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STRUCTURE OF SCIENTOLOGY CHURCHES
BUILDING THE BRIDGE
As an individual moves up the Bridge, making the journey from preclear to Clear to OT, he moves progressively up through increasingly higher stages of awareness, a gradient improvement, with each advance built upon the one before. It is here we find the key to the organizational structure of the religion of Scientology, for just as these stages of awareness comprise the backbone of the Bridge, so, too, are they fundamental to the pattern of organization used by individual churches – known as the organizing board.
In 1965, searching for the key to workable administration, Mr. Hubbard developed the organizing board, a pattern of operation based on seven internal “divisions” which express every function a Scientology church needs to attend to in order to minister to its congregation. The organizing board – or org board for short – also represents the cycle of expansion. As Mr. Hubbard discovered, for any activity to grow, it must move through a series of twenty-one states of awareness which are a part of this cycle.
The org board forms more than just an efficient pattern of operation, however. And while it is true that these administrative principles are applicable to any activity in any organization, Mr. Hubbard developed them specifically for churches of Scientology and, as a result, something very special occurs when one steps into a Scientology church and becomes a part of its administration. As a Scientologist enters the church and passes through these different divisions, he also moves through the twenty-one states of awareness.
These states are a direct reflection of his ascent up the Grade Chart, for it too is based on the twenty-one states of awareness that make up every cycle of expansion. Thus, it is easy to see how the administrative form that Scientology organizations take matches the spiritual steps of awareness one must pass through to reach the state of OT.
The org board, then, marks out a route of growth for the individual, and for the organization.
 
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