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I have been a religious sister for more than thirty years, part of a community that has been active in this country for over a century, and whose work centers [...]

Have the extra-religious functions of black congregations become attenuated in recent decades? We have addressed this question here via a comparative analysis of black and white churches with the only extant national probability sample of U.S. congregations. We found that in 1988 black congregations were not more active in secular activities in general, but they were significantly more active in certain kinds of non- religious activity: (a) activity directed at serving disprivileged segments of the immediately surrounding community, and (b) civil rights activity. The observed differences between black and white congregations in these activities were not explained by differences in congregational size, resources, urban/rural setting, or southern/non-southern location. These results support the idea that black congregations continue to perform non-religious functions within their communities, although an intriguing interaction between race and a congregation's founding date points to important variation within black religion.

Iscoe (1974) proposed a conception of the 'competent community' to evaluate the potential to prevent social problems in geographical communities. This paper operationalizes an Iscoe-like conception of 'congregation community competence' (CCC) and assesses its utility for studying religious congregations. The paper presents a 27-item CCC Scale. Survey data, collected from 405 church attenders from 12 congregations (2 of each of 6 denominations) indicated that the 12 congregations could be divided into 4 groups with differing degrees of correspondence to the CCC concept. Among 4 groups, higher scores on the CCC Scale were significantly and positively related to achievement of several general congregational goals promoting maintenance of the congregation. This study is correlational and principles drawn from data have not been tested in an intervention. These data, however, suggest that principles embodied in the CCC concept might be studied as potential tools useful for improving congregational participation and effectiveness.

This section of the Journal attempts to keep readers informed of current resources of an integrative nature or those related to the general field of the psychology of religion appearing [...]

WE OFTEN HEAR that two-thirds to three-fourths of American congregations are in decline or at a plateau with regard to membership. They are stuck where they are, immobilized by a [...]