Viability of Congregation as a religious indicator

PATRICK E. FONTANE

V I A B I L I T Y O F C O N G R E G A T I O N

AS A R E L I G I O U S I N D I C A T O R *

(Received 28 March, 1974)

ABSTRACT. The search for religious indicators of change narrows to focus upon the individual congregation. The Viability of Congregation (VOC) is an indicator of participation within the association. This indicator finds equal applicability to denominational churches as well as cults and sects. The VOC contains no built-in value bias and is simplified to the degree that laymen may apply and evaluate it. This indicator was tested in three congregations where Shippey's construct of Perceived Effectiveness had also been applied. The VOC consistently elaborates the PE index and offers specific advantages in application as well.

There are few reliable, valid, and cognitively simple indicators of the 'health' of a religious congregation. To the degree that religious activity is considered sociologically significant such indicators are needed. This paper presents an indicator of such a nature, the Viability of Congrega- tion (VOC), which has been applied and found to meet satisfactorily the above criteria.

I. BACKGROUND

Demerath was among the first to establish parameters for religious indicators (1968). His survey of problems associated with selection of benchmarks implicitly questions the applicability of aggregate indicators to the study of religion, Among the better known, but by no means the only difficulties associated with the search for aggregate religious indicators are: (1)overreport ing and non-reporting which create inaccurate statistics, (2) non-comparability of categories of information, and (3) a bias toward institutionalized and formally organized congregations of religious expression.

In 1971 the United Methodist Church established a Task Force on Religious Indicators. Brewer (1973) offers a summation of this effort and briefly reviews several significant directions proposed by the participants.

II. T H E P R O B L E M

The development of religious indicators requires the acceptance of two

Social Indicators Research 1 (1974) 243-255. All Rights Reserved Copyright �9 1974 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland

244 P A T R I C K E. F O N T A N E

assumptions derived from the considerations of Wilson (1972) and Hansen and Bryant (1972).

First, the purposes for utilizing religious indicators of change must be acceptable to most 'experts' - both clergy and lay - at the level of evaluation. This assumption identifies responsibility for assigning directional values to indicators with those persons legitimately qualified to respond to such information in policy-making roles. The indicators must not stand alone as value constructs.

Second, laymen not active at the policy-making level must understand the purposes of such policies (programs) monitored by these indicators and must view them as desirable, since implementation will be left to them.

Social indicators of change are longitudinal expressions of change in consequential variables of planned programs (Bauer, 1966). For this reason, the idea of reciprocal statistics as indicators is especially intri- guing. 1

In the area of religious indicators, reciprocal trends are especially important given the lack of generally accepted standards of value (such as production units). All religious indicators must permit evaluation of reversals as well as advances in the conditions they monitor. Thus, the number of 'converts' would be an incomplete religious indicator, unless the number of defectors was also presented. In this manner it is possible to identify and subsequently evaluate a religious congregation of diminishing size which maintained a constant, or increasing, number of converts as a congregation transfusing its membership.

The search for religious indicators must concentrate on the level at which a member expresses his attachment to the socially constructed belief structure. This is the 'religious congregation' (cf. Wilson, 1972). The construct of a religious congregation must be broad enough to include associations whose (explicit or implicit) charter grants them functions of expressive behavior regarding a common construction of ultimate reality. Specifically, the construct of a congregation must include cults and sects as well as denominational or 'institutionalized' religious bodies.

Emphasizing the individual congregation encourages standardization of comparable aggregate statistics from one congregation to another and from one category of congregation to another. Annual statistical reports are usually compiled with the required information, and they can be

VIABILITY OF CONGREGATION 245

monitored. While comparability and comparison are desirable goals, there are still dangers in generalizing 'local' indicators to denomination or ecological areas.

I I I . THE V I A B I L I T Y OF A C O N G R E G A T I O N

A religious congregation, as a voluntary organization, must rely upon non-coerced, reliable behavior of members to sustain the programs it sponsors (Fontane, 1971 ; 1973). The viability of congregation (VOC) is an important indicator of social change in that it identifies a significant variable of ongoing organization. The VOC - member participation toward maintenance and growth of the congregation - is an indicator of commitment by members to the congregation according to the degree to which they are actively involved in behavior which contributes to meeting community expectations of the particular congregation (whatever they might be). This indicator is obtained by determining the number of active statuses existing in the congregation during a period of time (e.g. the previous year) and the number of participants. The indicator is complete when its reciprocal, non-participants per active status, is ascertained. Thus, the VOC of a religious congregation is simply the number of active statuses per participant in a congregation compared to the number of active statuses per non-participant.

The VOC is an indicator composed of two statistical expressions representing (1) sustained-group participation/non-participation and (2) temporary activities participation/non-participation. Presentation in this format recognizes the qualitative differences of two types of participation, thereby providing evaluators with increased information and flexibility of use.

The VOC may be represented in the format:

Number Active Statuses

Sustained Group 1 Number Participants or IVOC -

Temporary Activity) Number Active Statuses

Number Non-Participants

The number of active statuses per participant is 1.00 or greater. Statistics above this base occur when members occupy more than one


active status. While there is no optimum to which this figure could rise, the higher the number, the greater is the concentration of active statuses within the congregation. No values can occur below 1.00 because there cannot be a greater number of participants than there are active statuses. 2 The reciprocal part of the indicator is a relationship of non-participants to active statuses. An increase in this statistic means that there is a decline in the number of non-participants compared to participants. A decline of this statistic indicates an increase in the number of non-participants (or, similarly in terms of the congregation as a voluntary organization, a decline in active statuses available). The low point on the range of this statistic would approach zero. There is no optimum.

The VOC separates qualitative differences of sustained and temporary participation. This information is valuable to parish planners in that the VOC monitors changes in the pattern of member participation which is necessary for the continuation of a religious congregation. Programs can be planned which will follow the VOC trends, or program alterations can attempt to reverse the trends.

The VOC is especially attractive because it is free of an ideological content which could discriminate against some 'non-denominational' religious groups. Another advantage of VOC to 'non-affiliated' religious groups is that its conceptual simplicity and the ease with which it is compiled encourage its utilization at the individual congregation. Further- more, the indicator is free from any value implications such as 'more means good' or 'less means bad'. Thus, evaluators are able to interpret stability or direction of VOC changes in light of their specific congregation instead of to an abstract, aggregate or otherwise institutionalized and conventionalized value. Finally, the VOC is economical in that information required for its compilation is readily available meaning that historical VOCs can often be obtained and the indicator applied immedi- ately.

IV. A P P L I C A T I O N A N D I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

In an effort to test the validity of the VOC indicator, information gathered for another purpose from three midwestern Episcopal churches was utilized. Data pertinent to the present discussion was gathered via detailed observations in two of these congregations for a period exceeding one year each and review of written records (e.g. newsletters, annual reports

V I A B I L I T Y OF C O N G R E G A T I O N 247

and diocesian records) for all three. All of the rectors were interviewed several times, and where pertinent the previous rector was interviewed.

Trinity congregation (N= 126) 3 was born in 1913 as a mission of the Episcopal Diocese and assumed parish status in 1971. The founding fathers were Hungarian immigrants tired of schisms in the German and Italian (Roman) Catholic church. The majority of the congregation are decendents of the founders. The strong Roman Catholic heritage is consistent with the term 'Anglo-Catholic' which is applied to this congregation by non-member Episcopalians in the area. The church buildings are located approximately one and one-half miles from the business center of the urban area. Originally the mission served people living in the immediate area. Since World War II, however, population shifts have resulted in many younger members moving outside the city limits. Today the parish is on the edge of a Model Cities project and, coincidentally, faces a Black population.

St. Paul's (N= 220) 3 is located in the same city as Trinity church. It was established in 1956 as a mission approximately three miles east of the central business district. The location was chosen to follow the population expansion of the city. St. Paul's was granted church status in 1957. The founders were parishioners of a central city (and diocesian cathedral) congregation who 'volunteered' to support a mission in the eastern part of the city. Most of these founders are still active in the parish. There have been five rectors in the past seven years at St. Paul's for a variety of reasons. The result is that the lay members have developed a well-organized procedure for managing parish affairs.

All Saints (N=462) 4 is located in another city. The first services were held in 1924 in an estate left to the Church. The mission became a parish in 1927. The church was built approximately five miles from the business district at a time when two and three family residences were being built in the area. It has been largely a neighborhood congregation and the average age of members has become older as the younger parishioners move from the area and/or possibly attend other churches. Traditions and oligarchies are strongly evident in this congregation.

Table I identifies several normative characteristics of each congregation which shed light on the differences between them

The perceived effectiveness of each congregation was determined by applying Shippey's (1952) criteria for an effective urban church. 5 These

248 PATRICK E. FONTANE

TABLE I

Normative characteristics of the three congregations*

Trinity St. Paul's All Saints

Lay Governing Committee

Decision-making

Decision to participate in this study

Oligarchic groups

Prerequisite memberships

Parish maintenance

Moderately Very Weak strong strong

Vicar and lay Lay Rector committee committee

Same Rector took Rector agreed request to lay board

Men's group for ushers

Volunteers Volunteers Volunteers (if none, then (if none, then (if none, then vicar) vestry applies rector asks

pressure) certain members)

Required - - All women membership(s) defined as

members of ECW

Paid parishioners None None Few (for service to the parish) (occasional

reimbursement)

High (led by High (new Moderate (none vicar) rector very recently)

responsive)

Innovation of parish re

new programs or groups

* Each cell is the result of observations and recorded materials for the two years previous to this research.

factors compr ise a s t anda rd for compar i son f rom one par i sh to another .

Ind iv idua l ly each i tem is an object ive piece o f in fo rmat ion a b o u t a con-

grega t ion which can be perceived b y non-members . Overall , none o f the

three churches could be categor ized as comple te ly effective in their u rban

c o m m u n i t y (see A p p e n d i x A).

Tr in i ty ' s po in t o f s t rength is in its Chr is t ian ministry. The m a j o r fac tor


here is the rector. The congregation has remained relatively stable in size for the past several years and currently is in a period of membership transition. There is an adequate, although minimal, program of sponsored activities for members. A mix of old and new members participate in the activities. Two important factors impede the perceived effectiveness of this congregation: First are the isolationist traditions which the present congregation must reverse; second is the dependency, formally on the diocese and informally on the Cathedral. The existence of differences in the internal versus external conditions at All Saints and Trinity are almost alike; both warrant a rating of mixed perceived effectiveness. Only the direction of trends would place Trinity 'above' All Saints in a rank order.

St. Paul's satisfied most of the criteria on Shippey's scale. The only exceptions are the character of the ministry, the number of regularly scheduled services, and the place of the congregation as a whole in the community. The first is an unknown, because of the recent arrival of the new priest, and the latter is without a doubt influenced by the lack of a 'church-like' building. With respect to the second point, at no time were mid-week services (aside from the Lenten services) well attended. This may be attributed to the age and occupational involvement of parishioners. Certainly, St. Paul's may be viewed as an effective congregation. The only qualification would be the turn-over of rectors. Still, n o n e of the rectors terminated his duties because of dissatisfaction with the parish.

All Saints Church may be perceived as effective in its community relations. It is fairly well known in the area, largely through the personal contacts of the priest rather than through the efforts of parishioners. The attractive building increases its 'visibility factor'. The congregation has in the past been most generous to the community and denomination with its resources. On the other hand, the parish does suffer from diminishing membership and reduced income. The diminishing number of parish activities available are more in line with the wishes of influential older members. The rector reinforces this situation. Consequently, there is a mixed picture of the effectiveness of All Saints Church: All Saints is perceived effective in its external relations; however, internally, the church is becoming less effective by objective criteria.

To summarize, the ranking of the three congregations in terms of


Shippey's criteria for perceived effectiveness is

St. Paul's - High perceived effectiveness All Saints - Moderate perceived effectiveness Trinity - Moderate to low perceived effectiveness

I f VOC is valid as an indicator, it will be consistent with this ranking. Furthermore, it should elaborate this ranking in terms of the quality of participation.

The VOC indicator for each congregation was derived by identifying as precisely as possible the active statuses and participants in (1) sustained groups and (2) temporary activities in each congregation for the previous year (September through June). Congregation records, especially 'newsletters', were the primary sources of this information. Self-reporting was used as a check. The number of non-participants within each category was determined by subtracting the number of participants from the total congregation. The parish mailing list was treated as the total. Subsequent applications of this procedure should scrutinize such mailing lists. Many congregations have several such lists and the VOC indicator should be based upon the closest approximation to 'members in good standing' as

TABLE II Participation and VOC indicator

Participants Active Interlocking VOC statuses memberships

Sustained groups All Saints

(N = 462) 77 115 St, Paul's

(.N'= 220) 100 123 Trinity

(N= 126) 26 46 Temporary participation

All Saints 71 242 St. Paul's 84 221 Trinity 45 139

34 1.494/ .299

19 1.230/1.025

16 1.769/ .460

3.408/ .619 2.631/1.625 3.089/1.716

One or two temporary events: Trinity, 44 %; St. Paul's, 45 %; All Saints, 60 %. Between five and seven temporary events: Trinity, 6.6~; St. Paul's, 6~; All Saints,

20%. N= mailing list total.


possible. Table II presents this information as well as the VOC indicator for each congregation.

The VOC indicator of sustained group participation is strongest for St. Paul's and weakest in the case of Trinity. This ranking is consistent with the application of Shippey's criteria of perceived effectiveness. In other words, St. Paul's ranks highest of the three congregations in perceived effectiveness, and there are proportionately more active parishioners in sustained groups at St. Paul's and All Saints than at Trinity.

The reciprocal element of VOC sustained group indicator does not remain consistent with the perceived effectiveness evaluation. St. Paul's continues to rank higher than the other two congregations with a com- paratively low proportion of non-participation in sustained activities. However, Trinity has proportionately fewer non-participants than All Saints. It is altogether possible that size of congregation and quantity of sustained groups available would account for this statistic. However, the existence of oligarchic characteristics at All Saints would also explain participation as by social cliques to the exclusion of non-clique members. This interpretation is in accord with the observations regarding internal effectiveness at All Saints mentioned above (p. 249). Further support is provided by the fact that in both categories, sustained and temporary, All Saints has the greatest proportion of non-participants.

Sustained groups have not drawn many participants at Trinity for the past fifteen years. Members do, however, accept responsibilities for specific events. In fact, Trinity has the lowest proportion of non-participants in temporary activities, followed by St. Paul's and All Saints in that order. This mode of participation has undoubtedly been reinforced by the young rector. The situation at Trinity is contrasted with that at All Saints where sixty percent of those active in temporary activities participate in one or two events, contrasted to forty-five percent at the other two congregations. This is reason to suspect that for many members at All Saints their temporary participation is a form of 'tokenism'. Furthermore, twenty percent of the active members at All Saints participate in five to seven different events, contrasted to only six percent at both Trinity and St. Paul's. Again, this is very strong evidence of a concentration of participation among members of the congregation which appears in the VOC indicator but is absent in the Perceived Effectiveness evaluation, e


Members at Trinity and All Saints support their congregation via different modes of participation. St. Paul's appears successful in eliciting participation in both modes. Yet this congregation would probably be the one most likely to produce significant changes were future VOCs provided. Founding parishioners remain the majority at St. Paul's, they maintain personal investment and identification with the parish and its successes. Furthermore, these people have provided for stability of the congregation and have maintained the organization despite a lack of sustained cleric leadership. It would be reasonable to suspect that as new persons join and as the original members leave, the VOC will decline from its present level. A rector remaining with this congregation for several years would also be an important factor. Whether St. Paul's will pass through a period such as the VOC reveals currently exists at All Saints is unknown.

V. S U M M A R Y

The VOC indicator is an especially useful statistic for a religious congregation, because it focuses upon the variable of voluntary participation, which in turn determines the continuation of the association. The indicator concentrates upon specific functions of the association which in the case of the religious association are of crucial importance in understanding current conditions, as well as permitting more accurate forecasting.

The reciprocal feature of the VOC indicator encourages evaluation of both participation and non-participation, as well as either a continuation or reversal of the participation being monitored. Furthermore, simplicity of the indicator takes the 'mystery' out of its application and would encourage its widespread adaptation by individual congregations.

The VOC indicator does not obviate the identification of a specific goal or purpose toward which a congregation should strive; however, it does reduce the methodological importance of such a standard. Finally, the indicator is capable of revealing change(s) in the association, while not imposing any values upon those changes. The meanings of directional changes - obviously beyond the control of the tool - are supplied by those who utilize the indicator.

The VOC indicator is limited in that it is useful at the level of the individual congregation and is virtually without foundation at the national level. Clearly this is the intention of this tool does not solve the prob-

VIABILITY OF CONGREGATION 253

lem of discovering a national religious indicator, which is the goal of some churchmen. Some effort toward this end should be directed toward the creation of an indicator which would combine the VOC and one of national 'religiosity' which would be suitable for more abstract comparisons.

Finally, the VOC indicator is not limited to religious associations. Comparable VOC indicators applied to community groups would provide a comparable reading on participation in these alternative associations. Thus, an estimation of community participation qua religiously oriented participation might be provided.

In conclusion, the VOC indicator is attractive because of its simplicity of application and interpretation, as well as its power to monitor participation responses to programs. Care must be exercised regarding the interpretation of the VOC indicator in that the statistic carries no implication(s) as to the causes for stability or changes. Such explanation requires correct application of accurate knowledge about the congregation in question. One must also recognize the limitations inherent in attempting to apply this indicator to any aggregate above the level of the individual association.

APPENDIX A Application of Shippey's criteria for effective urban church


Size stability Increase Constant Constant (since late 1969) increase decrease

Sunday School (a) Independent grades No No Yes Co) Cause for (a) Space; small Space Space

number of pupils (c) Programmed courses Some Some Yes (d) Selection of materials Mostly assigned Mostly assigned Assigned (e) Limited to denomina- No No Yes

tion materials

Religious services (a) Special services Yes Yes Yes Co) Regular scheduled Yes Yes Yes

services


APPENDIX A (continued)


Activities (a) Youth group No (b) Service group Women only (c) Flexibility of activities Not sufficient

groups (d) Evolution of groups N . a : (e) Parish sponsored events Yes

Financr (a) Support rector (b) Support own activities

(c) Contribution to denomination and community

Yes Yes Women only Women only Definitely yes Generally no

Yes No z Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes On a limited Yes Yes scale Yes Yes Definitely yes

Ministry (a) Rector as spiritual Yes

leader (b) Community activity of Yes

rector (c) Special ministries Vary

Place in the Community (a) Parish known No (b) Sponsor for community No* (c) Community-wide No

activities

Yes Yes

N . a 8

Have been visitations

Yes to some degree Visitations

Sometimes 4 Sometimes No * Yes * No Yes

N.a. = Not applicable * All three congregations have scout troops for neighborhood youngsters. 1 There have not been sufficient number of groups at Trinity to make this item useful. 2 Historically yes, recently no. a Not applicable. Father Rounders is still learning about the community. He has participated in the local hospital building campaign and has made taped broadcasts for the local Council of Churches 'Morning Devotions' on a local radio station. 4 St. Paul's is still located in a converted residence. Of the three congregations studied, it does not have a 'church looking' building. This may influence the responses to this item. All three congregations are located in areas where there are few Episcopalians.

Southampton College of Long Island University

VIABILITY OF C O N G R E G A T I O N 255

N O T E S

* This research was supported in part by Research Grant No. 050-8931-0/1 from the Research Foundation of the State Univ. of New York. I would like to thank Richard G. Sipes for his criticisms and comments on a preliminary draft of this paper. 1 This requirement of reciprocal indicators is all but absent in the seminal literature regarding social indicators. Current usage limits indicators to one longitudinal dimen- sion, e.g. literacy rates (Mushkin, 1973). Certainly an increase in the literacy rate for a population also means a decrease in the illiteracy rate for that same population. However, while illiteracy as an attribute may be declining, the abilities of the literate may also be declining. Thus, indicators of literacy must include the actual level of literacy with a delimited range of literacy. The availability of reciprocal indicators gives evaluators a powerful method to monitor change(s) in the (selected) system, because they provide a concurrent monitoring of contrasting effect.

It should be noted that concern here is upon active statuses, i.e. those statuses actually failed. 'Empty' or unfilled statuses are a problem beyond the concern of this discussion. s This N is an optimal figure based upon the regular mailing lists of each congregation. 4 This Nis an optimal figure based upon the regular mailing lists of each congregation. 5 The seven categories proposed by Shippey are: (1) size stability; (2) Sunday school; (3) religious services; (4) activities; (5) finances; (6) ministry; (7) place in the community. Cf. Fontane (1971, pp. 76-79) for a discussion of the application of Shippey's method. e Perceived Effectiveness does not separate internal health of the congregation from external health although methodologically it includes both forms of information. There is reason to suggest that the Perceived Effectiveness evaluation is actually biased in the direction of sustained group activities. However, a direct test of this assertion has not been made.

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Bauer, Ramond A. (ed.): 1966, Social Indicators, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Brewer, Earl D .C . : 1973, 'Social Indicators and Religious Indicators', Review of

Religious Research 14, 77-90. Demerath, Niel J.: 1968, 'Trends and Anti-Trends in Religious Change', in Eleanor B.

Sheldon and Wilbert E. Moore (eds.), Indicators of Social Change, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, pp. 349-448.

Fontane, Patrick E.: 1971, 'The Variable Nature of Participation in Group Supported Activities Among Members of a Voluntary Association', Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, State Univ. of New York at Buffalo.

Fontane, Patrick E.: 1973, 'Another Look at the Voluntary Association Construct', Unpublished paper.

Hansen, Morris H. and Bryant, Edward C.: 1972, 'National Assessment Design Implications', Unpublished paper, presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meetings.

Mushkin, Selma J.: 1973, 'National Assessment and Social Indicators', U.S. Govern- ment, Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, publication number (OE)-73-I 1111.

Shippey, Frederick A.: 1952, Church Work in the City, New York, Abington-Cokesbury. Wilson, Robert L.: 1972, 'Indicators of Religious Institutions', Unpublished paper,

United Methodist Task Force on Religious Indicators.

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Viability of Congregation as a religious indicator