The churches and well-being: perspectives from the Australian National Church Life Survey

Abstract

Australia is a nation with high levels of recorded well-being. This paper introduces a collection of papers which are concerned with the intersections between well-being and religion in an Australian context. The research is conducted on a religious population, namely Christian church attenders and local church leaders (both clergy and lay) in congregations in the Australian National Church Life Surveys (NCLS), perhaps the largest database on church life in the world. The NCLS covers more than 20 Protestant and Catholic denominations. Each survey wave has collected responses from hundreds of thousands of individual church attenders in thousands of local churches. To frame the research, we define subjective wellbeing as an aspect of mental health and establish the positive relationship that has been found with religion. Some features of the Australian cultural context are also provided as background. The paper then offers a brief synopsis of articles in the collection. They include a methodological overview, and studies of links between volunteering, psychological type, religious orientation and well-being, as well as work engagement among clergy.

voice of the congregation – a significant voice to listen to

“…Congregations where "… higher percentages of attenders always feel inspired are also more likely to be growing churches." (Powell et al, 2012). In comparing the responses of the attenders who always or usually find the worship inspiring (see Figure 1) it can be seen that there was an improvement from 2010 to 2014.…”

“…The core elements are an important part of the congregational voice as the different elements have a cumulative effect, "… on its own has only a small impact, but together their effect is substantial" (Powell et al 2012).…”

Quest-religious orientation among church leaders in Australia: A function of psychological predisposition or openness to mystical experience?

“…The Australian National Church Life Survey is now a well-established instrument for assessing congregational opinions and attitudes across a wide range of Christian denominations (see http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=7086). Surveys were conducted in 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011, and the findings have been widely disseminated (Bellamy et al, 2006; Kaldor, Bellamy, Correy, & Powell, 1992; Kaldor et al, 1995; Kaldor, Bellamy, Powell, Hughes, & Castle, 1997; Kaldor, Bellamy, Powell, Castle, & Hughes, 1999; Kaldor, Dixon, et al, 1999; Kaldor & McLean, 2009; Pepper, Sterland, & Powell, 2015; Powell et al, 2012; Powell & Robbins, 2015).…”

“…Additionally, age, sex, education level and denominational groups will be employed as further control variables. (Kaldor, Bellamy, Correy, & Powell, 1992;Kaldor, Bellamy, Moore, Powell, Castle, & Correy, 1995;Kaldor, Bellamy, Powell, Hughes, & Castle, 1997;Kaldor, Bellamy, Powell, Castle, & Hughes, 1999;Kaldor, Dixon, Powell, Bellamy, Hughes, Moore, & Dalziel, 1999;Bellamy, Cussen, Sterland, Castle, Powell, & Kaldor, 2006;Kaldor & McLean, 2009;Powell, Bellamy, Sterland, Jacka, Pepper, & Brady, 2012;Pepper, Sterland, & Powell, 2015;Powell & Robbins, 2015).…”

Factors Affecting Australian Catholics’ Return to Mass After COVID-19 Church Closures

“…Prior to COVID-19, Dunne et al (1997) found in a sample of 1631 adult Australian churchgoing Catholics that frequent church attendance was related to lower neuroticism and psychoticism scores with a modest effect size. The National Church Life Survey's 2011 data set generated several studies of adult churchgoing Christians and psychological wellbeing in Australia, including some Catholic data, but found few differences between Catholics and Protestants (Francis et al, 2016;Powell & Pepper, 2015;Powell & Robbins, 2015).…”