Profile of Nondenominational Churches

A Report from the 
Organizing Religious Work Project

General Profile
Membership
Identity

Total 73 churches

Subgrouping of Independent Congregations

Networked (N=31)   42.5% - Those mentioning affiliation with a national/regional Network

Independent Baptist (N=11)   15.0% - Those independent churches indicating a strong Baptist tradition

Nondenominational (N=31)   42.5% - Those groups not mentioning any external affiliations.

General Profile

Region  
Northeast (N=10) 14%
Midwest (N=29) 40%
South (N=15) 20%
West (N=19) 26%

Setting
Rural Congregations (N=5) 7% 
Urban Congregations (N=68) 93%

Founding Era
1900-1924 (N=3) 5%
1925-1949 (N=6) 10%
1950-1974 (N=13) 22%
1975-1989 (N=25) 42%
1990-present (N=20) 20%

Founding Era

Median Weekly Attendance - 110 persons

Range in attendance from 9 to 5500 persons

92% have a constitution
86% are incorporated
64% own their own building and of these 92% hold the deed

Average Attendance

Median Yearly Budget - $100,000

Range in budget from $2000/yr. to $7,000,000/yr.

Number of Clergy in the Congregations

0 clergy (N=3)   5%
1 clergy (N=23) 41%
2 clergy (N=13) 23%
3 to 30  (N=17) 31%
missing  (N=17)

Membership

Education of Membership

60% of congregations have half or more members with a high school degree or less.

54% of congregations have some members with graduate work.

Income of Membership

84% of congregations have some or less with household income below $15,000.

50% of congregations have some or more with household income above $75,000.

Age of Membership

60% of congregations have half or more young adult members.

50% of congregations have hardly any members over the age of 65.

Racial Composition of Membership - % of churches having "All or Nearly All" of indicated racial group

White (N=16) 22%
Black (N=14) 19%
Hispanic (N=2) 3%
Asian (N=2) 3%

** 53% of the congregations have 10% or more minority racial presence.

** 24% of the congregations have no more than 60% of any one racial group.

Racial Distribution

	Networked	Independent Baptist	Nondenominational
	28	10	25
All White	25.0	20.0	28.0
All Black	21.4	40.0	16.0
All Hispanic			8.0
All Asian			8.0
Multi-Racial (more than 10% mixed)	53.6	40.0	40.0

 

Identity

Polity -  100% have a congregational polity

Member Identification with a tradition

Sense of Connection/Accountability

	Networked	Independent Baptist	Nondenominational
Number	27	11	22
Reason for ties not mentioned	22.2	36.4	68.2
Independence is good	7.4	36.4	27.3
Account-ability is good	22.2		4.5
Connection is good	48.1	27.2

Strong Worship Identity - Strong Belief Identity

Number of churches	Networked	Independent Baptist	Nondenominational
Strong Worship Identity	17	1	5
Strong Belief Identity	13	4	9

 

If you are interested in other reports about Independent churches:

• Read a summary article of the Organizing Religion Work (ORW) Project research on nondenominational churches. 

• See data from the Faith Communities Today nondenominational research.

• View a comparison between the FACT and ORW information for certain survey variables.

Email your questions and comments to Scott Thumma at sthumma@hartsem.edu.