New Study of Congregations Released

The better the financial health of a congregation in America, the better its spiritual vitality. The worse the financial health of a congregation, the greater the chance for conflict.

Thus, money matters in congregational vitality and such matters were getting worse for American congregations even before the recession hit.

This is just one of the findings of a new survey, titled American Congregations 2008 that is being released this week. Produced by Faith Communities Today, the survey is based on responses from more than 2,500 Oldline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Catholic & Orthodox and World Religions congregations.

The Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership (CCSP) conducted the survey. It updates results from surveys taken in 2000 and 2005, and is the latest in CCSP’s series of trend-tracking national surveys of U.S. congregations.

Several of the key findings of the survey were reported earlier:

American congregations, as a group, continue to struggle, facing declining attendance at worship, eroding financial health, waning spiritual vitality and increasing uncertainty about their mission and purpose.

At the same time, some congregations have shifted to a contemporary style of worship that has catalyzed growth, and other congregations have benefitted from focused leadership.

David A. Roozen, Director of the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership and Professor of Religion and Society at Hartford Seminary, said that, “There is a tendency to believe that congregations are captive to their demographic and cultural contexts.  To the extent this is true the broad based erosion of vitality in America’s congregations over the past eight years evidenced in the FACT 2008 survey suggests an erosion of religious receptivity in the broader American social-cultural milieu. 

“But this is only a part of the story because the belief in contextual captivity is only partly true and, in fact, research suggests that it has become less true over the past quarter century.  As the FACT  2008 findings clearly demonstrate there remain pockets of vitality among American congregations, and many of the distinguishing characteristics of today’s vital congregations appear to be well within a congregation’s control – such as openness to change, clarity of purpose,  attentiveness to new members, and appreciation of volunteers.  We also are gaining a much more refined sense, as evidenced in FACT 2008, about the distinct predispositions of clergy leadership in vital congregations.”

The report being released this week provides a more in-depth look at 11 topics: worship; identity; program; youth, attracting and tracking new members; assimilating new members and deepening lay leadership; conflict; fiscal health and conflict; budget profiles; clergy education and congregational health; and clergy time usage.

Among the new findings:

• Oldline Protestant congregations spend close to half their budgets on salaries and benefits compared to 31 percent spent on salaries and budgets by Evangelical Protestant congregations. Oldline congregations’ pay premium is even more striking when one recalls that Oldline congregations are, on average, considerably smaller than other Christian congregations.
• American congregations have gone electronic. Web access is more the norm than the exception.
• A newly emergent trend is satellite congregations in which sermons are beamed in from the primary congregation.
• Congregations that changed to contemporary worship in the past five years show elevated levels of spiritual vitality and growth in worship attendance.
• Conservative congregations place more emphasis on the quality of their internal relationships than do liberal congregations; liberal congregations place more emphasis on ministry to the world outside their doors.
• As in 2000, money, worship and leadership lead the way as the areas of congregational life most riled with conflict. Conflict about leadership is the most likely to produce serious negative consequences.
• Creating strong interpersonal bonds and purposefulness decrease the likelihood of conflict/
• In clergy time usage, worship and teaching about the faith are the top task priorities for both Protestant families. The Oldline congregations put higher priority on worship and the Evangelical congregations put higher priority on teaching. Catholic/Orthodox leaders spent more time and attention on administration than any other task.

The American Congregations 2008 report was written by Roozen, director of the Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

A link to view the report is available at: http://fact.hartsem.edu/products/index.html.

Faith Communities Today surveys and publications are products of the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, a collaborative, multifaith coalition of American faith communities affiliated with Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Researchers, consultants and program staff representing 39 denominations and faith groups contributed to the American Congregations survey.

FACT/CCSP strives to offer research-based resources for congregational development that are useful across faith traditions, believing that all communities of faith encounter common issues and benefit from one another’s experiences. It also informs the public about the contributions of congregations to American society and about the changes affecting and emanating from one of America’s major sources of voluntary association – local congregations. For more information on CCSP, visit fact.hartsem.edu.