And the study — the second National Congregations Study, conducted by a research team from Duke University — also found some noticeable demographic changes. On average, both congregations and ministers are graying faster than the society around them; 30 percent of those worshiping in the average congregation are age 60 or older, up from 25 percent in 1998.
The ministers who lead those churches are aging also. Fewer than 4 in 10 (39 percent) congregations now are led by someone under the age of 50. In 1998, when the first National Congregations Survey was done, almost half, 48 percent, of the congregations were led by someone under 50.
The study also concluded that American congregations, on average, are becoming less white and more ethnically diverse. Only 14 percent of those who go to church attend a church that’s all white and non-Hispanic, the study found.
The data from this second National Congregations Study, which was funded in part by the Lilly Endowment, comes from information gathered in 2006 and 2007 from 1,506 U.S. congregations. Those surveyed participated in a 45-minute interview, and their responses give a snapshot of American religious life that can be compared against the first survey, conducted in 1998 — basically allowing change to be measured across eight to nine years.
Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University, was the lead researcher on the project, working with research associate and University of Arizona graduate student Shawna Anderson and others. Chaves has described this as the first study to track change over time in a nationally representative group of congregations.
Here are some more details of what the study found:
Sizes of congregations. Most congregations are small. But most people worship in congregations that are not so small.
Here’s another way to put it. Although there are an increasing number of megachurches in the country, the median congregation still has only 75 to 80 regular participants — no change from the earlier study. But the median person worships in a congregation with 400 regular participants. So while only 10 percent of American congregations have more than 350 regular participants, those congregations include nearly half of those who attend worship.
Church conflict. Only about a quarter of congregations — 26 percent — had experienced some form of tension that caused people to leave. That level of conflict is about what it was in 1998. And, despite the attention that the issue of gay ordination has received over the last decade, only about 2 percent of congregations reported any members leaving because of conflict over that issue.
Areas of little change. The researchers said they expected to find much continuity in the results between the first and second studies, and in many areas, they did. They did not see much change, for example, in the predominance of women in congregations, in the percent of congregations led by women (from 8 to 10 percent overall) or in the extent of political activity in congregations.
About eight out of 10 congregations were involved in some sort of social service activity and 4 percent received government funds.
Use of technology. The biggest change between the two surveys was found in the extent to which congregations were using computers and other forms of technology. For example, the number of congregations having Web sites rose from 17 percent in 1988 to 44 percent in 2006-2007. The number using e-mail as a way to communicate with members jumped from 21 percent in the first survey to 59 percent in the second survey. Those using visual projection equipment in their main worship service rose from 12 percent to 27 percent.
Put another way (which takes into account that more people are attending larger churches), 74 percent of those who attend worship are in congregations with Web sites, 79 percent are in congregations using e-mail, and a third (32 percent) go to congregations that use visual projection equipment in the main worship service.
“Congregations have apparently enthusiastically embraced new information technologies, and this trend raises important questions,” the report states. Among them: does cyber-visibility change the way people evaluate congregations and choose where to worship? How do congregations decide what to emphasize on the Web site, and who does the work? Does the increased visibility make congregations more or less diverse in theology and congregational practice?
Informality of worship. This survey found a trend towards informality in worship. “More worship services contain drums, jumping or shouting or dancing, raising hands in praise,” shouts of “Amen!” and applause, the study reports. Fewer services involve choirs, and fewer people attend services involving a written program.
Most of the increased informality is occurring in Protestant churches, rather than Catholic ones. And the increase in shouting, jumping, and dancing is concentrated in African American churches.
Diversity. Recent immigration to the United States has made an impact on congregations. For the most part, predominantly white congregations are more diverse than they were in the last survey. “The number of people in congregations with no Latinos, for example, decreased from 43 percent in 1998 to 36 percent in 2006-2007,” the report states. “The number with no Asians decreased from 59 percent to 50 percent. Looking at this phenomenon another way, the number of people in completely white and non-Hispanic congregations decreased from 20 percent in 1998 to 14 percent in 2006-07. Beyond immigrant congregations, recent immigration has created at least some ethnic diversity within a larger number of predominantly white congregations.”
Changes can be seen too in the neighborhoods in which congregations are located. The number of people whose congregations are located in census tracts in which at least 5 percent of the residents are Hispanic rose from 29 percent to 40 percent. The number of people whose congregations are in tracts in which at least 5 percent of the residents have immigrated since 1980 jumped from 15 percent to 34 percent.
In short: the changes in the nation’s demographics are being felt in the congregations as well.
