The Invisible Caring Hand
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The Invisible Caring Hand

American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare

Ram Cnaan

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eBook - ePub

The Invisible Caring Hand

American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare

Ram Cnaan

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About This Book

Popular calls to transform our current welfare system and supplant it with effective and inexpensive faith-based providers are gaining political support and engendering heated debate about the separation of church and state. Yet we lack concrete information from which to anticipate how such initiatives might actually work if adopted.

Despite the assumption that congregations can help many needy people in our society, it remains to be seen how extensive they wish their involvement to be, or if they have the necessary tools to become significant providers in the social service arena. Moreover, how will such practices, which will move faith-based organizations towards professionalization, ultimately affect the spirit of volunteerism now prevalent in America's religious institutions?

We lack sufficient knowledge about congregational life and its ability to play a key role in social service provision. The Invisible Caring Hand attempts to fill that void. Based on in-depth interviews with clergy and lay leaders in 251 congregations nationwide, it reveals the many ways in which congregations are already working, beneath the radar, to care for people in need. This ground-breaking volume will provide much-sought empirical data to social scientists, religious studies scholars, and those involved in the debates over the role of faith-based organizations in faith-based services, as well as to clergy and congregation members themselves.

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Publisher
NYU Press
Year
2002
ISBN
9780814772676
PART II

Congregations Involvement
Empirical Findings

3

The Congregations in Our Study

To represent the religious history of America statistically and geographically is to generalize dangerously and to court disaster openly.
ā€”E. S. Gaustad, Historic Atlas of Religion in America (1962)
Before we discuss the extent and nature of congregational social service delivery, we would like to answer these questions: ā€œWho are these congregations? Are they old or new? Are they large or small? Are they stable in their location or planning to leave?ā€ These and many other questions will help us understand the characteristics of the congregations in our study.
Findings from our study of 251 older and newer congregations in seven cities (Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Mobile, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco) and one small town (Council Grove, Kansas) support the characterization of Americaā€™s congregations at the end of the twentieth century as being participatory congregationsā€”diverse and visible entities found in every community, financed and maintained voluntarily by their willing members. This research builds on our previous study (Cnaan, 1997), which examined the social and community involvement of 111 congregations housed in historic properties.
In the following sections, we document the characteristics of the congregations in our study; demonstrate how the congregations both resemble and differ from one another; and discuss the significance of our findings. It should be emphasized that our study was not fully random, and it is not certain that we represent all forms of congregations.
The congregational characteristics reported in this chapter follow those discussed in the literature along with a few that we thought relevant. Where possible, we compare the characteristics of the congregations in our study to those found in other studies so that the reader may assess its overall representativeness.

Age of Congregation

The 111 congregations in our original sample (see Appendix) were among the oldest in our study. Many were the original tenants of the historic (built before 1940) properties in which they were housed. To address the potential bias of congregational age, we included more recently established congregations in our expanded study.
The date of establishment for the congregations in the study ranged from 1677 to 1997. Of these, 57.2 percent were established before 1940, 17.6 percent between 1941 and 1960, and 25.2 percent after 1961. The mean age of the congregation was 82.3 years. These numbers are very similar to the national norm. Dudley and Roozen (2001), in a survey of 14,301 congregations that belong to twenty-six different denominations, found that 53 percent were established before 1945. They also found that 39 percent of the congregations in their sample were established after 1965. In other words, we encountered more congregations that were established between 1940 and 1960 than their sample indicates. We argue that older congregations are more likely to be mainline congregations with sizable endowments and with members who are more oriented to ā€œthis worldā€ than are members of younger congregations, especially those established after 1960, in which baby boomers are more likely to be members. Indeed, Dudley and Roozen found that the greatest growth in congregations after 1945 came among evangelical Protestants and in Mormon and Muslim congregations. Younger congregations are said to be more concerned with preparing people for the other world and focus on salvation, rather than on helping people in this world. As shown in chapter 6, this was not the case in our sample.
In New York and in Council Grove, all the congregations were established before 1940. It is important to note that the data for New York are somewhat biased, since they came only from the first phase of our study (that of congregations housed in historic properties). In the case of Council Grove, there have been no major changes in population, and thus the congregations that were examined in the first phase of the study are still in operation. However, as is shown in chapter 8, the inter- and intradynamic of congregations is quite active. Among congregations in Houston, Mobile, and Philadelphia, 40 percent were established before 1940. Among congregations in Philadelphia, 46 percent were established after 1961.

Years at Current Location

Of the 251 congregations in the study, only three had no permanent location. For the other 248 congregations, length of time at the current location ranged from six months to 234 years. The mean length of time was fifty-six years. As in the previous section, we found that this mean was influenced by the historic congregations that have been stationary for more than two hundred years.
Only thirty congregations (12 percent) reported that they were planning to relocate. Ten of these congregations reported that their mission required them to remain in an urban area and that they were looking for new space in the same neighborhood. The reason most often given for relocation was the need for additional space, to accommodate either increased membership or increased service provision. Three congregations, however, planned to relocate to a smaller facility. Thirty-four congregations (13.5 percent) reported that they shared space with other congregations. There was little overlap between congregations planning to relocate and those sharing space with another congregation.
With respect to location, we found that the deliberate choice to maintain the property in its current location, coupled with the fact that members, many of whom no longer live in the neighborhood, but are highly concerned with and rooted in the community, makes the religious congregation a natural leader or partner for local coalitions and initiatives. In many ways, the location becomes synonymous with the ties that members have to the congregation and to one another. Once bonded around the congregational property, members feel obliged and related to the local neighborhood and its needs.
Gardner (1994) emphasizes the importance of shared values in regenerating a community at a time when increased mobility erodes the ties that bind people. As places where people who share certain religious and social values come together, congregations help build a sense of community. They also build community by providing services and serving as intermediary structures that link families, neighborhoods, and the government.

Membership

Defining who is a member of a congregation is not an easy task. Bonomi and Eisenstadt (1982), for example, define members as attenders and their children. Many congregations, however, distinguish between communicant members (those who receive communion) and attenders (those who attend services but do not receive communion). Some congregations consider children of members to be part of the membership, while others do not consider them eligible for membership until they become adults. Thus, the issue of measuring membership is not as simple as one would expect because not all attenders are members and not all members attend. Furthermore, unlike clubs where one buys membership, in most congregations people do not pay membership dues (with the notable exception of Jewish synagogues) and are free to come and go as they please. It is also methodologically difficult to account to the people who attend and support the congregation only during major holidays.
For purposes of our study, we used four measures to assess membership. We consistently included children in the membership count, even if the specific congregation did not. We asked the interviewee to count all individuals, including children, in the four categories.
First, we asked each congregation to report its total membership, which we defined as ā€œall those on your mailing listā€ or ā€œon your rolls.ā€ Since this is a broad membership measure, it likely includes people who no longer attend services but who maintain some type of relationship with the congregation, as well as those who attend only during major holidays. It is interesting to note that only one congregation reported eliminating from its mailing list those who did not attend services at least once a year. Although this measure may inflate the number of members, it is indicative of the social network of the congregation. Findings for total membership ranged from a low of nine members to a high of 104,000 members. The mean for total membership was 1,235 members.
Second, we asked each congregation to report the total number of active members, which we defined as those who attend services at least once a month and are known to the clergy and lay leaders. In this category we intended to count those who meet the religious membership criteria, can be trusted to come on a regular basis, and support the congregation. Findings for active members ranged from a low of five members to a high of 14,000 (the latter was not the same congregation that reported total membership of 104,000). The mean for active members was 492 members.
Third, we asked each congregation to report the number of active non-members, which we defined as those who attend services at least once a month but who do not meet the religious requirements for membership. This group includes spouses and/or friends of members, neighbors, and others who take part in the worship but either do not wish to join or are unwilling to break ties with their own congregation. One congregation reported 6,000 active nonmembers, while twenty-six congregations (10.4 percent) reported none. The mean for active nonmembers was eighty-seven. Together, the measures for active members and for nonmembers indicate that the congregations in our study have, on average, 579 individuals who attend at least once a month. However, this number is skewed by the significant differences in size between the very small and the very large congregations in the study. In fact, 25.3 percent of the congregations reported membership of fewer than 100 individuals.
Finally, we asked each congregation to report average attendance at nonholiday services. This number fluctuated for congregations that required weekly attendance and for those that were less prescriptive. Findings ranged from a low of five to a high of 7,000. The mean for average attendance at nonholiday services was 387.
None of these measures alone can provide an accurate and reliable tally of congregational membership, but, in combination, they provide a more detailed overview of membership size. What the numbers also show, however, is the wide disparity in congregational size, another indication of the wide diversity among American congregations.
The measure we elected to use in this book is the total number of active attenders: members and nonmembers. Our rationale is that this number most closely reflects the number of people who regularly attend services and upon whom the congregation can rely. As seen in Table 3ā€“1, more than a third of congregations in Mobile, Houston, and Chicago have more than 500 active attenders. In contrast, half of the congregations in Philadelphia and in Council Grove have fewer than 200 active attenders. However, these differences are not statistically significant.
When asked if membership had increased, stabilized, or declined during the three-year period before the interview took place, 55.2 percent reported an increase, 32.3 percent reported no change, and 12.5 percent reported a decline in membership. There were no significant differences among the cities we studied. Hodgkinson and Weitzman (1993) found in their study that 58.2 percent of congregations reported an increased in membership in the past three years, 22.8 percent reported no change, and 18.1 percent reported a decrease, while the rest (0.9 percent) could not answer the question. Given the difference in study methods and time of study, especially the number of congregations reporting an increase in membership, these findings are quite similar to ours. Even closer to our findings are those by Dudley and Roozen (2001), who found that 51 percent of the congregations they studied reported an increase in the previous five years, 31 percent plateaued, and 19 percent declined.
TABLE 3ā€“1
Congregational Active Membership by City
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Congregational Workforce

The work of most congregations is carried out by clergy (paid or unpaid), paid staff, and a cadre of volunteers. Hodgkinson and Weitzman (1993), of the Independent Sector, in their study of the congregational workforce, categorized congregational size as small (fewer than 100 members), medium (100ā€“399 members) and large (more than 400 members). They found a strong association between size and the number of paid staff. They reported that, although 88 percent of respondents overall reported at least one full-time paid clergy, this percentage varied by size of the congregation. For small congregations, it was 70 percent. For medium-size congregations, it was 90 percent. For large congregations, it was 97 percent. A much more dramatic finding was that 53 percent of large congregations had two or more full-time paid clergy, compared with 8 percent for medium-size congregations and 4 percent for small congregations. Similarly, 64 percent of large congregations had at least one paid full-time non-clergy employee, compared with 20 percent for medium-size congregations and 4 percent for small congregations. Hodgkinson and Weitzman also found that volunteers made up 89 percent of the congregational workforce.
Clergy: Of the 251 congregations in our study, forty-nine (20 percent) had no full-time clergy. For some of these congregations, it was a temporary situation; for others, this was a matter of regular practice. The overwhelming majority of these congregations, however, reported that their clergy ministered to the congregation on only a part-time basis and worked at other jobs to support themselves. As Bartkowski and Regis (1999) noted, these clergy are generally paid only a small honorarium. This is typically the case in congregations with limited financial resources, and their clergy are known as bivocational clergy. More than half of the congregations (51 percent) reported only one full-time clergy, the model usually associated with the popular concept of a congregation as a one-clergy sacred property. Finally, seventy-three congregations (29 percent) reported more than one full-time clergy. These were the affluent and, often, larger congregations. It is interesting to note that, although the number of full-time clergy is significantly correlated with membership size, it is even more strongly associated with the size of the congregational budget.
Paid staff: The congregations in our study had an average of 5.2 full-time employees and 3.8 part-time employees (including clergy). However, fifteen congregations (6 percent) had no staff; nine had only one part-time employee, namely the clergy; and twenty had only one full-time employee. For purposes of analysis, we counted two part-time employees as the equivalent of one full-time paid position. By this, we assumed that one part-time position averaged one half-time position, an assumption that we could not study on the basis of our data. According to this method, the number of paid positions ranged from none to ninety-five. The congregation with ninety-five employees is exceptional and supports its own day school and elementary school. The mean number of paid positions was 7.1. Again, the mean is misleading. Three congregations reported at least fifty or more paid positions, while eighteen reported at least twenty or more paid positions. In most cases, these are congregations with schools or large day care centers owned and run by the congregation. When we excluded these congregations from the analysis, the mean number of fulltime paid positions dropped to 4.6. In other words, 8 percent of the congregations accounted for a third of the full-time positions.
On average, each congregation employed the equivalent of 1.4 full-time employees as an administrator or secretary. The mean, however, is biased, since one congregation reported ten administrators; another reported fifteen secretaries. Seventy-five congregations (29.9 percent) had no full-time administrative or secretarial positions, while twenty congregations (8 percent) reported more than five such positions. Similarly, on average, each congregation employed the equivalent of 1.05 full-time employees as a maintenance worker or janitor and the equivalent of 0.25 full-time employees as a bookkeeper or treasurer. In most congregations, volunteers performed these services. In some instances, a CPA was hired to audit the annual budget. Other positions, such as program directors, music professionals, teachers, and ministry leaders, were employed at the equivalent of 2.81 full-time positions on average per congregation.
Volunteers as alternative staff: Congregations are known for using volunteers to carry out tasks that in other organizations would be handled by paid staff. However, only eleven congregations (4.3 percent) reported using full-time volunteers as administrators/secretaries. Of these, three reported using more than one full-time volunteer. Five congregations (1.9 percent) used full-time volunteers as maintenance workers/janitors, and eight congregations (3.1 percent) used full-time volunteers as bookkeepers/accountants. Twenty congregations (7.9 percent) used full-time volunteers as directors and organizers of social and religious programs.
The picture changes dramatically with regard to part-time volunteers. Seventy-six congregations (30.2 percent) reported using part-time volunteers as administrators/secretaries. Although these are generally small congregations with low annual budgets, several large congregations reported using three or more part-time volunteers to carry out these tasks. Fifty-one congregations (20.3 percent) used part-time volunteers as maintenance workers/janitors. Eighty congregations (31.9 percent) used volunteers as part-time bookkeepers or accountants. Finally, ninety-seven congregations (38.6 percent) used part-time volunteers as directors and organizers of social and religious programs.
On average, congregations used 3.2 volunteers to carry out tasks at all levels from leadership to maintenance. Once again, the mean is biased. One hundred and one congregations (40.2 percent) reported no volunteer staff, while twenty-five congregations (9.9 percent) reported the equivalent of between ten and forty-one positions filled by volunteers. There was no significant correlation between number of paid positions and number of volunteer positions. In other words, poor and small congregations do not compensate for their lack of financial resources by using more volunteers, and large congregations do not consistently utilize more volunteers, even though they have greater resources, such as members and money, at their disposal. The picture that emerges is one of diversity and singularity. Some congregations have either paid staff or volunteer staff, some have none, and others have both.

Sociodemographic Characteristics of Members

Membership size is not the only indicator of the congregationā€™s stability and ability to provide social services. Membersā€™ age, marital status, income, and ethnicity also may have a bearing on the congregationā€™s involvement in social service provision. Given that congregational affiliation is a choice for many people today, we expected to find that congregations develop distinct profiles that indicate that p...

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