Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
4-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Linnea Rademaker
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Ben Ries
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Cynthia Sims
Abstract
With a purpose of understanding why church diversification efforts remain largely unsuccessful, this qualitative multiple case study includes an exploration of the experiences of seven African Americans and six Caucasians who are current or former members of predominantly White nondenominational churches. Interviews focused on revealing experiences and interactions that may have made African Americans feel more welcome as well as experiences and interactions that may have made African Americans feel more out of place in a predominantly White church setting. While African Americans gave a personal account of their experiences as African Americans, Caucasian participants were asked to provide their perspective of factors they believed may have made African Americans feel more welcome or unwelcome in their churches. Results include a summary of each participant’s personal experience as well as the resulting themes that emerged from the group of African American participants and the resulting themes that emerged from the Caucasian participants.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gilbert, Elizabeth Brown, "An Exploration of Why Integration Efforts Are Largely Unsuccessful in Predominantly White Christian Churches" (2022). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 445.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/445