the religion's doctrines.

Although these two denominations have several points of commonality, there are also dissimilarities in their traditions. According to the Southern Baptist Convention, "Belief in the Bible and loyalty to basic theological concepts are hallmarks of Southern Baptists' distinctive beliefs." The Church of God follows the Holiness-Pentecostal tradition while the Southern Baptist Convention is associated with the more dominant Baptist tradition. A primary difference between the two traditions is the Holiness-Pentecostal belief in being baptized by the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues.

The rural congregations we selected for our study were generally small, with Church of God congregations ranging in size from 15 to 50 members (mean = 27) and Southern Baptist congregations somewhat larger, ranging from 80 to 300 members (mean = 155). The small size and characteristically intimate, informal social interaction styles in these congregations contribute to the importance of oral communication between church leaders and members in the construction of organizational culture. Larger, more "mainline" churches in urban or more densely-populated areas of Appalachia are very similar to their denominational counterparts elsewhere in their adherence to doctrinal beliefs, worship styles, and rituals (Weatherford & Brewer, 1962). In contrast, smaller, rural Appalachian churches are more likely to develop their own congregational cultures reflecting the interpersonal styles, personalities, and beliefs of influential leaders and members.

Dorgan's (1987) fieldwork identified divisions among Baptist subdenominations in Appalachia. "A fellowship will come under the long-term influence of a dynamic and perhaps charismatic preacher whose strong feelings about doctrine and worship procedures result in a slow pulling away from orthodoxy. . . . One result of this process is that there are numerous independent churches throughout these [Appalachian] mountains whose doctrines or behaviors differ from those of their progenitor traditions, although they may have kept the respective denominational name" (Dorgan, 1987, p. 30). Thus, we believe that stories told by ministers and lay leaders to congregation members serve critical and influential functions in shaping organizational culture.

Stories serve several important functions for organizations. First, stories act as a way of indirectly transmitting information about organizational norms and values (e.g., Meyer, 1995; Quan & Zimmermann, 1995; Trujillo & Dionisopoulos, 1987). For example, particularly salient and often-repeated stories about organizational legacies conceivably mirror deep-structure values and beliefs that reside in the organization's cultural thread. In their study of police officer stories, Trujillo and Dionisopoulos (1987) found that stories acted on both a "surface level of story content and the deeper level of narrative structure" (p. 205). That is, the content of a story would serve to embellish and enliven a particular event which had occurred. However, more important are "the broader cultural values and myths that are enacted in the narrative form" (Trujillo & Dionisopoulos, 1987, p. 205, emphasis omitted). Similarly, Quan and Zimmermann (1995) found that firefighter stories focused on the ways in which firefighters should respond to danger. Meyer's (1995) analysis of stories told by child care workers identified showing consideration for others as the most important value in the organization. Thus, stories do more than simply recount events in interesting ways. They also serve to provide models for listener action.

Second, stories serve as a means of passing on traditions, building similar worldviews, and constructing a network of shared experiences (Browning, 1992; Mohan, 1993). In her review of the organizational culture literature, Mohan (1993) concludes that "shared narratives are credited with the power to create cohesive and productive cultural communities" (pp. 58-59). Meidlinger and Zimmermann (1996) found that staff members of a Catholic church told stories which reflected shared experiences unique to that group. In their study of stories told by Human Resource Development (HRD) personnel, Hansen, Kahnweiler, and Wilensky (1994) identified themes associated with the work HRD practitioners perform that were independent of specific organizations. The practitioners use stories in order to develop a perspective on organizational life unique to HRD.

Third, stories facilitate sense-making regarding events internal and external to the organization (Brown, 1990; Browning, 1992). Through the vehicle of narrative, meaning can be constructed around past events and important clues given for how to interpret future occurrences. As Browning (1992) found in his study of organizational lists and stories, "Stories are context sensitive. Story communication increases the importance of knowing history" (p. 287). Vaughn's (1995) study of Geneva Steel in Provo, UT underscores the use of stories in interpreting organizational events. During interviews with organization members, Vaughn was told a story about commitment to the organization in times of change. She later discovered that the story was likely fabricated, yet it still served to indicate to organization members how they were to make sense of the "new" relationship between management and employees.

Fourth, organizational symbols, and stories in particular, can be used as a means of social control (e.g., Darrand & Shupe, 1983; Golden 1992; Vaughn, 1995; Wilkins, 1984; Witten, 1993). By providing interpretations of events that mesh with the dominant culture in an organization, stories may serve to preserve the status quo and simultaneously inhibit change attempts. As Browning (1992) notes, "stories can operate to provide order, as they often do in strong cultures where religious parables are given single, literal, inflexible interpretation" (p. 298). Similarly, Myrsiades (1987) concludes in her review of organizational story research that "stories are capable of performing a critical function as interlocutors of tradition and change, maintaining the ability both to foster innovations and to retain a constant state" (p. 108). Witten (1993) argues: "It is in part through the recounting of narratives . . . that hierarchical relationships in organizations are imaged, workers are taught the parameters and obligations of their roles, and behavioral norms in service of the organization's ends are conveyed" (p. 98).

Leadership and Storytelling

Much of the organizational culture literature discusses the participation of all members in creating, maintaining, and changing culture with the bulk of these writings implying that membership in a culture gives one an equal share in such activities. However, a few scholars have noted that organizational leaders have more resources, allowing them to develop and tailor stories which most often support the dominant organizational view (McMillan, 1990; Mumby, 1988 ). As McMillan (1990) observes, "Because leaders have primary access to the organization's symbol pool and the prerogative to structure symbols into a 'dominant organizational reality,' they enjoy tremendous advantage over other organizational members" (p. 206). For example, Helmer (1993) examined storytelling at a racetrack. During one meeting at the track, administrators told stories which "reinforced existing relations of authority and power, reminding listeners that their behavior was subject to official scrutiny and perhaps punishment " (Helmer, 1993, pp. 37-38). Stories thus may serve as political tools which can be used by organizational leaders as forms of control to legitimate particular views or support certain activities (Feldman, 1990).

While stories told by all organization members are important in the development of shared systems of meaning, the actions of key members may be especially influential. The communication of organization founders, leaders, opinion shapers, and those very skilled in persuasion may act in highly instrumental ways to frame particular realities (Calas & Smircich, 1987; Martin & Powers, 1983; Morley & Shockley-Zalabak, 1991; Sackmann, 1991; Schein, 1985). For example, in her study of a 2500-employee company located in Los Angeles, Sackmann (1991) found that the organization's president was "important in creating and perpetuating cultural knowledge" (p. 138). Through his language choices, the firm's president was able to "frame the range of possibilities for acceptable cultural knowledge to develop" (Sackmann, 1991, p. 139). Organizational leaders also influence culture through values articulated in formal and informal communication. In their study of a computer company, Morley and Shockley-Zalabak (1991) conclude that "core mission, goals, means, criteria, and remedial strategies of the organization will come from organization founders' basic underlying assumptions shaped by the culture from which they come" (p. 444). A follow-up study of the same company found that management values were highly influential in the formulation of rules (Shockley-Zalabak & Morley, 1994).
 

Two overarching themes guided the present study: Appalachian religion's oral tradition and the importance of organizational leaders' talk in shaping organizational members' social realities. This study represents an extension of an earlier analysis in which we identified recurrent themes within and between the same two denominations (Zimmermann, Seibert, Billings, & Hougland, 1990). In the present study, we posed the following research questions:

RQ1: What functions do the stories of church leaders serve?

RQ2: How are stories embedded in organizational leader talk?

RQ3: What strategies do speakers employ to enculturate organizational members?

RQ4: a) Are there differences in story functions between Church of God and Southern Baptist stories? 

b) Are there differences in story functions between ministers and lay leaders?

Religious Organizations and Participants Studied

Procedures and Analysis

The first two authors of this paper independently reviewed the transcripts and identified stories told by the church leaders. Following Brown (1985), we defined stories as "narratives which recount sequences of events" (p. 28). There were three initial disagreements in identifying stories which were discussed to agreement. A total of 36 stories were identified, 13 told by Church of God and 23 by Southern Baptist leaders.

Second, stories were assessed in terms of the functions they served according to Brown's (1990) typology. Those stories which function to reduce uncertainty for organization members provide practical information about everyday life and make abstract ideas more concrete. Stories which manage meaning present organizational values and appropriate organization member behaviors either implicitly or explicitly. Finally, stories which facilitate organizational bonding and identification present the unique features of the organization and its members, delineating between those who belong to the organization those who do not. Two coders independently categorized each story as to its function. There was a difference in coding only one story (97% agreement) which was discussed to agreement.
 

Research question one was concerned with the functions that church leaders' stories served. Twenty-five of the 36 (69%) stories identified were designed to manage meaning. Six stories (17%) were employed by speakers to reduce organizational members' uncertainty. Finally, five stories (14%) were used to facilitate organizational member bonding. The following story, told by a Southern Baptist minister during the church's regular Sunday morning service, is an example of a story which served to manage meaning:

Story A

I would like for us to compare, just for a minute, this great man of God, Jeremiah, with another very wonderful and a very great prophet of God, Isaiah. We would like to notice first their call. We notice in the call of Isaiah that he volunteered for service--he said, "Here I am, send me. Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having a live local in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, 'Lo, it hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sins purged.' Also, I heard a voice from the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said I, 'Here am I, send me.'" Here was Isaiah volunteering to be the messenger, the spokesman of God. And I think that we, as Christians, should live in such a way that we should be constantly volunteering to be spokesmen of God.

Story B

Archibald Rutledge told a story once of a turpentine worker who had a very faithful dog, and each day he would take this dog with him to the forest as he went about the turpentine trees gathering the sap, and one night a terrible fire broke out in the forest and the dog was burned because he faithfully sat beside his master's lunch pail, and the old master very tearfully later said, 'I always had to be careful what I told my dog to do because he would always do it.' I think that has a beautiful lesson for us. We should be willing to do whatever our Lord commands us to do, if we're to follow him.

In addition to managing meaning, church leaders also told stories to reduce parishioners' uncertainty concerning denominational values, beliefs, and activities. Given that these stories focus primarily on handling events in everyday life, it is logical that church leaders' formal talks less often address this function. For example, a Church of God lay leader told the following story to reduce uncertainty in listeners:

Story C

You know that's one thing that I'm afraid a lot of our church people neglect, which is displaying our flag, which means that is a Church of God home, and that you can find hospitality there. I remember back, two or three years ago in the winter time, when the sleet and rain had fell and covered the roads on this mountain just completely. Brother Young was coming from Nashville, working on our state campground there, going back to Knoxville. He was pastoring in Knoxville at that time. When he started up this mountain about half way up, ice started covering the roads. By the time he got up here . . . the road was completely covered over and his car was going every way. Not telling this to brag or anything, but I'm telling it just because we should be able to take care of our friends and our people whenever the time comes possible. . . . He got up to the road to turn down this way he said, "I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to Brother . . . tonight and spend the night," and that was almost midnight at that time. He come in, had his whole family with him, and we made room for them to sleep and give them something to eat, and showed them as much hospitality as we could. Those of you who know Brother Young know what a wonderful man he is, and he just came in and made hisself at home, and every time that I see him, he never fails to mention that night. Every time I see him, or whoever is standing around that we're talking to, he always tells about that night we took him in, and gave him a bed to sleep in, and something to eat. They felt at home there, because we had prayer, and the spirit of the Lord just came down and blessed every one of us. That is the way, that we need the spirit of God in everything that we do, and then we can show that hospitality as Christ did.

Stories devoted to organizational bonding and identification are those which reinforce group allegiances and membership and draw distinctions to non-group members. In the example below, a Southern Baptist minister tells a story involving a clash between two opposing groups, illustrating the organizational bonding function:

Story D

You know this here passage now that we just read, it's thrown a great deal of light on what a strong religious leader can do for his nation . . . . [L]et us just notice here that he [a priest] was able to get those people together, and do what the Lord wanted them to do. He got them into the Lord's house, they all assembled there, and took up their posts there. He organized them in the right way that they might carry out the work of the Lord, talk to them. Just notice what was over there before they taken over and you notice here that he tore down the altars of Baal and all this, done away with all these idols that they worshiped, and you know they went right in and combated that. As Christians, what are we supposed to do? We're soldiers for Him, aren't we?

Although we had expected more stories which addressed organizational bonding, a review of the transcripts revealed that such bonding was stressed, but seldom through stories. We suspect there are several possibilities for this finding. First, church leaders may assume that because parishioners are in attendance they already clearly identify with the church. Second, churches have other contexts, such as ice cream socials and potlucks, where such bonding may be more frequently evidenced, especially through stories. Third, more informal kinds of communicative performances may work to facilitate bonding, such as episodes which involve trading or "swapping" stories of similar experiences (Bormann, 1983). This ability of interactants to build on what another says may facilitate developing a joint identity in ways that are more difficult to achieve when a single speaker primarily holds the floor.

The second research question addressed how church leaders positioned stories in their talks. Here we were concerned with the relationship of the stories to the larger text. One dimension of this relationship was how stories were introduced by speakers. Just over one half (53%) of the stories were previewed in some way by the teller. For example, some speakers set-up the story by introducing the topic, such as a Church of God minister saying, "We know tonight that man is born into the world with a depraved nature about him." Others would refer to verses or books in the Bible from which their stories would come. Still others employed rhetorical questions that the stories which followed would answer. However, it is clear that many stories were not previewed, but rather were simply inserted into the flow of the speech.

We also looked at how speakers provided transition from a story back into the text. When such transitions were provided, speakers discussed the story's meaning or moral. Such discussion occurred slightly more than one half of the time (56%). For example, in a Church of God lay member's story about the Good Samaritan, the speaker emphasizes the moral of the story by concluding, "It doesn't necessarily mean the position that a person holds in this world or in the church that makes him have that love and hospitality, but it's what's in the heart."

How stories were embedded in church leaders' talk was closely related to the strategies employed to enculturate organizational members, the focus of the third research question. Three major strategies identified were previewing the story, stating the moral of the story and including character quotes. Probably the most important of these is stating the moral of the story, especially given that stories can be open to multiple interpretations. For example, Story B above regarding the faithful dog is interpreted by the lay leader to mean that listeners should follow the Lord's commands: "I think that has a beautiful lesson for us. We should be willing to do whatever our Lord commands us to do, if we're to follow Him." Clearly, this summation meshes well with organizational tenets. However, others might interpret this story as suggesting that simply doing what one is told may have serious consequences. Another alternative interpretation might be that problem-solving abilities are important. Of course, if the goal is to enculturate members, organizational leaders need to make sure that listeners interpret stories in the manner in which the tellers intend.

We further see the importance of stating the moral of the story in Story B when the speaker moves on to the next part of the service by saying, "Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer." Then, during the prayer itself, the lay leader refers back to the moral of the story: "[H]elp us to show to the world that we are creatures of thine, following thy will and doing thy commands." Thus, the speaker reinforces the interpretation of the story by including the moral in his prayer to God.

This emphasis on story interpretation was also evidenced in some story prefaces. Although tellers stated story morals more frequently after telling them, some tellers stated the intended purpose of the story prior to telling it. In other words, they stated the main point that they were going to illustrate via a story. For example, in Story C, the Church of God lay leader begins by stating, "You know that's one thing that I'm afraid a lot of our church people neglect, which is displaying our flag, which means that is a Church of God home, and that you can find hospitality there." This not only frames the story within the topic of hospitality, but suggests it as an area for church member improvement. Such prefacing is a clear attempt to constrain how listeners comprehend and assign meaning to a story.

The last strategy church leaders employed in using storytelling to enculturate members was the use of character quotes. About one-third (36%) of the stories contained the words of a story character. For example, the Southern Baptist minister who told Story A, quotes Isaiah's conversation with God. Story B, told by a Southern Baptist lay leader, uses the words of the main character in the story, the turpentine worker with the faithful dog. In the story related by a Church of God lay leader, Story C, the teller does not quote himself, but rather, the person to whom the teller extended hospitality. Considering the informal and interpersonal nature of Appalachian religion (McCauley, 1991), it is not surprising that speakers would employ a strategy which personalizes the events being recounted.

The fourth research question was concerned with differences in story function by group. The analysis of story function by denomination revealed essentially no differences in the percentage use of stories. As discussed above, for both Church of God and Southern Baptist speakers the vast majority of stories were employed to manage meaning (69% and 70% respectively). Although there were some differences in the proportion of stories used to reduce organization member uncertainty (23% in Church of God talks and 13% in Southern Baptist ones) and facilitate organizational identification (8% in Church of God talks and 17% in Southern Baptist ones), the small number of stories in each of these categories prohibits any conclusions regarding significant differences.

The emphasis on the management of meaning function suggests that these organizational leaders hold common goals and face like problems in defining organizational values and shaping norms. Martin, Feldman, Hatch, and Sitkin (1983) conclude that similar stories are evidenced across organizations due to common obstacles and goals organization members encounter. Our findings begin to suggest that organizational leaders also may employ similar devices to achieve their objectives for the organization.

The second part of research question four addressed possible differences in story function in the talk of lay leaders compared to that of ministers. Lay leaders and ministers told the same number of stories (18 for each group). However, differences were evidenced in story function. Although the stories of both groups focused most often on managing meaning (lay leaders 55%; ministers 83%), clearly ministers placed a greater emphasis on this function. Although organizational leaders, such as ministers, may sometimes be called upon to introduce drastic change in an organization, their more common responsibility is to work with members in defining and reinforcing the mission and role of an organization (Selznick, 1957). Because stories can relate an organization's values to the concrete behavior of ordinary people, it is not surprising that leaders would find them useful in managing meaning. Organizational identification was addressed with about the same frequency (lay leaders, 3 stories or 17%; ministers, 2 stories or 11%). However, lay leaders attended more to reducing organizational member uncertainty than did ministers (28% and 6%, respectively).

One explanation for these differences lies in the status of ministers and lay leaders in terms of their organizational positions. Ministers have more formal training and more legitimate power in the organizational hierarchy. Further, ministers and lay leaders perform different roles in the organization. These roles are coupled with differing behavioral expectations and assumptions. That is, ministers assume that they are to explain the meaning of religious doctrines to congregation members and are expected by others to do so. Moreover, ministers are seen as "spokesmen for God;" thus, we would expect these organizational leaders to devote attention to describing past, present and future events in ways that give coherence to the organizational principles and practices. In contrast, lay leaders, whose lives are likely more similar to that of church attendees, focus more on helping individuals overcome uncertainty. In addition, ministers typically speak from a pulpit in a more traditional public speaking configuration than lay leaders teaching a Sunday School lesson. This also likely contributes to differences in how stories are used by each group.
 

We embarked on this study to provide a more in-depth analysis of data collected in the 1950s Southern Appalachian Studies projects. We were interested in stories told by ministers and lay leaders during sermons and other church talks. We focused on two Evangelical denominations prevalent in the region, Southern Baptist and Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. We chose churches from six rural counties in Southern Appalachia because we believed these churches would reflect a more interpersonal relationship between leaders and parishioners. Thus, church leaders' communication is likely to be more influential in the development of organizational culture (Dorgan, 1987). The purpose of our study was to examine the functions church leaders' stories served in formal contexts of communication, such as Sunday School and sermons.

When the data for this study were collected, the United States was on the brink of the political and social unrest of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1958 and 1959, Americans were adjusting to school desegregation, the increased clout of labor unions with the merging of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the formation of the European Community, or Common Market. The Korean conflict had ended in 1953, Joseph McCarthy had been censured by the U.S. Senate in 1954, the discovery of a polio vaccine was made in 1955, and nine African-American students attended Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The U.S., Soviet Union, and each country's allies were deeply embroiled in the Cold War. Computers were becoming common for commercial use, rock music was gaining in popularity, and Jack Kerouac was writing about the Beat Generation (Mitchell, 1990).

Although the ministers and lay leaders were undoubtedly aware of national and international events such as those noted above, their stories, and sermons more generally, did not refer to such events specifically. In Story D, the speaker begins with, "You know this here passage now that we just read, it's thrown a great deal of light on what a strong religious leader can do for his nation." The reference to a religious leader serving the nation suggests the minister recognized the importance of religious leaders exerting influence beyond the walls of their own churches, yet the specific nature of that influence was not made clear. The minister ends the story with the "soldiers for God" metaphor which has been common in Christianity for thousands of years. Its use in this context may be influenced by the recent close of the Korean conflict and the ongoing Cold War. When incorporating current events into their sermons, ministers and lay leaders referred to their own personal experiences, local events or individuals known to the parishioners. For example, in a story told by a Southern Baptist minister, the speaker talks about a vision of Christ he had seen the previous night (Zimmermann et al., 1990, pp. 303-304) and in Story C, a Church of God lay leader talks about the experiences of Brother Young who was pastoring in Knoxville. The ministers and lay leaders seemed most concerned with personal and local rather than global issues. Yet, the talks were certainly influenced by their historical context.

Ministers and lay leaders in both denominations used stories predominately to manage meaning, highlighting organizational beliefs, norms, and values. Over half the stories told included a preface, signaling that a story was to be told, and a story postscript, which emphasized the moral of the story. Story previews, stated morals, and character quotes were important linguistic devices for enculturating listeners into church doctrines and practices. Although ministers and lay leaders focused on managing meaning in the stories they told, lay leaders emphasized reducing church members' uncertainty more than ministers.

In examining how stories were used by leaders in two different religious denominations, we demonstrated the utility of identifying story functions separate from specific doctrines. Often religious organizations are analyzed strictly in terms of their philosophical underpinnings, which only serves to accentuate denominational differences. While useful for identifying belief structures, such analyses fail to explore communicative similarities in the practice of religion. Inquiries designed to uncover religious members' interpretations regard "belief not as a doctrine reducible to a creed, but as theology, as the play of faith seeking understanding in the context of human experience" (Titon, 1990, p. 82). Despite distinct differences between Church of God and the Southern Baptist Convention in denominational tenets, these church leaders overall display striking similarities in their storytelling. By viewing formal organizational practices as communicative events, we can begin to see how key members, such as organizational leaders, attempt to influence others' social realities.

Church leaders' attempts to influence others' social realities can be observed today with the proliferation of local church and denominational websites. For example, Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee, includes on its website a list of sermon resources composed primarily of stories ministers can use for particular lessons. In addition, the site has nearly 100 stories submitted by members which serve as testimonials for Church of God doctrines. The Southern Baptist Convention's website describes "God's Plan for you," the organization's purpose, and Baptist faith and message. Some local churches have their own websites, such as the Riverside Missionary Baptist Church in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Using complex graphics, the site includes information such as church doctrines, questions submitted by email and answers from the pastor, and the schedule of the church's radio ministry. Although these websites are technologically advanced, their functions are similar to the face-to-face interactions between church leaders and congregation members in the 1950s. The Internet provides another pulpit for church leaders to deliver their messages and many religious organizations are utilizing this new communication channel. For example, Net Ministries is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help Christian organizations use the resources of the Internet. "If we truly must 'go into all the world' then the light of Christ needs to shine through the Internet."

Although the organizational culture literature calls for examining cultural performances as enacted in everyday life, most studies examine artifacts, such as memos, media documents, and retrospective accounts of organizational communication, rather than actual social interaction. This study begins to examine stories as they naturally occur. Thus, we were able to identify the ways in which stories were embedded in the larger flow of discourse. This approach also allowed us to detect the relationship between the story and the surrounding text. For example, morals of the stories were not always within the stories themselves, but often followed as a sort of story summary. Such summaries may not be remembered when organization members are asked to recount a story.

One limitation of our study is that we had only transcriptions of the church leaders' talks. Audio or videotape would provide a more complete view of the storytelling process. Future studies of naturally-occurring talk might attempt to capture the nonverbal aspects of storytelling. The more aspects of culture that are simultaneously analyzed the more robust our descriptions of organizational life can be. Another dimension of storytelling inquiry would be to extend analyses to the audience. Studying audience reaction, verbal and nonverbal, could give an indication of performance effectiveness and storyteller adaptation.

The organizational culture literature suggests that all organizational members create, maintain and change culture. Although correct, the majority of this literature appears to assume that all members participate equally in developing intersubjective realities. More recently, however, some writers have stressed the importance of organizational leaders in influencing culture (McMillan, 1990; Sackmann, 1991). Our findings of the prominence of attempts at managing meaning through stories speak to this issue. Although studying the interactions of all organizational members is of clear import, studying the behavior of those wielding disproportional power may enhance our understanding of both cultures and organizational discourse greatly. Further, such inquiry might have implications for organizational leaders, those aspiring to positions of power, and those interested in more equitable distributions of resources within organizational contexts.

¹ This research was supported in part by an Appalachian Research Fellowship awarded by Berea College and an award from the University of Kentucky Research Committee. We gratefully acknowledge this support as well as the assistance and encouragement provided by Loyal Jones of Berea College.
 

 
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