Christians in the United States vary greatly in their levels of active involvement with their congregations, a new study has revealed.
According to the ‘Religious Landscape Study, undertaken by the Pew Research Centre, Christian communities in the country vary greatly in levels of active participation with their congregations, with just 30% of all Christian adults having a high level of congregational involvement. However, only 12% fall into the lowest category of involvement. The figure falling into the category of medium engagement was 58%.
Set against these broad figures, Catholics only returned a figure of 16% for high involvement. Those showing the highest levels are Mormons, 67%, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, 64%. Only when one looks at the medium category does the Catholic figure climb, to 70%.
Coming in behind both the Mormon and Jehovah’s Witnesses in terms of greatest active involvement with their congregations are the evangelical Protestants, 43%, and members of historically black Protestant denominations, 41%
The low figure for Catholics can be in part explained by the fact that while these groups attend regular services, they do not participate in prayer or Scripture groups weekly or monthly as with other communities. As the Pew researchers explained, three distinct participation measures were used to create the scale against which communities were tested.
“Those who are members of a congregation, attend religious services at least weekly and attend a prayer or scripture group weekly or monthly are categorised as having a “high” level of congregational involvement, while those who are not members of a congregation and who seldom or never attend religious services and small group prayer or scripture-reading groups are in the “low” category. All other respondents are categorised as having a “medium” level of congregational involvement.”
For the breakdown of the ‘Religious Landscape Study’ by denomination, see http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/16/church-involvement-varies-widely-among-u-s-christians/ft_15-11-16_congregationalinvolvement/
