A Longitudinal Case Study of Religious Congregations in Local Human Services

Abstract

Although the involvement of religious organizations in social service provision is increasingly widespread, it has been neglected by scholars. Along with providing important services to the community, involvement with social services is an important step in the development of a public presence for many congregations. This article documents the changing involvement of several mainline Greensboro, North Carolina, churches as they respond to current political events by assuming a collective public profile on community issues. In the terms developed by Roozen, McKinney, and Carroll (1984), they move from a civic mission orientation to a more activist mission orientation.

Trends in Addressing Social Needs: A Longitudinal Study of Congregation-Based Service Provision and Political Participation

“…Rather than treating ethnoracially diverse groups as having similar composition, researchers could use more refined methods that capture the variation in composition that exists among ethnoracially diverse groups. Finally, future research could enhance understanding of congregational activities by analyzing how congregation-based service 8 Based on the operationalization used in this study, a congregation is considered to be ethnoracially diverse if no single ethnoracial group represents 80% or more of its members. 9 The analysis of congregational subpopulations does not include predominantly Asian and Native American congregations because of their insufficient representation in the NCS.…”

“…Fourth, the analysis of participation patterns among congregational subpopulations does not include non-Christian congregations nor ethnoracially diverse congregations 8 . The relatively small percentages of non-Christian congregations in the U.S., and subsequently in the NCS, inhibits analytical precision, and combining all of the congregations from non-Christian traditions into one category would obscure any differences that exist between those traditions.…”

“…Over the past three decades scholars have conducted extensive research on congregation-based service provision [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. These studies indicate that most congregations participate in some type of service-related activity, and the most common activities involve meeting people's immediate needs for food, healthcare, clothing, and shelter.…”

An Investigation of Religious Support of Public and Private Agencies in One Community in an Era of Retrenchment

“…The same claim is legitimate for social service agencies in local social service systems as well (Flynn, 1992). The resulting interactions between congregations and agencies, particularly during the Reagan and Bush era, changed the relationships between congregations and agencies (Wineburg, 1994).…”

Ties that Bind: The Impact of Religious Affiliation on Cooperation and Competition in Small Religious Nonprofit Organizations1

“…Demerath and Schmitt (1993) identified problems that might be encountered when religious organizations become involved in non-religious activities. Others have studied the role of congregations in providing welfare services (Wineburg 1994;Harris 1995b;Harris 1996;Chaves 2001;Farnsley 2001). Th e process of service provision is important, but the blend of service and faith makes evaluation difficult (Cnaan and Milofsky 1997).…”