White Evangelical Congregations in Cities and Suburbs: Social Engagement, Geography, Diffusion, and Disembeddedness

Abstract

AbstractIn the United States, white evangelicalism has long been associated with both suburbanization and proselytization. However, the way that religious groups understand and engage broader culture may change based on time and context. Drawing on 158 interviews from attenders of 46 evangelical congregations in Grand Rapids, MI, we analyze how these congregations differentially engage their urban and suburban neighborhoods. The vast majority of white evangelical congregations offer some mode of local social engagement. We develop a typology of three white evangelical mission orientations—Benefactor, Recruiter, and Therapist—based on the primary resources that these congregations offer to attenders and their communities. Beyond that, we argue that evangelical social engagement is somewhat determined by geography (Embedded versus Disembedded presence), that there has been a routinized convergence of service types provided by churches from different strains of evangelicalism that is explained by isomorphism, and that many evangelical congregations now embrace an intentional urbanism. As religious and demographic trends have shifted in the U.S., white evangelicals have adapted in ways that both accommodate these larger social changes while also maintaining a type of engagement that resonates with their cultural tool kit. [Evangelicalism, cities, suburbs, religious presence, congregations, race, United States]