Church Adaptation to Urban Social Change: A Typology of Protestant City Congregations

EMPIRICAL research in the sociology of religion has varied widely in terms of units of analysis. Three general foci have tended to underlie most of the empirical work done in this field: the individual (e.g. the social psychology of religion)2; religion as a social movement (e.g. the sect-church typology)3; and individual churches of a deviant or unusual nature.4 With certain exceptions5 there has been relatively little attention paid to the more normal type of urban congregation. This is unfortunate because it is in these local congregations that the majority of church-goers can be found, and empirical research which ignores this aspect of religious organization is incomplete and somewhat truncated. This paper seeks to remedy the deficiency in this area of research by presenting an analysis of urban congregations in one city based upon research carried out on a sample of 37 local congregations representing two denominations. First we will present a brief discussion of the research on which the typology is based. Then we will proceed with a detailed discussion of the typology itself, ending with a brief summary of what the paper has attempted to accomplish.