How congregations can collaborate with us
We are always looking for churches and congregational leaders to participate in our research projects. We would be happy to include your church as long as your group meets certain criteria that ensure our research efforts maintain methodological rigor and express the diversity of the U.S. religious landscape.
If you think your church would like to be involved, just fill out the form below and select the ways that your congregation might want to participate. Here are the options, many of which involve some compensation to the participating congregation:
National key-informant surveys
Congregations who express interest in this area may receive invitations to complete brief topical surveys twice per year between 2021 and 2026.
Five-year longitudinal study
We are recruiting several hundred churches for this study and are seeking congregations who are open to a 5-year commitment to track change and innovation in their church over time. Specifically, this will involve participation in an annual key-informant survey and pastoral survey once per year between 2022 and 2026, as well as one survey of the congregation’s membership in 2023.
Church attender survey
We are soliciting volunteer churches whose entire membership will be asked to complete an attender survey. This portion of the study is slated to take place in 2024.
Regional case studies
These slots are now full in our eight target cities (Hartford CT, Long Beach, CA, Waco, TX, Denver, CO, Minneapolis, MN, Washington, DC, Indianapolis, IN, and the southern and eastern suburbs of Atlanta) and the churches selected will be contacted soon. We are no longer needing congregations in this area, but welcome your interest in the other areas outlined above.
We would also be overjoyed if your leadership team used our resources, received our newsletter, and followed our social media posts. We want to make sure our research addresses your questions about church life following the pandemic. Let us know if you have questions or topics for us to research or address in our posts and other communications.
How denominational leaders can collaborate with us
Our Faith Communities Today (FACT) partnership effort is an excellent way to begin or augment your organization’s research capabilities and collect data on your churches at this crucial time in the history of religious life in the United States.
Your denomination’s participation through FACT is free and you stand to benefit by learning more about how your churches are adapting to a post pandemic reality. Becoming a FACT partner denomination will allow you to include a random sampling of your churches in all our survey and research efforts. We ask that you contribute this information to our aggregated data but we will never specifically identify your group’s particular information in any of our releases. Your group will own your data, but joining us in this effort will help us get a more robust and complete picture of U.S. congregational life. Contact us for more information about this unique collaborative partnership.
We are also always interested in collecting information about topics that you want to know about, so if you have ideas for what we should explore in our research on congregational life, please get in touch with us.
Finally, we would greatly appreciate it if your denomination uses our resources, receives our newsletter, or follows our social media posts. Please contact us if you are interested in more information about any of these resources or opportunities.