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The article offers author's insights on the address delivered by doctor Mark Chaves on congregational life and religious trends in America. The author mentions several findings applicable in Christian social work aside from spiritual settings including the competence of workers in dealing with their beliefs and practices, congregational involvement, and the opportunity in the declining confidence in religious leaders. The author discusses the trends and opportunities for Christian social work.

This article reports a study based on phone interviews with 46 persons who as adults had experienced a sexual encounter or relationship with a religious leader. Fifteen others were also interviewed who had experienced the effects of those sexual encounters (husbands, friends and other staff members in the congregation), as well as two offending leaders. Subjects for this study were identified using networks of professionals, web sites, and media stories about the project. The resulting nonrandom sample of 63 subjects includes congregants from Jewish and a diversity of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and nondenominational congregations located across the United States. The software package Atlas-Ti was used to code the interview transcripts and then to identify five common themes that describe the social characteristics of the contexts in which clergy sexual misconduct (CSM) occurs. Based on these characteristics, implications are drawn for social work practice with congregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors studied a purposive sample of 35 Christian congregations in four regions of the United States who were known for their active involvement in community ministry (CM). In-depth interviews with 29 congregational leaders and 25 individual volunteers revealed that (1) these congregations had cultures that supported community ministry that existed before the CM program; (2) a "catalyst" who was both in the congregation and in touch with needs in the community proposed the particular CM; (3) the congregation assessed the fit of the CM with the congregation's culture and mission; and (4) multiple factors contributed to sustained involvement, in turn contributing to ongoing cultural supportive of current and future CM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the results of interviews with 110 families about their faith. These families represent the diversity of family structures present in 32 Christian congregations located in metropolitan areas in four geographic regions-the South-west, the South, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest. The congregations identified themselves as Southern Baptist, National Baptist, United Methodist, and Presbyterian USA. These interviews explored the meaning and experience of faith for family life. The findings suggest dimensions of family faith experiences, and the transactional relationship between individual and family faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States recently, politicians, policy makers and social scientists have paid increasing attention to congregations and their social contributions. Congregations provide important services and resources, not only to their own members, but also to those in their neighborhood and community. Increased attention is currently focused on the role of faith communities (congregations) in addressing community problems and persons in need. This attention raises questions about the relationship of faith and community ministry, specifically, how volunteerism may affect the life of faith of congregations and congregational members. This article offers conceptual definitions of faith and community ministry, explores a variety of psychological and theological measurements of faith, and begins to explore their relationship. A conceptual model of Christian faith practices, along with a newly constructed measurement scale, is described. The scale was administered to a sample of congregational members, nearly half of whom reported participating in community ministry, from 34 congregations. Findings and implications of the study are explained.