Date of Award
12-2004
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Social Work (MSW)
Abstract
The purpose for this exploratory research was to find out to what extent Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) church members from a midsize Midwest City perceive social ministry programs as a priority within their church and to identify priority populations with whom they would like to see their church serve. Priority areas of service listed by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (at risk youth, ex-offenders, homeless, hungry, substance abusers, people with HIV/AIDS, welfare to work families) were used as a framework in developing categories and used for comparisons.
A survey was distributed to a total of 450 church members from six local ELCA congregations. The response rate was 20% and the data from completed surveys were presented in this research. In the survey four functions of a church (worship, social ministry programs, youth programs, education) were listed. From this list, respondents perceived social ministry programs to be the last priority within their church at the time of the survey. When asked to prioritize (1-3) the populations their church should serve through social ministry programs, respondent's selected hungry ( 42.4%), homeless (23.9%) and at-risk youth (23.9%) as their top three populations to serve. Ex-offenders (4.3%) and people with HIV/AIDS (4.3%) were indicated the least as populations churches should serve.
Lack of funding was perceived to be the number one barrier in establishing and sustaining social ministry programs at respondent's churches. A majority of the respondents (77.8%) were unaware of federal grants available to faith-based organizations for supporting social ministry programs and ( 51.1 % ) were in favor of their church applying for federal grants. The data also showed that 79.3% of the respondents believed that the social ministry programs run by their churches should be available to anyone in need, not just church members
Recommended Citation
Reimer, Ruth L., "Social Ministry, Congregations, and the faith based initiative" (2004). Theses and Dissertations. 7413.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/7413