Sitting in Church

D Paul Sullins

doi:10.1177/2158244012461921

Abstract

Giddens’ structuration theory suggests that social zoning or regionalization in worship services may occur on a front-to-back axis. To test this prediction, we observed the seating of individuals ( N = 3,426) at worship services over a 3-year period at 35 churches in three Protestant denominations: Southern Baptist, United Methodist, and Episcopalian. We found that persons seated in congregations are structured into three zones front to rear. Earlier arrivers in church tend to sit in the front region and late arrivers in the back region; this tendency is strongest in large congregations and in small churches. The close fit to the data of a constrained loglinear model ( p = .65) provides evidence that all the hypothesized effects are present. We argue that Giddens’ and Goffman’s categories are validated by and helpful for understanding regions in worship, and that this understudied area of research has value for understanding the sociology of religious congregations as well as structuring worship experiences and worship spaces.

Highlights

The unreflective arrangement of persons in social gatherings has been an object of scholarly attention since the rise of the social sciences
Simmel’s early description of gestures in the process of sociation in dyads and triads (Simmel, 1916/1950), an alternative to Durkheim’s (1912/1995) vision of individuals beset by social forces, set the stage for recurring analyses of small-group formation dissenting from or correcting, like theoretical minority reports, the tendency toward broad generalization that has prevailed in social theory from that day to this
Early arrivers are more than 3 times as likely to sit in the front as are just-in-time arrivers, but in large congregations, just-in-time arrivers are almost as likely to sit in the front as are early arrivers

Summary

11.1 Medium

Church size increased the tendency for justin-time arrivers to sit in the rear. The acceptable fit of this model to the data provides support for our working hypotheses that the observed effects of arrival time and church size are both linear. Early arrivers are more than 3 times as likely to sit in the front as are just-in-time arrivers, but in large congregations, just-in-time arrivers are almost as likely to sit in the front as are early arrivers

Discussion

Location in the pew

Group participation

Findings

Conclusion

Model fitting proceeded as follows