Keeping the faith! An agenda to investigate the decline in spiritually based communities

Abstract

Individual’s propensity towards membership and participation in Spiritually Based Communities (SBCs) has developed as a research stream. The decline of membership and participation is evidenced in several studies, examining its effect on SBCs. Despite advancement in this area, a number of questions still remain, particularly in relation to the relationships between the strength of the antecedents and level of commitment towards membership and participation. In this paper we conceptualise the antecedents of commitment of membership and participation, and briefly discuss the moderating role of members and participants characteristics. This paper proposes an agenda to address this gap in the literature by conducting an exploratory study of the relationship of the antecedents individually and in conjunction with each other and how they influence individuals’ commitment towards SBCs.