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Abstract
In just over eight years, Kids in Ministry International (KIMI), which began as a small outreach ministry in Bismarck, North Dakota, has developed into an international movement spanning over eight countries across five continents. This thesis seeks to explain how communication creates and sustains organizing processes necessary to establish and maintain such a movement. It uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on organizational communication, social movement, and rhetoric studies to show the process by which organization emerges from communication. It is intended to be a small, but critical, step toward conceptualizing the organization of this movement and illustrating the broader implications of the relationship between communication and organization. Examining Kids in Ministry International, its goals and objectives, and the means by which these are accomplished, may provide some interesting insights into the increasingly complex nature of modern organizations.
