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 ...