All Publications
Publications from the National Congregations Study range from general overviews to writings about specific topics. They are aimed at academic, clergy, and lay audiences. If copyright restrictions prevent your download of an article for which Mark Chaves is one of the authors, please contact us with your request and we will send a copy to you. Also, if you have used NCS data to write something, or if you know of something that has been written using NCS data, please let us know so we can add it to the list of study writings.
Stained Glass Makes the Ceiling Visible: Organizational Opposition to Women in Congregational Leadership
Adams, Jimi. 2007. Gender & Society 21(1):80–105.
The Shifting Landscape of US Catholic Parishes, 1998-2012
Adler, Gary J. 2019. Pp. 69–94 in American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism, edited by G. J. Adler, T. C. Bruce, and B. Starks. New York: Fordham University Press.
An Opening in the Congregational Closet? Boundary-Bridging Culture and Membership Privileges for Gays and Lesbians in Christian Religious Congregations
Adler, Gary. 2012. Social Problems 59(2):177–206.
Survey Data Collection Methods and Discrepancy in the Sociological Study of Religious Congregations
Adler, Gary, Brad R. Fulton and Catherine Hoegeman. 2020. Sociology of Religion 81(4): 371–412
Conflict in American Protestant Congregations
Anderson, Shawna L. 2010. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Dearly Departed: How Often Do Congregations Close?
Anderson, Shawna L., Jessica Hamar Martinez, Catherine Hoegeman, Gary Adler and Mark Chaves. 2008. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(2):321–28.
Filling Pews and Voting Booths: The Role of Politicization in Congregational Growth
Audette, Andre P. and Christopher L. Weaver. 2016. Political Research Quarterly 69(2):245–57.
Reconciling the God and Gender Gaps: The Influence of Women in Church Politics
Audette, Andre P., Maryann Kwakwa, and Christopher L. Weaver. 2018. Politics, Groups, and Identities 6(4):682-701.
Social Sources of the Spirit: Connecting Rational Choice and Interactive Ritual Theories in the Study of Religion
Baker, Joseph. 2010. Sociology of Religion 71(4):432–56.
Is the Religious Left Resurgent?
Baker, Joseph and Marti, Gerardo. 2020. Sociology of Religion 81(2):131–141.
A House Divided
Barnes, Mary Jo. 2019. Pp. 153–72 in American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism, edited by G. J. Adler Jr., T. C. Bruce, and B. Starks. New York: Fordham University Press.
Social Legitimacy and the Political Styles of Protestant Congregations in the United States
Beckham, Tony A. 2004. Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Leadership Studies, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.
Protestant Megachurch Growth: The Role of the Congregant-Focused and Public-Focused Social Services
Belt, Michael. 2021. Master’s Thesis. Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University.
The Political Activities of Religious Congregations in the United States
Beyerlein, Kraig and Mark Chaves. 2003. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42(2):229–46.
Why Congregations Mobilize for Progressive Causes
Beyerlein, Kraig and A. Joseph West. 2017. Pp 76—96 in Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics, edited by Ruth Braunstein, Todd Nicholas Fuist, and Rhys H. Williams. New York: New York University Press.
The Political Mobilization of America’s Congregations
Beyerlein, Kraig and Mark Chaves. 2020. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 59(4): 663-674.
How Many Congregations Are There? Updating a Survey-Based Estimate
Brauer, Simon G. 2017. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56(2):438-448.
The Role Race Plays: Racial Differences in Social Service Provision and Political Activism among Black and White Religious Congregations
Brown, Khari. 2004. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Racial Differences in Congregation-based Political Activism
Brown, Khari. 2006. Social Forces 84(3):1581–1604.
Congregations’ Social Service Activities
Chaves, Mark. 1999. No. 6 in Charting Civil Society, a series of policy briefs by Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, The Urban Institute, Washington, DC.
How Do We Worship? A Report from the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark. 1999. Washington, DC: Alban Institute Press.
Religious Congregations and Welfare Reform: Who Will Take Advantage of ‘Charitable Choice’?
Chaves, Mark. 1999. American Sociological Review 64(6):836–46.
Assessing the Assumptions Behind the Charitable Choice Initiative
Chaves, Mark. 2001. Written testimony included in Faith-Based Solutions: What Are the Legal Issues? Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary on Title VII of S. 304, the “Drug Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment Act of 2001.” United States Senate, 107th Cong., 1st Sess., June 6.
Challenges for the 21st Century
Chaves, Mark. 2001. The Journal of the Interim Ministry Network, 2001 Annual Review December:27–39.
Faith-Based Fallacies: Bush’s Initiative Overlooks the Realities of Church Charity in America
Chaves, Mark. 2001. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 22, p. A-15.
Going on Faith: Six Myths about Faith-Based Initiatives
Chaves, Mark. 2001. Christian Century, September 12–19, pp. 20–23.
Religious Congregations and Welfare Reform: Assessing the Potential
Chaves, Mark. 2001. Pp. 121– 39 in Can Charitable Choice Work? Covering Religion's Impact on Urban Affairs and Social Services, edited by Andrew Walsh. Hartford, CT: The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Trinity College.
Testing the Assumptions: Who Provides Social Services?
Chaves, Mark. 2001. Pp. 287–96 in Sacred Places, Civic Purposes, edited by E. J. Dionne Jr. and Ming Hsu Chen. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Financing American Religion
Chaves, Mark. 2002. Pp. 41–54 in Taking Fundraising Seriously: The Spirit of Faith and Philanthropy, edited by Dwight F. Burlingame. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Religious Congregations
Chaves, Mark. 2002. Pp. 275–98 in The State of America’s Nonprofit Sector, edited by Lester Salamon. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Religious Organizations: Data Resources and Research Opportunities
Chaves, Mark. 2002. American Behavioral Scientist 45(10):1523–49.
Debunking Charitable Choice: The Evidence Doesn't Support the Political Left or Right
Chaves, Mark. 2003. Stanford Social Innovation Review 1(2):28–36.
Congregations’ Significance to American Civic Life
Chaves, Mark. 2007. Pp. 31–43 in Civil Society, Civic Engagement and Catholicism in the United States, edited by Antonius Liedhegener and Werner Kremp. Trier, Germany: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
What Do Congregations Do? The Significance of Christian Congregations to American Civic Life
Chaves, Mark. 2007. Word & World 27(3):295–304.
Congregational Snapshot: Four Church Trends
Chaves, Mark. 2009. Christian Century, April 7, pp. 28–31.
Congregations’ Significance to American Civic Life
Chaves, Mark. 2009. Pp. 69–81 in The Civic Life of American Religion, edited by Paul Lichterman and C. Brady Potts. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Twenty-Seven Short Research Reports About Religion in the United States
Chaves, Mark. 2009–10. Faith and Leadership, an online magazine produced by Duke Divinity School.
Thanks, But No Thanks: Congregations Say No to the Faith-Based Initiative
Chaves, Mark. 2010. Christian Century, June 1, pp. 22–24.
Religious Congregations
Chaves, Mark. 2012. Pp. 362 – 93 in The State of Nonprofit America, 2nd Edition, edited by Lester M. Salamon. DC: Brookings Institute Press.
American Religion: Contemporary Trends, 2nd edition
Chaves, Mark. 2017. Princeton University Press.
Continuity and Change in American Congregations: Introducing the Second Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Shawna L. Anderson. 2008. Sociology of Religion 69(4):415–40.
Continuity and Change in American Religion, 1972–2008
Chaves, Mark and Shawna L. Anderson. 2012. Pp. 212–39 in Social Trends in American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972, edited by Peter V. Marsden. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Changing American Congregations: Findings from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Shawna L. Anderson. 2014. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53(4):676– 86.
American Congregations at the Beginning of the 21st Century: A Report from the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark, Shawna L. Anderson and Jason Byassee. 2009. Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Religious Congregations in 21st Century America: A Report from the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Alison J. Eagle. 2015. Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Congregations and Social Services: An Update from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and Alison J. Eagle. 2016. Religions 7(55):1-9.
Religious Variations in Public Presence: Evidence from the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark, Helen Giesel and William Tsitsos. 2002. Pp. 108–28 in The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism, edited by Robert Wuthnow and John H. Evans. Berkeley: University of California Press.
The National Congregations Study: Background, Methods, and Selected Results
Chaves, Mark, Mary Ellen Konieczny, Kraig Beyerlein and Emily Barman. 1999. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38(4):458–76.
Congregations in 21st Century America
Chaves, Mark, Joseph Roso, Anna Holleman, and Mary Hawkins. 2021. Durham, NC: Duke University, Department of Sociology.
Does Government Funding Suppress Nonprofits’ Political Activities?
Chaves, Mark, Laura Stephens and Joseph Galaskiewicz. 2004. American Sociological Review 69:292–316.
Are Congregations Constrained by Government? Empirical Results from the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark and William Tsitsos. 2000. Journal of Church and State 42(2):335–44.
Congregations and Social Services: What They Do, How They Do It, and With Whom
Chaves, Mark and William Tsitsos. 2001. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 30(4):660–83.
Did the Faith-Based Initiative Change Congregations?
Chaves, Mark and Bob Wineburg. 2010. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 39(2):343–55.
Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study
Chaves, Mark, Mary Hawkins, Anna Holleman and Joseph Roso. 2020. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 59(4): 646-650.
The Impact of Congregational Characteristics on Conflict-Related Exit
Chou, Hui-Tzu Grace. 2008. Sociology of Religion 69(1):93–108.
Congregational Size and Attitudes towards Racial Inequality among Church Attendees in America
Cobb, Ryon J., Kevin D. Dougherty, Jerry Z. Park and Samuel L. Perry. 2015. Religions 6(3):781–93.
United by Faith? Race/Ethnicity, Congregational Diversity, and Explanations of Racial Inequality
Cobb, Ryon J., Samuel L. Perry and Kevin D. Dougherty. 2015. Sociology of Religion 76(2):177–98.
Congregational Composition and Explanations for Racial Inequality among Black Religious Affiliates
Cobb, Ryon J., Dilara K. Üsküp, and Steven T. Jefferson. 2017. Race and Social Problems 9(2):163-169.
The Black Church Is Alive: Exploring Factors that Keep the Black Church Central to Black American Activism
Cole, Kiga. 2022. Master’s Thesis, Department of Sociology, California State University, Sacramento.
Recent Research on Catholic Parishes: A Research Note
Davidson, James D. and Suzanne C. Fournier. 2006. Review of Religious Research 48(1):72–81.
U.S. Religious Congregations’ Programming to Support Veterans: A Mixed Methods Study
Derose, Kathryn P., Ann Haas, and Laura Werber. 2016. Journal of Religion and Health 55(3):956–72.
Are Online Congregations Representative? Exploring Resource and Political Differences
Djupe, Paul A., Claire C. Gilliland, and Shayla F. Olson. 2023. Review of Religious Research.
Political Mobilization in American Congregations: A Religious Economies Perspective
Djupe, Paul A. and Jacob R. Neiheisel. 2019. Politics and Religion 12(1):123– 152.
Decline and Conflict: Causes and Consequences of Leadership Transitions in Religious Congregations
Dollhopf, Erica J., and Christopher P. Scheitle. 2013. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 52(4):675–97.
Initial Results from a Survey of Two Cohorts of Religious Nonprofits
Dollhopf, Erica J., Christopher P. Scheitle, and John D. McCarthy. 2015. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54(1):156–65.
Racially Diverse Congregations: Organizational Identity and the Accommodation of Differences
Dougherty, Kevin D. and Kimberly R. Huyser. 2008. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(1):23–43.
Racial Diversity in U.S. Congregations, 1998-2019
Dougherty, Kevin D., Mark Chaves and Michael O. Emerson. 2020. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 59(4): 651-662.
Mega, Medium, and Mini: Size and the Socioeconomic Status Composition of American Protestant Churches
Eagle, David E. 2012. Research in the Sociology of Work 23:281–307.
Supersized Christianity: The Origins and Consequences of Protestant Megachurches in America
Eagle, David E. 2015. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
The Negative Relationship between Size and the Probability of Weekly Attendance in Churches in the United States
Eagle, David E. 2016. Socius 2:1-10.
The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches
Edwards, Korie L. 2008. New York: Oxford University Press.
Race, Religious Organizations, and Integration
Edwards, Korie L., Brad Christerson, and Michael O. Emerson. 2013. Annual Review of Sociology 39(1):211–28.
Race, Religion, and Worship: Are Contemporary African-American Worship Practices Distinct?
Edwards, Korie L. 2009. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(1):30–52.
Size, Conflict, and Opportunities for Interaction: Congregational Effects on Members' Anticipated Support and Negative Interaction
Ellison, Christopher, Neal Krause, Bryan Shepherd and Mark Chaves. 2009. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(1):1–15.
People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States
Emerson, Michael O. with Rodney M. Woo. 2006. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Church Activism
Everton, Sean F. 2016. Pp 368-71 in The Sage Encyclopedia of Economics and Society, edited by Frederick F. Wherry and Juliet B. Schor. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Networks and Religion: Ties that Bind, Loose, Build Up, and Tear Down
Everton, Sean F. 2018. New York: Cambridge University Press.
For God and Country: The Political Activism of Religious Congregations in the United States
Everton, Sean F. 2023. International Journal of Religion 4(2):89-106.
Congregations Serving Homeless Populations: Examining Predictive Factors and Policy Implications
Fisher, Catherine C., Larry Ortiz, Qais Alemi, and Nipher M Malika. 2021. Social Work Research 44(2):234-245.
National Trends in Food Insecurity and Congregation-Based Food Provision between 1998 and 2012
Flórez, Karen R., Brad R. Fulton, and Kathryn P. Derose. 2019. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 58(3):265–80.
Social Capital, Religious Institutions, and Poor Communities
Foley, Michael W., John D. McCarthy and Mark Chaves. 2001. Pp. 215–45 in Social Capital and Poor Communities, edited by Susan Saegert, J. Phillip Thompson and Mark Warren. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.
Social Capital, Religious Institutions, and Poor Communities
Foley, Michael W., John D. McCarthy and Mark Chaves. 2008. Pp. 121–30 in The Community Development Reader, edited by James DeFilippis and Susan Saegert. New York: Routledge.
The Role of Religious Congregations in the Mental Health Care System
Frenk, Steven M. 2011. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Beyond Clergy: Congregations’ Sponsorship of Social Services for People with Mental Disorders
Frenk, Steven M. 2014. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research 41:146–57.
Assessing the Validity of Key Informant Reports about Congregations’ Social Composition
Frenk, Steven, Shawna L. Anderson, Mark Chaves and Nancy Martin. 2011. Sociology of Religion 72(1):78–90.
Proportion of U.S. Congregations that have People Living with HIV
Frenk, Steven M. and Mark Chaves. 2012. Journal of Religion and Health 51:371–80.
U.S. Congregations’ Provision of Programs or Activities for People Living with HIV/AIDS
Frenk, Steven M., and Jenny Trinitapoli. 2013. AIDS and Behavior 17(5):1829–38.
Bridging and Bonding: How Diverse Networks Influence Organizational Outcomes
Fulton, Brad R. 2015. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Trends in Addressing Social Needs: A Longitudinal Study of Congregation-Based Service Provision and Political Participation
Fulton, Brad R. 2016. Religions 7(5):51-67.
Network Ties and Organizational Action: Explaining Variation in Social Service Provision Patterns
Fulton, Brad R. 2016. Management and Organizational Studies 3(3):1-20.
Achieving and Leveraging Diversity Through Faith-Based Organizing
Fulton, Brad R., and Richard L. Wood. 2017. Pp. 29-55 in Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics, edited by Ruth Braunstein, Todd Nicholas Fuist, and Rhys H. Williams. New York: New York University Press.
The Bible in American Life Today
Goff, Philip, Arthur E. Farnsley II, and Peter J. Thuesen. 2017. Pp. 5—35 in The Bible in American Life, edited by Philip Goff, Arthur E. Farnsley II, and Peter J. Thuesen. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Socio-Economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis
Grim, Brian J. and Melissa E. Grim. 2016. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 12(3):1-31.
How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week? An Alternative Approach to Measurement
Hadaway, C. Kirk and Penny Long Marler. 2005. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44(3):307–322.
Job Status of Women Head Clergy: Findings from the National Congregations Study, 1998, 2006, and 2012
Hoegeman, Catherine. 2017. Religions 8(8):154-170.
Springfield Area Congregations Study: Profile and Community Engagement
Hoegeman, Catherine, Dan Prater, Christina Ryder, and Matthew Gallion. 2016. Drury University Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Missouri State University, Springfield, MO.