Churches are doing more for their communities than you (or they) realize. In fact, the monetary value of a church’s contribution to the community is far more than the financial benefits churches receive from their tax-exempt status.
That’s the surprising conclusion of a significant new study headed by Ram Cnaan, professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania, and published in his book The Invisible Caring Hand: American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare (New York University Press, 2002).
“Our findings strongly support the Supreme Court’s view of congregations as ‘a beneficial and stabilizing influence in community life,'” writes Cnaan, an Israeli-born secular Jew who is director of the Program for the Study of Organized Religion and Social Work.
The study provides one of the first assessments of the dollar value of the social services churches provide. The net value of a congregation’s social and community services averages $15,307 per month or approximately $184,000 per year. This number includes the value of space, utilities, staff, and volunteer hours (calculated at approximately $11 per hour).
“Although congregations can be viewed as being publicly subsidized because of their tax-exempt status, the value of their services to their communities exceeds the value of the tax exemption,” writes Cnaan. “There is also the value of services that cannot be measured in dollars, such as informal help, pastoral counseling, value instruction, residents’ representation, and community pride.
“As a key part of the national social safety net and the first to aid in time of local, national, and international emergencies, congregations allot a significant percentage of their budgets to helping others and are the major source for volunteer recruitment in urban America. In fact, one could say that our society is subsidized by congregations to a far greater extent than these same congregations are subsidized by the tax-exempt status granted by our society.”
The book is based on information from approximately 300 congregations, 251 located in the United States and 46 in Ontario, Canada. The congregations were chosen from lists of churches in seven metropolitan areas: New York City, Chicago, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Mobile, Houston, and San Francisco. Both historic churches and newer churches were included. A study was also conducted in Council Grove, Kansas, to provide information about churches in a small town.
The most significant finding is that nearly all the congregations in the study provided some form of social and community service, most commonly for children, the elderly, the poor, and the homeless. Besides formal programs, such as housing projects or neighborhood cleanup activities, churches provided a range of informal activities, such as pastoral counseling, care of the sick or bereaved, referring people to more specialized agencies, and providing space for community groups to meet.
Princeton sociology professor Robert Wuthnow, reviewing Cnaan’s work in Books and Culture (Jan/Feb 2003), writes: “Cnaan suggests that were it not for congregations, approximately a third of children now in daycare centers would have no place to go, most scouting troops and twelve-step groups would have no place to meet, and large numbers of homeless shelters and soup kitchens would disappear.
“The case study of Council Grove, Kansas, is especially interesting because we know much less about churches in rural areas than we do about urban and suburban churches. Council Grove, once an important point of departure on the Santa Fe Trail, is the seat of Morris County, one of the many counties in Kansas that has lost population (from 11,859 in 1930 to 6,104 in 2000) as a result of agricultural decline in the region. Consulting the county’s website, I learned that there were 373 men and 451 women in 1999 whose incomes put them below the official poverty level, that there were 429 people on food stamp assistance, and that there were 823 Medicaid enrollees.
“I also learned that there were nine churches in Council Grove. Cnaan’s research team collected information from all of them. All but one were Protestant, and all of these, except one, were affiliated with mainline denominations. Each of the churches developed a ministry that filled a special need in the community. The Christian Church committed itself to youth services, the Berean Baptist Church had a popular Kids Club for younger children, the Congregational Church specialized in helping single mothers with children, and so on. Collectively, the churches operated a thrift shop, a ministry to residents of a local nursing home, and a hospitality coalition. Altogether, the research team found that the churches sponsored 27 different programs which on average benefited 32 congregational members and 182 nonmembers.”
Cnaan’s book is an encouragement for churches, many of whom face resistance to their building or expansion plans from municipalities that don’t acknowledge their value to the community.
“It is important to remember that, except for neighborhood schools, no other social institution penetrates America’s neighborhoods as thoroughly as do congregations,” writes Cnaan. “Other non-profit organizations have only a minimal presence, since they are generally concentrated in selected urban locations. Because local congregations maintain a presence in the community, they are able to develop ties with the local residents even if those residents do not attend the congregations. The congregation is the one nonproprietary organization found in every neighborhood and within walking distance of virtually every household.
“As N. T. Ammerman noted in 1997, ‘The two institutions most likely to remain connected to the immediate neighborhoods they serve are elementary schools and congregations. But even that has changed. In many places, busing has strained the tie between school and community.’ This leaves the congregations as the final link between communities and their residents.”
Marshall Shelley is editor of Leadership.
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