With this website, we explore why and how they do. No matter what form the gathering takes—a parish, synagogue, mosque, temple, prayer circle, etc.—these are transformational human communities with religious and spiritual purposes. Whether your aim is to understand them or to lead them, learning to see these communities in all their human joy and messiness is essential. So we invite you to understand, to explore and to engage.
This website builds on two generations of insight by scholars & leaders who have developed ways of thinking about congregations. We call them “frames” because by seeing through the lens of ecology, theology, culture, resources, and processes of a gathering, we move toward deeper understanding.
Experts in the social sciences, theology, and ritual studies have great insight into these transformational communities. Return often for new observations from the field, search our archives for articles that answer your questions, and explore our searchable bibliographic database to start your reading list.
It’s true that many congregations have more senior adults than the population around them might predict. Indeed, a quarter of all congregations are more than half retirement age or older. Both members and leaders in such congregations may look at their aging membership and think they are doomed. But are they? While there are…
