Methodological Issues in Denominational Surveys of Congregations

Abstract

After nearly two decades of neglect, a renewed interest in congregational studies emerged during the 1980s. Relatedly, several significant denominational surveys of congregations have been conducted that represent advances in both methodology and scale in comparison to those conducted during the last flurry of congregational surveys, peaking in the late 1950s. The purpose of this article is to use the examples of the current revival to take a first step toward developing a reflective literature specifically on the methodology of large scale, denominational, sample surveys of congregations. Lauris B. Whitman, Director of the National Council of Churches' Bureau of Research and Survey during the zenith of denominational research, and first president of the Religious Research Association, provides an historical point of departure for our discussion. We quote from his Foreword to Walter Kloetzli's The City Church-Death or Renewal: A Study of Eight Urban Lutheran Churches (1961). This was the only monograph dealing with congregations published out of what was conceived as a major, interdenominational effort called "The Effective City Church Study." In reference to the study, Whitman states: This study also represents a major breakthrough in the methodology of studying churches. Heretofore, the major emphasis has been placed upon quantitative data of a demographic and ecological nature and data relating to membership, attendance and similar factors. In this study, the use of three instruments-the Congregational Self-Study Guide, the Membership Questionnaire, and the Depth Interview Guide-provides several types of data which can be related in the process of analysis. It should be pointed out that the present project reveals new problems of methodology. Much of the work . .. has been done in academic situations where relentless criticism ofmethodology has been constantly applied. This has not only contributed to the emerging results of the study but has highlighted a number ofmajorproblems which can be grappled with in future studies. We expect not only significant findings from the project but also an important refinement in the methodology of studying churches. Whitman's optimism provides an important landmark for several reasons. First, while the multi-layered approach to data gathering and analysis represented in the Effective City Church Study is not quite as precedent-setting as Whitman perceives it to be (e.g., Glock and Ringer, 1956), it certainly calls attention to a major methodological shift from the census type surveys of the church federation period (roughly the 1920s through 1965) to the multi-layered approach in most current efforts. Second, despite some methodological innovations, the Effective City Church Study had at least one characteristic in common with the church survey work of the