Church Setting Research Articles

Social Structure and Citizenship: Examining the Impacts of Social Setting, Network Heterogeneity, and Informational Variables on Political Participation

In this study, we develop a model of the interplay between sociostructural determinants of an individual's discussion behavior, such as the setting of primary discussion networks (work, church, and volunteer groups) and the nature of discussion (i.e., level of exposure to non-like-minded ideas), and individual-level outcomes, such as hard news media use, political knowledge, and participation in political processes. In doing so, we synthesize many of the different and sometimes competing models that political communication scholars have used to examine the link between more macroscopic sociological variables and the individual-level behaviors that political scientists often focus on. Data to test our theoretical model come from a national telephone survey conducted in October and November 2002. Our analysis showed that the social setting in which citizens discuss politics is an important antecedent of political participation. Discussion networks as part of volunteer groups, for example, indeed serve as important networks of recruitment. In other words, discussing politics frequently in this setting is positively and directly linked to political activity. The impact of conversational networks in church and work settings on participation, however, is only indirect. In fact, our data show that the impact of church and work networks on political participation is to a significant degree mediated by the different viewpoints that individuals are exposed to when they discuss politics in these settings.

Crossing Boundaries and Building Bridges: The Anglican Women's Fellowship In Post-apartheid South Africa

AbstractIn the late 1960s, the South African Anglican Church set up a new women's organisation, the Anglican Women's Fellowship (AWF). With strong roots in the Cape and Natal, the AWF aimed to be more inclusive of all churchwomen than the international Mothers' Union (MU) where, at that time, membership was still closed to divorcees and unmarried mothers. MU locally had also become an African stronghold, which may have reinforced the qualms of white and Coloured women about joining. Based on some documentary sources and participation in the fourday AWF Provincial Council of October 2002, this paper explores the changing composition, goals and ethos of AWF over its 35-year history. Comparisons with other churchwomen's organisations—the (black) Methodist Manyano and (white) Women's Auxiliary as well as the MU—will be drawn to highlight what is distinctive about AWF and its response to social change in contemporary South Africa. While the article concludes by providing a brief snapshot of theology and practice within the movement, the striking current role of Coloured women leaders as bridge-builders is particularly emphasised and the effective crossing of racial, social, language and age boundaries evaluated.

Motivations for Philanthropic Giving in the African American Church: Implications for Black College Fundraising

Since its inception, the Black church has been the center of African American fundraising and the single most effective fundraising mechanism for Blacks. The majority of African Americans are taught from a young age that they have an obligation to give to the church. According to Cheryl Hall-Russell, African Americans are experts at educating their prospective donors in the church setting. Both Hall-Russell and Emmett D. Carson suggest that a formalized structure, like that of the church could aid colleges and universities in their acquisition of African American contributions. Consequently, a study of the Black church and its African American congregants can be a vital source of information for those interested in improving the fundraising capabilities of Black colleges. Through historical inquiry and qualitative interviews with Black college alumni/church members, we explore these important issues.

Interdisciplinary medication education in a church environment.

A medication education program for ambulatory care patients implemented in a church setting was studied. The program at each of 20 churches in Ohio consisted of a one-hour orientation for pharmacists/interns, a 20-minute presentation on medications and health, a question-and-answer session led by a pharmacist and a nurse, a one-on-one session with a pharmacist, and an exit interview with a nurse. Before the program, patients completed a form to assess their current experiences with medications and their interactions with health care professionals in the preceding six months. During an exit interview at the end of the program, patients were asked whether the program has been understandable and beneficial and whether taking medications affected their lifestyle. A follow-up interview was conducted six months later. A total of 187 patients completed both the exit and follow-up interviews. Almost all reported that the church setting was a good place for the program and that the program was beneficial. During the six months after the program, the patients took significantly fewer drugs each day than during the six months before the program and had fewer drug-related problems. Significantly more patients sought drug information after completing the program than before it. High rates of medication misuse were identified, leading to 359 pharmacist recommendations. An interdisciplinary program in a church setting successfully provided medication education.

Cancer education takes on a spiritual focus for the African American faith community.

The faith community, specifically African American (AA) churches, has been a partner in the delivery of health educational messages for the past two decades. This article goes beyond the physical setting of the church to describe how and why spirituality is a particularly effective and essential component of one breast and cervical cancer education program, The Witness Project. Examining the theoretical and methodological foundations of this program demonstrates that the content as well as the messengers are strategically positioned within the AA faith community. This program is an example of cancer education's finding a culturally sanctioned method to become a part of a different kind of "ministry" within the AA faith community on a national level.

Handbook of religion and health

Handbook of Religion and Health. By Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough and David B. Larson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 712 pp. $65.00 (cloth). The sheer size of this book and its price may intimidate many parish clergy, and this would be a shame. Now more than ever there is a need for religion and science (and specifically health science) to be in conversation with one another. Religion and science grew out of the same discipline in our distant past. Hospice and hospitals are creatures born out of the church's ministry to those in need. Illness was often thought to have a spiritual basis. Since the Middle Ages, science and religion have grown apart, with attitudes ranging from mistrust to hostility. Partly because of the immense amount of possible reading material available both to clergy, lay professionals, and health care workers, and because of the demands on their limited time, it is uncommon for someone in either field to be familiar with the literature of the other. Times are beginning to change, with a new level of interest in the church's ministry of healing and new attention being paid by medical professionals to the spiritual or human side of medicine. This volume is a significant contribution to the conversation and one which can be of great value in a variety of church settings. The thirty-three chapters are arranged in seven sections. The first section distinguishes between religion and spirituality, and reviews the history of religion, medicine, and science during the past 8,000 years. The second section covers the generally subjective views about faith and medicine which have been put forth on both sides. References to the Bible and to other written materials claiming to show how faith can heal are reviewed alongside the writings of Freud and others who consider religious faith and practice to be detrimental to one's health. This section sets the stage for the review of the more objective, scientifically based published accounts which follow. The third section explores research in the area of mental health and religious involvement. The authors propose a model of how religion is indeed capable of influencing mental health. The fourth section deals with physical disorders, including health behaviors such as smoking, and weight control. The fifth section deals with the relationship between religion and wellness, specifically disease prevention, compliance with prescribed treatment, and the use of health services. The sixth section examines the foregoing research and models in light of their implications for both religious and health care professionals. This includes how parish clergy, parish nurses, and others in a parish health program might apply this to their practice. Section seven outlines the needs for future research. As complete as this volume is, all of the work done to date also serves to demonstrate how little we genuinely know about the interaction between faith and medicine, and suggests some directions in which researchers and others need to head. The final section is a review and critique, in chart form, of the over 1,600 studies contained in this book. The references section includes the bibliographic citation which would enable anyone to order copies of an entire article through a local library. The Episcopal Church has several explicit citations. The priest Elwood Worcester coauthored a book with a physician early in the twentieth century which began the Emmanuel Movement-the first organization of religious health care professionals. …

Using The Discipline for Integrative Ministry Formation

SUMMARY One United Methodist Annual Conference has begun a program of ministry formation education for probationary, first-appointment ministers in conjunction with Emory Clergy Care, Atlanta. This program uses an adaptation of The Discipline as an integral part of their ongoing formation education. Participants have learned the basics of planned pastoral care delivery, family and congregational systems thinking and self-supervision. Using The Discipline, they have been effectively adapting it to their local church settings and ministries.

American and British Clergy Attitudes Towards Marketing Activities: A Comparative Study

Churches, in both the US and the UK, are increasingly seen to be engaging in what have been termed marketing activities. A small of studies have investigated the degree to which clergy in the US view the use of rnarketing techniques as acceptable and appropriate. This article rnakes a contribution to the continuing debate surrounding the use of marketing in a church setting by comparing the extent to which American and British clergy views differ: Results indicate that, in general, British clergy are rnore reluctant to countenance the use of merketing techniques within a church context, although a small number of exceptions emerged. In particular; British clergy appeared to be rnore accepting of changes made to the presentation of church doctrine, given changs in society's views of acceptable behaviour.

The Real Presence of Christ and the Penitent Mary Magdalen in the Allegory of Faith by Johannes Vermeer

This article considers the placement and relationship of objects in Jan Vermeer’s unusual Allegory of Faith in the context of Dutch Roman Catholicism in the seventeenth century. Contemporary illustrated mass books, Jesuit writings, and primary sources regarding the Roman Catholic mission to the Netherlands suggest that Vermeer depicted a genre scene that served as a domestic church setting where the eucharistic miracle of transubstantiation is celebrated. Additional pictorial and iconographic evidence supports the identification of the richly attired woman in Vermeer’s painting as the penitent saint Mary Magdalen, representing the figure of faith.

Negative Interaction in the Church: Insights from Focus Groups with Older Adults

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a series of focus groups that were designed to explore the content domain of negative interaction in the church. Altogether, eight focus groups consisting of sixty-three older adults were conducted. The results suggest that unpleasant encounters in church settings are a significant source of concern and distress for elderly people. A three-part scheme is devised to classify types of negative interaction in the church. Also, data are provided on the coping responses used by older adults when negative interaction arises in their place of worship. The implications of these results for research on negative interaction and health-related outcomes are discussed.

Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism

By the end of the 1920s, fundamentalism in America was intellectually bankrupt and publicly disgraced. Bitterly humiliated by the famous Scopes monkey trial, this once respected movement retreated from the public forum and seemed doomed to extinction. Yet fundamentalism not only survived, but in the 1940s it reemerged as a thriving and influential public movement. And today it is impossible to read a newspaper or watch cable TV without seeing the presence of fundamentalism in American society. In Revive Us Again, Joel A. Carpenter illuminates this remarkable transformation, exploring the history of American fundamentalism from 1925 to 1950, the years when, to non-fundamentalists, the movement seemed invisible. Skillfully blending painstaking research, telling anecdotes, and astute analysis, Carpenter-a scholar who has spent twenty years studying American evangelicalism-brings this era into focus for the first time. He reveals that, contrary to the popular opinion of the day, fundamentalism was alive and well in America in the late 1920s, and used its isolation over the next two decades to build new strength from within. The book describes how fundamentalists developed a pervasive network of organizations outside of the church setting and quietly strengthened the movement by creating their own schools and organizations, many of which are prominent today, including Fuller Theological Seminary and the publishing and radio enterprises of the Moody Bible Institute. Fundamentalists also used youth movements and missionary work and, perhaps most significantly, exploited the burgeoning mass media industry to spread their message, especially through the powerful new medium of radio. Indeed, starting locally and growing to national broadcasts, evangelical preachers reached millions of listeners over the airwaves, in much the same way evangelists preach through television today. All this activity received no publicity outside of fundamentalist channels until Billy Graham burst on the scene in 1949. Carpenter vividly recounts how the charismatic preacher began packing stadiums with tens of thousands of listeners daily, drawing fundamentalism firmly back into the American consciousness after twenty years of public indifference. Alongside this vibrant history, Carpenter also offers many insights into fundamentalism during this period, and he describes many of the heated internal debates over issues of scholarship, separatism, and the role of women in leadership. Perhaps most important, he shows that the movement has never been stagnant or purely reactionary. It is based on an evolving ideology subject to debate, and dissension: a theology that adapts to changing times. Revive Us Again is more than an enlightening history of fundamentalism. Through his reasoned, objective approach to a topic that is all too often reduced to caricature, Carpenter brings fresh insight into the continuing influence of the fundamentalist movement in modern America,and its role in shaping the popular evangelical movements of today.

The Use of Research in the Formulation of Church Marketing Strategies

ABSTRACT This paper presents the use of marketing research within a church setting. The intended use of the research was to gather information from the existing church congregation that could be utilized in the formation of the church's marketing strategy. The paper includes a review of the extant church marketing literature, the use of ANOVA and frequency distributions in the research methodology, and a discussion of the results. The results showed statistically significant differences among age groups relative to both Sunday School and Worship Service attributes.

Clergy views on the marketing of the Church: insights from a UK survey

AbstractThe marketing of the Church, an example of social cause marketing, has been the subject of increasing attention in the academic literature. At the same time churches in the United Kingdom are increasingly seen to be engaging in what have been termed marketing activities. A small number of studies have investigated the degree to which clergy in the USA view the use of marketing techniques as acceptable and appropriate. This paper makes a contribution to the continuing debate surrounding the use of marketing in a church setting by presenting the results of a survey of UK clergy in which they are asked about the appropriateness of marketing activities in the church context. While results indicate a general acceptance of marketing techniques, there is less acceptance among the clergy of the need to develop, and appropriateness of developing, a marketing orientation or philosophy. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications

‘Pure Folkes’ and The Parish: Thomas Larkham in Cockermouth and Tavistock

IN the dark days of 1662, ‘one of the yeares of the captivity of the Churches, and of the passion of the ministers of Christ’, Cocker-mouth Congregational Church set down an account of its beginnings during the Interregnum, so that people would know ‘in after times, that somewhat hath been a doing in this corner of the earth in a church way’:

Receiving the promised blessing: Missionary reflections on ‘Ishmae's (mostly female) descendants‘

The Arabian Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church set out in 1889 to introduce Christianity to the Muslims of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. The Mission failed in its efforts at proselytism, but persevered for 70 years providing medical and educational services. In the process, the Arabian missionaries produced an historical record of culture and society — especially about women — that is unparalleled in any other available sources. These sources are both technical and dispassionate as well as up‐close and highly personal, and are written with a point of view that tells us as much about the missionaries and their changing times as about men, women and society in the villages and towns of the Gulf, Hasa and Najd.

Church of England Clergy Attitudes Towards Marketing Activities

ABSTRACT Churches in Britain are increasingly seen to be engaging in what have been termed marketing activities. Although a small number of studies exist about clergy attitudes towards the use of marketing techniques in a church setting in the US, little research exists in the UK context. This paper examines British clergy attitudes towards the use of marketing attitudes from a qualitative perspective focusing on possible conflicts between the use of such techniques and the evangelistic mission of the church, the use of long range planning, and the Church's recent attempt to develop a logo. UK clergy opinions indicate a reluctant acceptance of the use of marketing within the Church of England.

Our Modern Plague

On November 12, 1996, an audience gathered in Cannon Chapel on the Emory campus to hear Public Health Dean James Curran lecture on AIDS. Part of the university's Great Teachers Lecture Series, this was Curran's third time to speak about the epidemic in a church setting, having previously discussed AIDS in a synagogue and at the Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem. During the hour-long lecture in Cannon Chapel, Curran brought the audience news suited to be heard in church—news about the history of a disease that demands reverent ears for hearing, news that for the first time may offer some bit of hope. One of a handful of scientists to encounter AIDS before it even had a name, Curran is an undisputed expert on the AIDS epidemic. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he headed the Task Force to investigate the first reported cases in 1981. Subsequently he directed the Division of HIV/ AIDS in 1989 and was appointed Assistant Surgeon General of the United States in 1991. He continues to serve as an adviser to both the Combined United Nations Programme on AIDS and the National Institutes of Health on HIV, and as a member of the board of the National AIDS Fund. Locally, he serves on the board of AID Atlanta and the scientific advisory board of Jerusalem House. When Curran left the CDC to accept the position of dean in 1995, President Bill Clinton sent thanks for Curran's work: “Your leadership in the area of HIV and AIDS prevention strengthened our global response to this epidemic and served as a calm voice of scientific reason during some difficult times.” This night in Cannon Chapel, Curran shared that calm voice and his firsthand understanding of a disease that has reshaped our world.

Keirsey's Temperament Types and Religious Preference for a Filipino Sample in a Conservative Church

Significant associations were found for the frequencies of Keirsey's temperament types expected in the general population and the observed frequencies among Filipinos from a conservative church. The result suggested a possible relationship between typology of temperament and the religious preference for a conservative church setting in the Philippines.

Biography, Democracy and Spirit: An Interview with Vincent Harding

Biography, Democracy And Spirit An Interview with Vincent Harding Vincent Harding (bio) and Rachel E. Harding (bio) Vincent Gordon Harding is a historian, writer and activist who, with his wife, Rosemarie Freeney-Harding, has worked as an organizer and consultant in movements for democratic change for over thirty-five years. Harding was born in 1931 in Harlem. He attended the City College of New York, Columbia University, and earned a doctorate in American History at the University of Chicago. Presently, he is professor of Religion and Social Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. Harding is perhaps best known for his history of African-American resistance in ante-bellum America, There is a River (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) and his numerous writings on the Black Freedom Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He was senior advisor to the acclaimed PBS television series Eyes on the Prize. His most recent books are Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero (Orbis, 1996), a collection of essays on the last years of King’s life, and We Changed the World: African Americans, 1945–1970, a textbook history co-authored with Robin Kelley and Earl Lewis for the Oxford University Press African-American history series for young adults (1997). In this conversation, I talk with my father about his childhood and the development of his concern for American democracy, his involvement in the Freedom Movement, the establishment of the Institute of the Black World, his working partnership with my mother, Rosemarie Freeney-Harding, and reflections on his activism and alliances. The interview took place over the course of an afternoon on March 9, 1997. R. HARDING One of your ongoing concerns over the past 30 years or so has been for the development of greater democracy and stronger structures of democracy in American society. How did you come by this concern and where do you find it leading you? V. HARDING I’m not sure that I can speak with great accuracy to that question. One of the background experiences that leads me to an appreciation of democracy, especially for democracy as expressed in the variety of human participants in the American experience, was my own growing-up in New York City. This was at a time when the city still had a public school system that, in some of its parts, was basically very multiracial and multicultural, especially as far as integration of the student body was concerned. More the student body than the faculty. I remember how much I enjoyed and appreciated the variety of people that I was with, the variety of my fellow students. Both while I was living through the experience and [End Page 682] since that time I have reflected on what it meant to be in a setting where I was in constant engagement with people from Italian, Irish, Armenian, Jewish, Portuguese, Puerto Rican as well as African-American and a half-dozen other kinds of racial and ethnic backgrounds. There was something simply very rich and exciting and engaging for me about that. Something lovely about it, to use a better word. And I think that the desire to see a nation develop its capacity to bring that kind of engagement into being was probably part of the concern. The other thing I should say is that part of the background might be called religious or spiritual. One of the things that I am most drawn to, in many religious traditions, is the teaching, the practice that within the human being there is tremendous capacity for greatness, for beauty, for creativity. That kind of religious insight or offering is a very powerful grounding for democratic society. Because if we really believe that there is within us all the capacity for creative work, for remarkable contribution, then that encourages the development of processes and spaces where people can open up and nurture that capacity as we build together new and renewing communities. R. HARDING Does the spiritual or religious grounding within your concern for democracy come from your particular experience of growing up in a black church setting in New York, and from the other forms that spirituality and religiosity have taken in your life...

Organizational Structure in the Larger Church Setting

Abstract In this paper, I discuss a pair of issues which have emerged during an investigation of administration in the larger church (e.g., over 1000 members) setting. In general, the churches surveyed appear to encounter problems with overly-decentralized structures, where all staff members report to the senior pastor, and with lack of coordination in the Christian Education function. I argue for a taller structure and for use of a professional administrator as methods for overcoming problems.