Social Action, Evangelism, and Ecumenism: The Impact of Community, Theological, and Church Structural Variables
This study is concerned with evaluating the extent to which community, theological, and church structural variables were associated with community outreach activities of churches. Thompson and McEwen's (1958) discussion of organizational strategies provided a framework for conceptualizaing poss...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
1992
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| In: |
Review of religious research
Year: 1992, Volume: 34, Issue: 1, Pages: 34-50 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | This study is concerned with evaluating the extent to which community, theological, and church structural variables were associated with community outreach activities of churches. Thompson and McEwen's (1958) discussion of organizational strategies provided a framework for conceptualizaing possible environmental impacts upon these activities. Social involvement was identified with a strategy of bargaining, evangelism with cooptation, and ecumenism with coalition-building. The social environment was operationalized by four variables representing the local community: population size, per capita income, proportion of elderly, and ethnic mix. The effects of two theological variables (view of the Bible, view of sin) and three church structural variables (proportion of elderly, educational level of members, and membership size) upon church outreach activities were also examined. The findings suggest that the impacts of environmental variables are important to both social involvement (bargaining) and ecumenism (coalition-building), but less so to evangelism (cooptation). Theological variables most strongly related to evangelism, and less to both social involvement and ecumenism. The structural variables had little effect upon outreach activities. |
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| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3511444 |