The Sociology of Power in an Urban Church Severa

Several years ago something occurred in my church that taught me about the sociology of power. I had taken various spiritual classes there, and few in the congregation or administration knew of my professional background in education and psychology. This was an urban church that held as part of its tenets the philosophy that each individual should grow into their most expressive self and do work in the world that most expresses the special talents unique to the individual. With these inspiring philosophies recently incorporated into my motivations, I decided to teach a seminar there to share some techniques for goal-setting that had been particularly helpful to me.

The occurrence that is the focus of this paper is what happened the day I went to the church to request the key to open up for the seminar. I went to the desk between the church lobby and the administrative area and asked one of the office workers for the key. They did not want to give me the key, as they knew me as one of the students in the church's classes. It was important to me to get the key, as many people had registered for the course which was to be held on a Saturday when no other church functions would be taking place. No church administrative staff would be present, and I needed the key to gain entrance, set up for the class, and welcome the participants.

The office workers saw that I was insistent about receiving the key and passed on my request

. . .
he key had come from me rather than the minister herself. I was not one of the persons in the closest of the concentric circles, as was everyone within the office staff. It was, undoubtedly, confusing for the members of the staff and the assistant minister to deal with me as an equal when they felt privileged and special because of their close relationship with the minister. I could see the confusion on their faces as I remained adamant regarding my need for the key for the upcoming seminar event. George Simmel discusses the delicate relationship between superordination and subordination (1950, p. 542). The subjugated have considerable freedom, sometimes without being aware of it. In fact, it can be annoying to the superordinate person that the subordinated feels their power in a situation. This seems to be the case when I requested the key. I had considerable creative and professional power that led me to organize the class, get the proper approval, and recruit participants. This was a power perhaps not held, but envied in all of the staff and the assistant minister. This discrepancy was what caused the reluctance to give me the key. The interesting paradoxical situation is that the teachings of the minister were th
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Approximate Word count = 1768
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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