Browsing by Author "Farnsley, Arthur E. II"

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    Age and Tenure Among Indianapolis Clergy
    (1998-04) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    The average Indianapolis pastor is a 50-year-old male. Full-time ministry is usually his second career. He is currently at his fourth ministerial post. These are some of the raw facts that emerge from the initial scan of a database that now includes more than 500 clergy in the city. There is a suggestive similarity between the age of clergy and the age of parishioners. In short: mature adults are over-represented by half in the average congregation we studied. Clergy are older, on average, than other professionals such as teachers. These two facts together do not prove a correlation, but they certainly suggest one.
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    The Changing Face of Indianapolis Religion
    (1997-05) Diamond, Etan; Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    Like a photograph, a survey provides a snapshot of people’s attitudes or behaviors at a single point in time. It often reveals little about the past and how those attitudes have changed. Only by comparing different surveys from different points in time can we begin to see how attitudes have shifted, how the landscape has been altered.
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    The Changing Face of Indianapolis Religion
    (1997-05) Diamond, Etan; Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    We know from contemporary surveys of religious affiliation what the religious landscape of contemporary Indianapolis looks like. In the 1990s, Catholics are the single largest religious group, with Black Baptists and Methodists close behind. But how much does the modern lay of the land resemble Indianapolis of earlier decades, a city many of us still remember? How much has religion in our city changed?
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    Religion and the Regional Metropolis
    (1999-01) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    During the last few decades, cities have redefined their boundaries to include their metropolitan areas. Greater Indianapolis, defined by economic and social interdependency, is a nine-county region of which Marion County is the center. How will religion shape, and be shaped by, the shift in focus from city to metropolis? Beginning with this issue of Research Notes, the essay is followed by a roundtable discussion of the issues raised in the paper. Participants included: Kim Didier of the Front Porch Alliance (FPA); Bill Enright, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church; Art Farnsley, director of research at The Polis Center; and moderator Kevin Armstrong, senior public teacher at The Polis Center.
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    The Religious Landscape of Indianapolis
    (1997-02) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    Most people sense that Indianapolis is a typical, mid-sized American city with traditional values, values presumably drawn from a representative sample of American religious traditions. But how closely does this "Crossroads of America" mirror the religious landscape of the United States?
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    A Report on the 1997 Summer Research Effort
    (1997-08) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    The Project on Religion and Urban Culture employed 33 high school, college, and graduate school students to help us learn about religion’s role in shaping Indianapolis. The majority of them spent their summer as part of a research team assigned to a particular Indianapolis neighborhood. Others searched for themes from our neighborhood research, or pursued individual projects on religion’s role in Indianapolis history. The students visited more than 150 congregations and other community organizations and meetings, writing reports and conducting interviews, with the mission to answer the questions that drive our research: Does place matter? Are urban neighborhoods similar, or different in meaningful ways? Does religion build social capital in a neighborhood? How do congregations fit into a neighborhood’s infrastructure?
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    Thinking of Congregations as Community Assets
    (1998-09) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    Neighborhoods in Indianapolis, as in every city, are concerned about community development. The desire for economic growth, necessary social services, and residential stability is universal. Scholars and policy-makers have turned more of their attention to the role congregations can play in community development. There is an assumption that congregations are important social assets that are not being fully leveraged. Our research in neighborhoods has shown, however, that residents do not consider congregations to be economic assets to the community. In fact, congregations on average spend very little money or time on the development of the neighborhoods around their houses of worship.
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    Urban Congregations as Local Actors
    (1997-08) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    Do congregations think and act locally? Does it matter whether congregations are, or intend to be, anchors for the neighborhoods surrounding their houses of worship? Catholics maintain parishes, but even when boundaries are not so clearly set, congregations often think of themselves as community resources, providing services to the folks who live around their house of worship. Some policy-makers believe congregations are in a better position than secular social workers to know those who live around their facilities, and can serve their neighbors in a way that imparts values and moral structure in addition to material goods and services. But is this true?
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    Urban Congregations as Local Actors: The Rest of the Story
    (1997-12) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    In many neighborhoods, the majority of worshippers and clergy do not live in the area surrounding their church or synagogue. Most Christians believe they are called to love and to serve their neighbors. But must "neighbors" be defined as people who live near the sanctuary? In a mobile society, good stewardship may require making choices in which locale is not the overriding consideration. Significant racial or socioeconomic differences between the members of a congregation and the people who live around their sanctuary make communication and trust more difficult. On the other hand, when people from wealthier neighborhoods worship and serve in poorer neighborhoods, they often bring with them resources that the poor neighborhood lacks.
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    What Do You Mean By Average?
    (2000-03) Farnsley, Arthur E. II
    If we expect congregation to assume a larger role in providing public services, we must begin with realistic expectations, based on a fair accounting of the enormous breadth and variety among congregations as organizations. We can accurately describe the mean and median sizes of congregational memberships and budgets in Indianapolis, but the numbers require interpretation. The majority of congregations are smaller and have less money than early studies would lead us to believe. The top tier of congregations—the largest one-fifth—have a very large share of the members and control a very large share of the money. In some urban neighborhoods the single largest congregation accounts for as much as 90 percent of all social service spending by congregations. Only 20 percent of congregations actually spend as much on social services as the mean-average. When only one-fifth of a group is "average" or above, there is something misleading about the term. Roundtable discussion follows essay.