Correlates of Participation in Local Churches

Abstract Using data from a sample of 58 local churches, we predict two types of participation by members. We examine the importance of individual background attributes for the prediction of participation, but we also go beyond most past research efforts to consider reactions to the church, organizational characteristics, interpersonal influence, orientation toward the church, and activity in other organizations. Individual background characteristics are found to be more important for predicting the proportion of income donated to the church than for predicting active participation in church affairs. Our findings also indicate that social experiences are more important than demographic and other individual background characteristics for predicting active participation. We conclude that theories of participation should include both individual background variables and more “dynamic” variables.