Publications [#255491] of Mark Chaves

Publications

1. Chaves, MA; Anderson, SL, Changing American Congregations: Findings from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 53 no. Forthcoming in the December, 2014 issue (December, 2014), pp. 676-686, WILEY [repository], [doi]
   (last updated on 2025/06/15)

   Abstract:
   The third wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-III) was conducted in 2012. The 2012 General Social Survey asked respondents who attend religious services to name their religious congregation, producing a nationally representative cross-section of congregations from across the religious spectrum. Data about these congregations was collected via a 50-minute interview with one key informant from 1,331 congregations. Information was gathered about multiple aspects of congregations’ social composition, structure, activities, and programming. Approximately two-thirds of the NCS-III questionnaire replicates items from 1998 or 2006-07 NCS waves. Each congregation was geocoded, and selected data from the 2010 United States census or American Community Survey have been appended. We describe NCS-III methodology and use the cumulative NCS dataset (containing 4,071 cases) to describe five trends: more ethnic diversity, greater acceptance of gays and lesbians, increasingly informal worship styles, declining size (but not from the perspective of the average attendee), and declining denominational affiliation.