The National Congregations Study: Background, Methods, and Selected Results

Abstract

The Nation4l Congregations Study (NCS) was ";ndUcted in~njunclion~ith the 1998 Ge~ral~~ial Survey (GSS). The 1998 GSS as/ud respondenl8 woo altend religious. s~rvr.ces 10 na~the" rel,lI'ous congregation, thus generating a nationally representative sampk of rel'gwUB congregat'o~.. Data about these congregaRoIUI wen collecud uia a one-hour interuuw with. OM key znformanta ffll1Uster. pru:st. rabbi, or other staff person or kcukrfrom 1236 congregations. Information w~g ather:d aJJ:>utmul~pk aspecl8 of congregations' social composition, structure, activities, and program":,ng: This .artr.c~de8C~S NCS methodology and presen18 sekcted uniuariote resull8 in four.areas: deTlOrmnat,onalttes, sue, politioal activilie.. and worship practices. i Congregations-the relatively small-scale,l~cal collectiviti~s~d Organiz~tions~~d through which people engage in religious activityare a basic umt~f Amencan~h~ous life. They are the primary site of religious ritual activity, they proVIde an orgamzational model followed even by religious groups new to this country, they provide sociability and community for many, they offer opportunities for political action and volu.ntarism: they foster religious identities through education and practice, and they engage m a vanety of community and social service activities (Warner 1994;, Wuthn~w 1991; V~rba et al. .1~~5; Hodgkinson and Weitzman 1992). This list does not exhaust either the kinds of acti'?~es conducted inside congregations or the ways in which cpngregations relate to commumties. Perhaps it is sufficient, however, to make a prima facie case that congregations~a significant organizational population whose internal features and extex:nal re~ations warrant close attention in their own right. Congregations also represent nch SOCIaland organizational~ttings in which a wide array of sociological questions may fruitfully be addressed.. .. Sociologists have, of course, long recognized congregations' significance as an orgamzational population and their potential as a research site. Although the study of congregations as units of analysis began, in the remarkable work of H. Paul Douglass and Edmund deS, Brunner, by combining case studies .with surveys of large numbers of congregations in a variety of denominations (see, for exanlple, Douglass and deS. Brunner

Black Church Culture and Community Action

“…Chaves et al (1999) discuss the validity and reliability of relying on a single key informant to report church characteristics. Such persons are likely to over-estimate the extent to which their views correspond to their congregation's views.…”

The Negative Relationship between Size and the Probability of Weekly Attendance in Churches in the United States

“…The GSS is a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized adult population in the United States. If a GSS respondent indicates he or she attends religious services once a year or more, the GSS asks for the name of the congregation, which then forms a nationally representative sample of congregations (Chaves 2007;Chaves et al 1999). The NCS was conducted in 1998, 2006, and 2012 and gathered a representative snapshot of congregations in the United States by interviewing a key informant from the congregation nominated in the GSS, most often the senior pastor.…”

The Relationship Between Labor Market Structure and Clergy Compensation in Protestant Denominations

“…(Chaves et al 1999) To generate the pastoral leaders sample, all persons who indicated they attended religious services were extracted from the random sample of individuals who participated in the 1998 General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). These church attendees were then asked to provide information on the religious organization to which they belonged.…”