The emergence of nondenominational media productions online points to the importance of expanding your sense of what constitutes your congregation’s ecology. It also challenges congregational leaders to think about the culture of their congregation. These are new communities longing for connection, who don’t fit existing patterns of gathering. What might these two innovations tell you?…
The latest Pew Religious Landscape Survey is full of interesting insights into changes occurring in American religion. As I look at these survey results, here are a few of the things I’ve noted. On most measures of religiosity (prayer, attendance, belief, etc.), those who are in the “affiliated” camp are just as observant and believing…
How does a congregation make time and space for the disabilities and differences of those who constitute it? How does it claim those differences as vital to its forms of knowing and loving God rather than disruptive to its unity? Such questions animate my encounter with Holy Family Episcopal Church[1], a parish in which a…
The New York Times posted an article about the changing sources of income for some synagogues. Rather than requiring membership dues based on family size, age, or income, some synagogues are now asking people to voluntarily pledge money to the congregation. How congregations bring in money is an important conversation in most religious communities. But…
This is the first post in a series by the Congregational Studies Visual Methods Fellow, Roman R. Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Calvin College. He is an expert in visual research methodology, and his current research looks at ways in which local congregations can use visual research methods…