It's just certain words: Faith -based initiatives and the challenge of definition in the suburban African American church.

Through situated analysis of language-in-use and rich insider ethnography, this project examines how the key terms used to define a suburban African American church's faith-based initiative to close the achievement gap complicated tire church's planning and recruitment efforts. Key terms and their underlying concepts built up over time across social interactions as meanings of words were constructed in the moment and taken to mean different things based upon people's prior experiences. Tension emerged when committee members, potential community partners and prospective church volunteers developed conflicting meanings for the key terms; questioned the imbalance between the key terms and their underlying concepts; and disputed and attempted to redefine the key terms. These discursive negotiations were the result of conflicts between the key terms and their underlying concepts and people's perceived obligations and sensibilities as members of certain social groups. For some, supporting the church's initiative would mean taking on an identity that conflicted with other valued social identities. Therefore, problems with definition and usage of key terms signaled serious challenges with recruitment of community and church supporters. This project traces the ensuing negotiation, re-definition and replacement of key terms, as well as the institutional and social roles implicated by certain words in use.Ph.D.Black studiesEducationLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyReligionReligious educationRhetoricSocial SciencesSocial sciences educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126183/2/3237985.pd