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Research Projects & Findings
The Cooperative Congregations Studies Partnership’s primary research program is its Faith Communities Today (FACT) series of national surveys of U.S. congregations, details about which are presented below. The series’ goal is to track changes in a broad spectrum of characteristics of American congregations, identity the sources of such changes and through occasional special modules more deeply plumb the dynamics of selected congregational practices and challenges.
The FACT series was launched in 2000 with the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the United States. The study of 14,301 local churches, synagogues, parishes, temples and mosques provided a public profile of the organizational backbone of religion in America – congregations – at the beginning of a new millennium. CCSP will conduct a mega-survey like FACT2000 at the turn of every decade, coinciding with the U.S. Census; and in fact planning has begun for 2010.
Additionally, and just as the Census Bureau conducts regular national surveys between its large-scale decadal enumerations, it is our intent to conduct several, more typically sized, national surveys of congregations, in intervening years. FACT2005 was our first intra-decadal survey, and you can find a description and related reports below. FACT2008 went into the field in April, 2008 and we anticipate initial findings will be available by April 2009.
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2000 |
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FACT
2005 |
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The FACT2000 data include 26 individual surveys of congregations representing 41 denominations and faith groups, representing about 90 percent of worshippers in the US. More than 14,000 congregations participated in the survey. These denominations and faith groups worked together, in multi-faith cooperation, to undertake this survey. Their coming together for this purpose was unprecedented as was the data that was produced.
The
questionnaire
used to collect the information for the Fact2000 study is available for download in .pdf format.
If
you do not have the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file,
you can get
it for free from the Adobe web site. |
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- Overall Survey Report
- Special Module: Report on Growth
The FACT2005 key informant questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 3000 congregations. 884 responses were received. Responses were weighted to known population parameters for region and faith family, and for size of congregation and rural/city/ suburban location. Sampling error for such a survey can only be estimated. We estimate it to be +/- 4% at the 95% confidence level.
The survey replicates many questions from FACT2000, and contains a special set of questions on numerical growth.
The questionnaire
being used to collect the information for the Fact2005 study is available for download in .pdf format.
If
you do not have the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this file,
you can get
it for free from the Adobe web site.
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FACT2008 |
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FACT2008 went into the field in April, 2008 and we anticipate initial findings will be available by April 2009.
It will use a multi-layer sampling design, with three different options for response. The core sample consists of 3,000 randomly chosen congregations from a mailing list data base provided by MCH, Inc. This was reviewed and cleaned by CCSP members. Key informants in sampled congregations will have the option of responding by mail, online or through a telephone interview. Additionally, several CCSP member denominations and faith groups will do their own sample of congregations using the FACT2008 questionnaire, and their responses will be aggregated into and representatively weighted with responses from the core sample.
As the case for FACT2005, FACT2008 will replicate many of the items from FACT2000. Additionally, it has two special modules – one on energizing current participants and the second on clergy leadership.
The questionnaire used to collect the information for the Fact2008 study is available for download in .pdf format.
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