Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society [Paperback]

Places of worship are important anchor institutions in communities, helping to create social capital through discussion groups, soup kitchens, and neighborhood clean-ups. While congregations face increasing pressures, from declining attendance to political polarization, community engagement is an overall positive for their members and for democracy.

Faith and Communityshows the benefits of religious people taking action in their communities. Through more than a decade of multi-method data collection, Rebecca Glazier surveyed over 4,000 congregants and nearly 500 clergy in Little Rock, Arkansas to gather opinions from members and leaders on community issues and engagement. Together with interviews and case studies, her findings indicate that active congregants are happier and more civically involved.

Faith and Communityprovides valuable insights into the relationship between religion and community engagement. The data illustrates how community engagement benefits individuals, congregations, and democracy and offers one solution to what ails religion in America today."This book provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of community engagement by religious congregations on their individual members, the congregations themselves, and the local society.... It offers an accessible look at how political science may help find solutions for social problems. Summing Up: Recommended."—Choice“Glazier effectively musters the data...to show that community engagement is correlated with positive effects at the personal, congregational, and societal levels. Her work is readable and engaging, and the thoughtfully chosen congregational case studies, seven in all, help to fill out the data with particular places and communities….Faith and Communitycould easily find its way into an advanced course on congregational development or congregational vitality in a seminary or divinity school: its lƒ