Analysis of the worship services focused on distinguishing essential ele-
ments of the social process of the religious service in recognizable detail. The
relationship between the elements of the process, and the order in which they
occur was also a focus of analysis. Gifts of the Spirit, such as speaking in
tongues, are important components of the worship process. While, as mat-
ters of faith, these gifts are often believed to be purely spiritual, in practice
their coherence must be created in-situ. There are expectations associated
with their enactment such that participants who have successfully spoken in
tongues in another church may be unable to do so in a form that is recog-
nized as appropriate within a particular congregation, and thus have their
contribution ignored, or sanctioned by the pastor and the congregation,
because it took an unrecognizable and, hence, for this congregation, “inap-
propriate” form.
We refer to these details as Interaction Orders of the religious service and
argue that they are what makes particular religious experiences possible –
not formal orders of belief or account. This paper delineates the details of
the appropriate and inappropriate production of these Spiritual gifts in their
social context, and relates their social construction to the religious beliefs for-
mally given as accounts for them.
The Field Sites and Methodology
Both of the churches studied are Assemblies of God congregations. They are
large complex organizations that may be categorized as mega-churches (Eisland
1998; Olson 1988; and Vaughn 1993). Each has well over a thousand partici-
pants in Sunday services, a large-specialized pastoral staff, a system of cell
groups (smaller social units), and their own K-12 grade schools. One of the
churches associates itself with the city of Detroit through a mission of urban
outreach and racial reconciliation, so we refer to this as the Urban Church.
Although initially a white suburban congregation, it currently has over fifty-
percent African American membership. Conversely, the other church has
identified itself with the northwestern suburbs of Detroit through a mission
of evangelizing to those who have never been exposed to this particular form
of Christian worship; we will refer to this as the Suburban Church.
Ethnographic, audiotape, interview, and census data were collected from
1996 to 2002 with permission of the church pastors. Field notes were taken
during Sunday services at both churches and audiotapes were recorded (the
262 • Bonnie Wright and Anne Warfield Rawls