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Churches inside and out
Christian Century, Nov 30, 2004 by Carol E. Lytch
Congregations in America. By Mark Chaves. Harvard University Press, 304 pp., $29.95.
Beyond the Ordinary: 10 Strengths of U.S. Congregations. By Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce. Westminster John Knox, 160 pp., $14.95 paperback.
Outside my office door are boxes of free books and journals left behind by a recently retired professor. The two books reviewed here are unlikely to land in such a pile, as each makes a classic as well as timely contribution to our understanding of American religious organizations. Sociologists Mark Chaves, Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce take commonly held assumptions about congregations, test them empirically and revise the way we think about them.
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Chaves argues that "the most significant activities and contributions of congregations to American society are cultural in a way that is not sufficiently appreciated by many." Congregations are primarily occupied with the transmission of religious meaning, and they facilitate a surprising amount of artistic activity as a by-product. Like it or not, churches "do not mainly pursue charity or justice through social services or politics."
This finding is timely in an election year in which faith-based initiatives and the Charitable Choice movement have been contested issues. In a national survey of churches, mosques, temples and other religious groups, Chaves finds that the median amount spent on social services by those congregations active in providing such services is approximately $1,200, or less than 3 percent of the congregation's budget. Larger congregations with more resources provide more social services, as do congregations in poor neighborhoods, especially if they have college-educated members. The typical congregation active in providing social services is a downtown congregation whose members live in middle-class suburbs. Moderate and liberal Protestants, Catholics and Jews provide more social services than do conservative Protestants. Race is not a significant factor. Staff rather than volunteers typically drive this work. While the whole congregation may identify with the work, relatively few members give their time to it.
Further, congregations tend to address short-term immediate needs. There is no reason to believe they are better than government agencies at forging holistic relationships with those in need.
Liberal congregations collaborate with social service organizations in programs providing food, shelter and clothing. African-American congregations closely collaborate with secular agencies to provide mentoring, substance abuse prevention, job training or employment assistance programs. Conservative Protestants, who provide fewer social services than other congregations, tend to work independently.
Chaves's notable conclusion is that "congregation-based social services do not present us with a meaningful alternative to the services already provided by our community welfare systems." Moreover, "congregations" social service agencies depend on collaborations with secular and government agencies."
Chaves's research leads to surprising revelations about religious groups' engagement in politics. He finds that white moderate and liberal congregations do not engage in more political activities than congregations of other traditions. The high level of activism that characterized their clergy in earlier decades is no longer in evidence. While these groups are significantly more likely than other congregations to hold classes about other religions and to engage in "bridging activities" with their communities, their activities are rarely political. Catholic and African-American Protestants outpace both liberal and conservative white Protestants in this area. Catholics are most likely to lobby elected officials and organize demonstrations and marches. African-Americans tend to sponsor voter registration drives and ask candidates and politicians to make speeches. White conservative Protestants and evangelicals distribute voter guides as their main political activity.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of Chaves's book is his discussion of worship, the arts and culture, which he finds to be the primary work of congregations. In a highly nuanced analysis, Chaves explains why certain theological traditions select particular worship elements (such as the use of incense) and not others (such as jumping and speaking in tongues) from the 29 possibilities he lists. He notes patterns by class and age and constructs a model mapping out traditions along two axes: "ceremony" and "enthusiasm." The change in collective religious practices over time is explained not so much by Max Weber's routinization-of-charisma argument as by an ecological interpretation. New religious traditions choose their worship practices in relation to what already exists in the religious environment. Change is relatively small and slow. Newer traditions tend to be low on ceremony and high on enthusiasm. There is an increasing preference for informality in conjunction with worship forms that endure.
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