wfn.org | Survey focuses on United Methodists' congregational life

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 21, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.    10-21-71B{552}

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist agency and seminary are pairing up to conduct an
unprecedented survey of congregational life in the denomination.

Questionnaires have been mailed for "Faith Communities Today: A Survey of
United Methodist Congregations," which is jointly sponsored and funded by
the office of research for the United Methodist General Council on
Ministries (GCOM), based in Dayton, Ohio, and the J.M. Ormond Center for
Research, Planning and Development at United Methodist-related Duke Divinity
School in Durham, N.C.

The research project is aimed at providing a better understanding of the
vitality and presence of United Methodist congregations individually in the
life of their communities and collectively in the life of the United States,
according to Maxine Clarke Beach, a GCOM staff executive.
   
"From this survey, we hope to produce a picture of United Methodist
congregations and describe the activities of congregations for their members
and their broader communities," Beach explained. "We also hope to document
their use of resources, to promote spiritual life for members and support
for community people and institutions, and to depict the leadership within
the congregation and beyond that helps to sustain the uniquely American
experience."
 
Jackson W. Carroll of Duke hopes United Methodist congregations will take
the questionnaires seriously. "What we learn from this research project ...
will enable us to strengthen our ministries to the local communities," he
said. 

Two thousand questionnaires are being sent out. Half of them are being
mailed in a random sample to United Methodist congregations, while the other
1,000 are going specifically to racial and ethnic minority congregations in
the church.

The collected data will be sent to Hartford (Conn.) Seminary, where it will
be compared with information from other denominations and faith groups
participating in the Cooperative Congregational Studies Project (CCSP). The
project is being coordinated by Carl S. Dudley and David A. Roozen of
Hartford's Center for Social and Religious Research.

The CCSP is the most extensive data-gathering effort of its kind ever
undertaken in North America, according to Dudley. It represents an
unprecedented and historic attempt to survey about 20,000 congregations in
40 different faith groups, he said. 

Each participating group has developed its own questionnaire. However,
researchers, under the direction of Roozen, have spent the past four years
agreeing on a common set of questions to be asked. The unique part of this
effort, he said, is the care with which the common core of questions has
been developed. 

"We worked very hard to make sure that the data we are looking for in one
denomination or faith group is what another faith group would also be
interested in," he said. 

All congregations completing the survey will receive by early June a report
summarizing the findings.

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United Methodist News Service
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