Global Service And Witness
The section on Global Service and Witness asked about congregational sponsorship of refugee resettlement and involvement in mission projects. Just 5% of congregations indicated that their congregations have "sponsored resettlement of one or more refugees in the last three years." Congregations with more than 600 members were more likely than smaller congregations to have sponsored such efforts 15% of congregations with more than 600 members, but only 4% of smaller congregations, reported that they had been involved in refugee resettlement in the last three years.
Respondents were also asked about members' participation in mission projects in 1996. Five types of mission projects were presented and respondents were asked to indicate the number of workgroups from the congregation that took part in each type in the last year. As can be seen in Table 6, less than half of congregations reported each type of mission activity. Local mission projects were most common, with four in ten congregations (43%) indicating that at least one workgroup from their congregation took part in a mission projects at a site within 100 miles of the church. Overall, 4,870 congregations reported participation in at least one of these types of mission projects in 1996 (51% of responding congregations).
| Number of Such Mission Trips Reported | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | 1-2 | 3 or More | ||
| Location of Project | ||||
| mission projects within 100 miles of the church | 57% | 29% | 14% | |
| mission projects in the U.S., but more than 100 miles from the church | 78% | 19% | 3% | |
| mission projects outside the U.S. | 80% | 18% | 2% | |
| Group Participating | ||||
| youth mission projects | 64% | 30% | 6% | |
| adult mission projects | 71% | 21% | 8% | |
Perhaps not surprisingly, larger congregations were more likely to have sponsored each of these types of mission activities in 1996. Figure 3 shows these results.
Additional questions addressed the promotion of the One Great Hour of Sharing churchwide special offering and awareness of the Commitment to Share the Good News General Assembly action. The largest percentage of congregations (44%) reported using four of the prepared bulletin inserts to promote the One Great Hour of Sharing offering in 1996. In addition, 16% reported using none, 11% reported one, 16% reported two, and 6% reported three. In addition, 5% reported that they used five or more bulletin inserts to promote the offering, suggesting either that they developed additional inserts locally for this use or that they did not understand the question. Another 2% reported that the congregation did not take the offering.
Only 28% of respondents reported that their congregations were aware of the Commitment to Share the Good News, a General Assembly action similar to the Commitment to Peacemaking. Large-membership congregations were more likely than smaller congregations to report familiar with the Commitment to Share the Good News (see Figure 4).
Congregations that reported awareness of the Commitment to Share the Good News were slightly more likely than those that were unaware of this commitment to have sponsored resettlement of refugees (6% and 4%, respectively) and to have sponsored each of the various types of congregational work groups in the previous year (differences of about 6% to 8% between the two groups).
For information about Congregational Statistics, email Ida Smith-Williams