Information about the Research Partners 
that produce Faith Communities Today

Faith Communities Today is the public dissemination effort of a group of researchers and religious leaders who were responsible for, in 2000, the largest survey ever of congregations.  

This group, the Cooperative Congregations Studies Partnership, is a program of interfaith cooperation.  These 20+ members, in conjunction with Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research, are continuing their research efforts with a bi-annual national survey of congregations and the creation of helpful resources for churches of all faith traditions. 

This project is intended to gather information over time and assist congregational leaders in the effective use of quality research to improve their ministries. 

Our goal is provide a public profile of the heart and soul of religion in America - local congregations - at the beginning of a new millennium and to offer ways to strengthen and enhance the mission of these congregations.  Read more about the project or see a news article from Hartford Seminary's magazine Praxis.

The project was initiated to enhance the capacity of participating faith groups to conduct and use congregational research. This continuing study is intended to provide continuing public profile of the heart and soul of religion in America - local congregations - throughout the new millennium.

The Partnership is guided by a steering committee elected from the full set of partners.  

The new Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership is in its first year and piloting four programmatic goals:
 
(1) Creating and testing a financially viable methodology for a biennial national survey of congregations, each survey to include three layers of questions: 
   a. A repeated set of items to track changes and trends, 
   b. A specific set of topical items tied to a congregational resource, and 
   c. A unique set of new items of immediate public interest.

The first survey in this biennial series, FACT2005, went into the field on April 27 and preliminary results will be reported on this website beginning in September 2005. Examine a copy of the survey questionnaire.

(2) Developing a subscription-based electronic parish development newsletter, Leadership and Transformation, targeted to congregational leadership. If you would like a complimentary copy of the July, 2005 inaugural issue, email fact@hartsem.edu  

(3) Developing an approach to congregational resources that begins with a congregational situation requiring self-reflection, and then builds a topical module of supporting national survey items for inclusion in one of the biennial surveys, the results from which get built back into the congregational resource. Watch this website and the newsletter for emerging information about resources. 

(4) Building a capacity for and experience with narrative approaches that elicit the thick description of congregation's own stories and perspectives on vitality and meeting the challenges of change. Watch this page for emerging findings. 

Membership in the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership is open to religious organizations and denominational agencies that share CCSP's interests in producing and promoting research based resources for congregational development; in mutually enhancing the capacity of religious organizations to create and disseminate such resources through cooperative approaches; and in providing information and understanding to the public through the media role of congregations in American society. For information about membership, please contact:
David A. Roozen
Chair, CCSP Advisory Committee
Director, Hartford Institute for Religion Research
Hartford Seminary
77 Sherman Street, Hartford 06105
Phone: 860/509-9546 Fax: 860/509-9551
roozen@hartsem.edu