In light of the number of immigrants globally as well as in the U.S., it is important to learn how immigrants are assimilating into their host communities. Social capital is a promising lens through which to view this phenomenon. In this paper, we present the case study of a Korean immigrant church in Northern Virginia that has been a good model of a successful immigrant church. The church’s success stems from church leaders’ understanding of the gap between first- and second-generation Korean church members.

After the publication of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, a group of four Cardinals prepared and shared five questions—dubia (“doubts”)—with the Pope and the public. The dubia focus on the content in one footnote in one chapter of the document. While a critique of Amoris Laetitia and the dubia is not this paper’s focus, the cultural dynamics at play are, because they are instrumental in how the conflict surrounding Amoris Laetitia developed. Using Hall’s (1977, 1984) taxonomy about high- and low-context cultures with Ting-Toomey’s (1985, 2006) application of Hall’s taxonomy to conflict in intercultural communication situations, this paper examines (a) why the dubia were initiated and continued from Cardinals, who hail from low-context cultures, (b) why the Pope, who hails from a high-context culture, has not formally and thoroughly responded, and (c) how the high-context organizational culture of the Vatican helped to fuel matters. This paper concludes with ways to avoid similar intercultural communication problems within the Church’s hierarchy in the future. For communication and religion, the case illustrates the importance of intercultural dynamics in resolving debates about doctrine and teaching, including the role of organizational culture in such debates.

Studies of organized religion in the United States often approach the intersection of faith and marketization forces as representing either a new opportunity for American congregations to remain culturally relevant or a harbinger of the end of religion’s social influence altogether. I suggest that a more nuanced understanding of this tension requires “revisualizing” how it plays out in discursive and material ways in the everyday life of faith-based organizations. By using photovoice to investigate the organizational identity of a nondenominational congregation (NDC), this article illustrates an American church paradoxically attempting to construct a community-based identity by enacting enterprising communication processes.

Kenneth R. Chase has defended a robust Christian rhetorical theory based on the doctrine of the incarnation and called for further investigation into historical resources for such a rhetoric. I offer George Herbert’s rhetoric of the rural pastor as such a resource. Herbert weds a Christian approach to audience (derived from Augustine) to a thoroughly incarnational rhetoric extending beyond the pulpit to the parson’s household and way of life. As such, he offers a model of incarnational rhetoric that challenges histories of rhetoric premised upon a simple opposition between philosophy and rhetoric.

Often, faith-based organizations are unprepared for crisis situations; and when they occur, disaster for the organization soon follows. Using an analysis of the situational crisis communications theory (SCCT) by Timothy Coombs, this paper will illustrate the impact of crisis events to faith-based organizations. This paper will then provide direction to changes for communication planning to be used in faith-based organizations by using Matthew Seeger’s Best Practices in Crisis Communication: An Expert Panel Process. This direction, provided with best practice examples, should assist faith-based organizations in preparing a strategic crisis communications plan.