The Congregational-Community Nexus (full report)

By Abbey Chambers

Despite renewed interest in urban redevelopment, and despite growing populations of residents living in downtown Indianapolis neighborhoods, most people who are members of the city’s urban congregations commute to their churches. Furthermore, many congregations do not have consistently strong ties with the communities where their churches sit, and some of the residents in these communities shared biting commentaries about why this is so. This study has sought to understand the dynamics behind such a congregational-community nexus, wherein religious and civic communities operate within the same geography, but without much collaboration between them.