Beyond the Ordinary

Do you get email from your church?

By Ida Smith-Williams and Cynthia Woolever

Worshipers receive email from work associates, friends, family members, and, of course, that guy overseas who needs help depositing a million dollars in his bank account. Do worshipers also get emails from their congregation?

About four out of ten worshipers say they receive email from their congregation. And about four out of ten report that they get email from their congregation's leader (pastor, priest, or rabbi).

We wondered if getting email from the congregation or leader had anything to do with the congregation's denomination or the size of the church. The short answer is "yes!"

Evidently, Catholic priests rarely send emails to their parishioners. Only 16% of Catholic worshipers said they had gotten an email from their priest in the past year. But about half of Protestant worshipers said they had received an email from their minister. More mainline Protestant worshipers (61%) got an email from their pastor than did conservative Protestant worshipers (42%).

Perhaps Catholic priests rely on administrative staff to send emails related to the parish. But the evidence doesn't support this notion. Only one in four Catholic worshipers said they had received an email from their parish in the past year. Protestant worshipers were twice as likely to get an email from their church (50% of mainline worshipers; 45% of conservative Protestant worshipers).

Are Catholic priests less likely to be wired than Protestant pastors? Are Catholic worshipers less likely to be wired than Protestant worshipers? Or is the difference in the email-send-out-rate simply because of church size? (Catholic parishes are much larger on average than the typical Protestant church.) There is some evidence to support this argument.

Almost two out of three worshipers in small churches (where fewer than 100 people attend worship services) said they had received an email from their pastor. The percentage of worshipers in mid-size churches (with between 100 and 350 attending worship) reporting emails from their pastor was almost as high (60%). But less than a third of worshipers in large churches (more than 350 attending worship services) receive email from their congregational leader. It's interesting that small-church leaders use email to reach out to their members more so than large-church leaders.

But one could argue that it still counts if the worshiper gets email from the congregation (even if it's not from the pastor specifically). This size comparison for this type of email use are interesting, too. Worshipers in small churches report getting fewer emails from the congregation than from the pastor (64% say they received an email from the pastor; 43% report receiving an email from the congregation). In a small church, the pastor often takes care of many of the administrative tasks, and he or she may be the only staff person. In mid-size churches, the pattern is the same—their worshipers get fewer emails from the congregation (51%) than from the pastor (60%). Finally, the email pattern among worshipers in large churches reverses. One-third of large-church worshipers get email from the congregation, slightly more than the percentage that report getting email from the congregation's pastor or other key leader (29%).

Some experts believe that social networking has replaced email as the most-preferred form of electronic communication. If so, some congregations and worshipers may end up just skipping the email-stage of electronic communication altogether!

Religion by region

By Deborah Bruce

The U.S. Census Bureau divides the country into four regions—Northeast, Midwest, South, and West—but collects no information about religion. Fortunately there are other sources that provide a look at the religious composition of each region of the country.

The Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) is conducted every 10 years and collects membership information from denominations and religious groups to approximate a religious census. The Association of Religion Data Archives makes this information available in maps and reports for metro areas, counties, states, and the country as a whole.

Nationally, Catholics represent the largest faith group in the United States, claiming about one in five people (22%). Conservative Protestants are the next largest group, with about one in seven people (14%), followed by mainline Protestants, with almost one in ten (9%). Orthodox and non-Christian worshipers comprise a small part of the population (just 4.8%). That leaves almost half of the population unaffiliated with any religious body (RCMS calls these people "unclaimed.")

But the distribution of these religious groups differs in different areas of the country. What you see in your community is not what others see elsewhere.

Northeast. The concentration of Catholics is largest in the Northeast, where almost two in five people attend Catholic parishes (38% of the population). One in ten people attend mainline Protestant churches, and a few (3%) go to conservative Protestant churches. Also noteworthy in this region is the concentration of Jews—nearly half of the Jews in the whole country live in the Northeast.

Midwest. Only in the Midwest are mainline and conservative Protestants about equally represented, with each group claiming one in eight people (about 13% of the population). Similar to the national figures, Catholics are the largest group in the Midwest (22%).

South. One in four people in the South are conservative Protestants—it's not called "the Bible Belt" for nothing! Baptists and Assemblies of God are two of the larger denominational groups in the South. There are relatively few Catholics and mainline Protestants in the South (about on in ten each).

West. The West is more diverse. It includes the most "churched" state in the country—Utah—in the midst of states with much lower rates of churchgoing. Overall, the West is the least "churched" region. Here, one in four people attend Catholic churches, one in twelve attend conservative Protestant churches, and a few (4%) attend mainline churches.

The religious landscape in the area can influence congregational programming in interesting and subtle ways. In the South, with so many conservative Protestant churches, the practices of those churches sometimes spill over to the other types of churches. Mainline Protestant church in the South may have an increased focus on church school for adults because their neighboring evangelical churches do so. Similarly mainline churches in the Northeast may have relatively low percentages of adults participating in church school because the predominant Catholic churches are less likely to stress the importance of adult participation in religious education.

What religious groups play a major roles in your community? (Find out here: http://www.thearda.com/mapsreports/) Is your congregation in the majority group or part of a smaller religious segment? How might these other groups be influencing the expectations of your worshipers?

Learn more:

Places of Promise:  Finding Strength in Your Congregation's Location will help you learn about the role location plays in determining congregational strengths and numerical growth. The accompanying study guide will help you examine your congregation's location.

Religion by Region, a project of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, represents the first comprehensive effort to show how religion shapes, and is being shaped by, regional culture in America.

Building on strengths

Cynthia Woolever, research director of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey, will appear tomorrow, May 19, 2010, at 2 p.m. EDT on CR Radio. CR Radio, produced by the Congregational Resource Guide and the Alban Institute, explores the issues, questions, and opportunities facing faith communities and their leaders today.

Show details: The new U.S. Congregational Life Survey is out, and a new tool comes with it a survey for assessing your congregation's strengths and benefiting from them. Survey author Cynthia Woolever joins us to discuss the latest findings, as well as the survey instrument that congregations can use and learn from.

Listen live at 2 p.m. or visit CR Radio later to download the podcast.

   

Also, Deborah Bruce, U.S. Congregational Life Survey manager, will be staffing an exhibit booth at the PC(USA) 11th Annual National Multicultural Church Conference, May 27-29, 2010, in Chicago. Stop by! 

One explanation of the "spiritual but not religious" trend

By Cynthia Woolever

Polls show that 15 to 30 percent of the population do not identify with any particular religious group, but still say they are "religious." What is behind this unaffiliated identification? Philip Goldberg offers a possible explanation when he describes how religion serves five basic functions for individuals and society:

• Transmission: gives each generation a sense of identity through shared customs, rituals, stories, and historical continuity.
• Translation: helps individuals interpret life events, gives a sense of meaning and purpose, and helps them understand their relationship to the larger whole.
• Transaction: creates and sustains healthy communities and provides guidelines for moral and ethical behavior.
• Transformation: fosters maturation and ongoing growth, helps people become more fulfilled and complete.
• Transcendence:satisfies the longing to expand the perceived boundaries of the self, become more aware of the sacred aspects of life, and experience union with the ultimate ground of Being.

Goldberg goes on to argue that when people think about religion, and especially organized religion, they focus primarily on the first three functions—transmission, translation, and transaction. He believes that religious communities (congregations) have historically emphasized these first three areas as well. He believes the lack of emphasis on transformation and transcendence forces people to look elsewhere for personal growth and spiritual experiences. (To read Philip Goldberg's essay, click here).

Is Goldberg onto something? Two results from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey support his claims. Only one in three worshipers report they have grown in their faith in the past year through participation in the activities of their congregation. This finding relates to the area of transformation and suggests that most worshipers are not experiencing transformation through their congregation.

A second finding relates to transcendence. Only one in four worshipers say they "always" or "usually" experience awe during worship services. This finding suggests transcendence is also relatively rare.

In what ways could faith communities do more to provide opportunities for people to experience transformation and transcendence?

Surfing for God, part 2

By Ida Smith-Williams

In a previous post I summarized how worshipers use the Web and email for religious purposes. Today I'll examine whether different types of worshipers "surf for God" differently.

First, is there a difference between Protestants and Catholics? More conservative Protestants use the Internet for various religious activities than do mainline Protestants or Catholics, with the exception of a few items.

Online Activity by Faith Group

Online Activity	Ca	CP	MP
Find information about own faith	44%	48%	49%
Find information about other faiths	19%	28%	38%
Faith-oriented chat rooms	2%	5%	4%
Find a new church	8%	12%	8%
Online worship services*	2%	15%	6%
Faith-oriented listserv*	13%	30%	22%
Give/receive faith-oriented guidance	11%	17%	14%
Find ideas for religious ceremonies	16%	22%	13%
Find ideas for celebrating religious holidays	15%	19%	16%
Find religious activities for children	9%	6%	4%
Download or listen to religious music*	20%	45%	34%
Read online news about religious activities	30%	44%	41%
Make a donation to a faith-based group	14%	18%	8%
Visit an online social networking site	8%	12%	11%
Explore non-traditional faith practices	5%	4%	7%
*Statistically significant difference between faith groups (p < .005) Note: Ca= Catholic, CP= Conservative Protestant, MP= Mainline Protestant

In all three groups, the largest numbers look for information about their own faith (mainline Protestants, 49%; conservative Protestants, 48%; Catholics, 44%) and for information about other faiths (38%; 28%; 19%). The three activities where there are significant differences among these groups are: participating in online worship services, participating in a faith-oriented listserv or email service, and downloading or listening online to music with religious or spiritual themes.

When it comes to using email, mainline Protestants are more likely than other worshipers to use email in each of the ways we asked about:

Use of Email by Faith Group

Use of Email	Ca	CP	MP
Received email from leader*	16%	40%	62%
Received email from congregation*	23%	43%	52%
Participated in a listserv or email service	5%	9%	13%
Conducted any congregational business*	11%	21%	38%
Plan an event for the congregation*	12%	18%	34%
Contacted another member*	30%	50%	67%
Forwarded an email with spiritual content*	23%	34%	38%
*Statistically significant difference between faith groups (p < .005) Note: Ca= Catholic, CP= Conservative Protestant, MP= Mainline Protestant

 Second, do women and men use the Internet differently? Female worshipers are more likely than male worshipers to use the Internet for giving and receiving spiritual guidance and for finding religious activities for their children. Male worshipers were more likely to participate in online social networking sites for religious purposes. Men and women were equally likely to participate in online worship services and to use the Internet to explore non-traditional faith practices. (There were no significant gender differences in regards to email use.

Online Activity by Gender

Online Activity	Females	Males
Participate in online worship services	6%	6%
Give/receive spiritual guidance*	16%	10%
Search for religious activities for children*	9%	4%
Explore non-traditional faith practices	6%	6%
Visit online social networking sites*	8%	13%
*Statistically significant difference between men and women (p < .005)

As computer usage and technology increase, it will be interesting to see how this continues to impact religion in the future.