Social, Cultrual, and Spiritual Capital in African American Congregations for Social Service Delivery.

As the spiritual, historical, cultural, and civic nexus of African American life, the Black Church is viewed as the single most important institution in the black community. This paper examined social, cultural and spiritual capital links empowering or constraining congregational involvement in social service delivery. 1,900 black religious leaders were surveyed in 1999 as part of the largest survey of congregations in the United States. In a follow-up project, 200 religious leaders were surveyed considering current and desired involvement in ministries related to social and public policy. During 2004-2005, 15,000 congregational members from Protestant, Catholic and Muslim congregations were surveyed using similar multidimentional variables as the survey of religious leaders. Utilizing data from the three surveys as well as a range of additional data sources, the author found outreach ministries receive a major commitment of energy and other resources, with black congregations providing the highest levels of community outreach. Black religious leaders desire a significant increase in social and public policy ministries. Church members were found to take part in a wide range of community service through their congregations but serve their communities at a greater level through groups not connected to their congregations. The dominance of women in the family structure, generational membership, reciprocity, social support systems were the most significant determinants of social and public policy involvement for a given church. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]