Congregations and other religious organizations are an important part of the social welfare system in the United States. This article uses data from the 2012 National Congregations Study to describe key features of congregational involvement in socia...
This article explores the attributes and religious, social and political activities of local religious groups in three Italian cities across all religious traditions. This is the first application of Congregations Study methodology in Italy to analyz...
As shown by sociological studies, the Catholic Church in Italy is very active in conducting advocacy and providing political representation to immigrants. It is also highly effective in carrying out services for immigrants, as well as fairly receptiv...
This study set out to conceptualise and measure Charismatic orientation (openness to charismatic experience) and traditional Catholic orientation (Catholic identity) among a sample of 670 Catholic churchgoers in order to test whether attachment to Ca...
Patriarchy has long structured Christian life and practice. In many Baptist settings, even formal affirmations of women in leadership leave a gap between stated commitments and women’s lived experience. This study investigates how Baptist congr...
This paper investigates occupational gender inequality among head clergy in U.S. religious congregations. Prior research emphasized the stratification of the clergy occupational structure and the under-representation of women in head clergy positions...
Proclamation of the gospel is a perennial practice of congregational leadership demanding responsiveness to issues, trends, and events impacting congregations, their local and regional communities, and the challenges of the world. How do congregation...
This paper advances the global study of religiosity by conducting a systematic review of the geographic scope, religious traditions, levels of analysis, and topics investigated within contemporary scientific studies of religion, paying particular att...
This case study reflects the congregational practices of members and staff within a congregation in the southwest of the United States which self-identifies as a congregation within the Christian tradition. The congregation has completed processes an...
Given their stability, their ability to influence public attitudes and capacity to mobilise human resources, it seems likely that many faith communities can have a significant impact on the wellbeing of people living with dementia (PLWD) and their ca...
When congregations seek to address social needs, they often pursue this goal through acts of service and political engagement. Over the past three decades, a tremendous amount of research has been dedicated to analyzing congregation-based service pro...
This article explores different ways that preachers and congregations have used the sermon-dialogue-sermon process to address social issues in their churches and engage their local community. I begin with a brief review of the homiletic theory behind...
This study aims to analyze, through religious hymns in the German-speaking area from the early 18th century, the influence that the Pietist theological movement, starting from Philipp Jacob Spener’s Pia Desideria, had on the centralization of t...
In the last twenty years the Baptist, Methodist, and Waldensian churches in Italy have experienced an important season of migrations, mainly from South America, South-east Asia, and West Africa. This has led to a problem of sharing and mutual influen...
What happens to a worship song as it crosses geographical, cultural, and theological borders? How does this reallocation modify the role a song performs—and is performed—in context? This essay examines how religious songs that flow along transnationa...
The present study aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the possibility of conceptualizing a religious diaspora. It proposes a new way of defining it, namely in relation to religious and not to ethno-territorial realities, but without editin...
The focus of this research was on ways in which Christian congregations can address the concept of forgiveness when caring for victims of sexual abuse, and to make suggestions for a restitution mass as a possible way for congregations to work with th...
In the midst of penning this editorial, I was also working on an encyclopedic article on religious leadership that attempted to distinguish between societal understandings of “religion” and “spirituality [...]
Research suggests that congregational characteristics are associated with the racial attitudes of American churchgoers. This study examines the relationship between congregational size and beliefs about the Black/White socioeconomic gap among religio...
Following the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, many congregational leaders had to scramble to set up streaming or recording systems in order to continue their worship services without putting congregants at risk, but some congregations had already se...
A sociological study of religious authority and gender in the context of a rural, impoverished community was conducted in African American churches in one county of the Arkansas Lower Mississippi Delta region to understand relationships between relig...
The sociological study of youth religion is a growing field of research. This essay focuses on the rising number of young Korean adult believers from five downtown religious congregations in Seoul who are leaving their congregations due to increased...
Clergy wives often face high congregational expectations that impact their psychological well-being. This study investigates the impact of perceived congregational perfectionism on the psychological well-being of 215 Asian clergy wives and explores t...
The growing diversity of U.S. communities has led scholars to explore how racial/ethnic diversity effects social capital, civic engagement, and social trust. Less is known about the relationship between diversity and the work of community-based organ...
Questions of finance and economic models are vital for congregational leaders to consider, but they are too often overlooked in research and practice. While we argue that the explicit attention to budgets and balance sheets should be a focus of both...
The Religious Workforce Project is a Lilly Endowment-funded effort to map the nation’s changing Christian religious landscape. A quantitative component identifies broad US trends, while our qualitative work focuses on Christian congregations in...
This paper examines how megachurch congregations in South Korea responded to governmental measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of religious governance. This empirical study of Saeronam Church (SC) in Daejeon shows that the unexpected cr...
Many religious congregations in the United States have adapted to COVID-19 lockdowns by offering religious services online. This study aims to understand whether congregants from a diverse set of faith traditions expect to attend online or in-person...
Mental illness and stigma are key concerns in congregations and represent important threats to community health. Clergies are considered influential in how congregants think about and respond to mental health issues, especially in African American co...
Background: Children can be removed from their home if allegations of abuse or neglect are substantiated. The preference is to place them with family members. In the most extreme cases, a child may be placed in a congregate care setting. A child with...
Previous studies have found that religion and spirituality (R/S) are related to less suicidal ideation (SI), fewer suicide attempts and fewer suicide deaths and that an absence of social support is associated with SI, suicide attempts, and suicide de...
The field of congregational health research is missing a relational approach to the member–congregation connection. We developed and tested a questionnaire that evaluates the perception of church health factors in statements that stay close to...
Congregational care strengthens relationships and supports spiritual growth. This article establishes groundwork for developing congregational care at First Baptist in Edmonton (FBC) by introducing a spiritual needs approach to engage people in conve...
A growing body of literature explores how religious congregations shape attitudes toward mental health in racial/ethnic minority communities. Such research has primarily focused on the views of Black clergy and congregants, limiting our ability to un...
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Religion can have a favorable impact on individual-level health. The influence of religion on population health, however, remains less clear. This study investigated the association between religion and mortality at the population-level. Using county...
Beginning with Kelley’s and Iannaccone’s foundational studies, scholars have examined how strictness impacts congregational outcomes. This paper seeks to further develop the strict church thesis by examining Iannaccone’s concept of “optimal level of...
Historically, the language of Protestant congregational song in the Philippines was English, which was tied to that nation’s twentieth-century colonial history with the United States. The development of Filipino songs since the 1970s is linked to thi...
In light of increased scholarly interest in the scientific study of non-Christian religions and societies, I review sociological research on Hinduism. Specifically, I focus on Hindu congregational forms, a phenomenon noted in social scientific litera...
This article presents an introductory historical, sociolinguistic, and ethnographic study of “Wazobia gospel music”, a twenty-first-century Nigerian congregational musical genre. The term ‘Wazobia’ signifies a fusion of the th...
Utilizing data from 326 cases of alleged child sexual abuse that occurred at or through activities provided by Protestant Christian congregations, this study examines demographic and contextual characteristics of alleged child sexual abuse that took...
Congregational leaders in the US must navigate a political landscape marked by increasing political polarization and a notable rise in support for ideas aligned with Christian nationalism. While gender, race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation have...
It is imperative to understand possible protections against suicide because of the steadily climbing U.S. suicide rate. Religion has been associated with fewer suicidal behaviors. This study sought to explore the perspective of congregants experienci...
From young children to elders in the community, the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence is indiscriminate of age, ability, gender, culture, or status. Many communities continue to wrestle with the pastoral and practical implications of welcoming...
The purpose of this study was to determine health-related characteristics of a representative sample of older adults who attend congregate meal sites in the United States, and compare races/ethnicities and sexes. Participants were adults, aged 60 yea...
Osteoporosis, a chronic disease that results in low bone mass with an increased risk of fragility fractures, is prevalent in older adults. Diet can prevent or lessen the severity of osteoporosis. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to asses...
Eating congregate/community meals with friends promotes a balanced and healthy diet among older adults. It is helpful for postponing aging, preventing chronic diseases, and improving their quality of life. However, little research has examined the co...
There are no regulations in Taiwan that clearly forbid the current practice of configuring a pipeline that passes through the floor of a condo to reach the ceiling of another condo downstairs with different ownership, giving rise to potential dispute...
Limited studies have empirically investigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among Black clergy and religious leaders despite their status as helping professionals who are implicated in times of crisis. In light of cultural consid...
From the end of the 1980s, when foreign workers poured into Korea, until 1995, when there was a significant increase in international marriages, a multicultural situation has slowly been developing in Korea. However, because the traditional emphasis...
The purpose of this study was to understand counsel given to sexual and gender minority individuals by clergy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (CJCLDS), the impact of that counsel, and individuals’ perceptions of meetings with...
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