Organizing Religious Work for the 21st Century

Regional Units

Recognizing that no religious body can be understood solely by looking at either its national or local organizations, we also gave attention to the often overlooked regional units on which both local congregations and national structures depend.  Taking our seven regional research sites as the focus, we examined the role of state and regional units in each of the eight denominational systems.  We interviewed judicatory officials, read newsletters and reports, attended annual conventions, and sought to understand the unique challenges of working at this middle level in larger religious bodies.[view the list of researchers]

Survey Instruments used at the regional/Judicatory level include:

• Questionnaire given to Judicatory executives 
• Regional leader interviews

Reports of the judicatory findings by Adair Lummis:

The Art and Science of Subtle Proactivity: Regional Leaders and Their Congregations  A paper presented at the Religious Research Association Annual Meetings, Columbus, Ohio October 2001.

The Role of Judicatories in Interpreting Denominational Identity A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Religious Research Association Boston, 1999 [Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this article]

Judicatory Niches and Negotiations A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion San Francisco, 1998

Research report summaries by Adair Lummis

Research Report Conference I: The Middle Judicatory as a System of Congregations Connected to the Regional Office

Research Report Conference IIa:  Judicatories' Ways of Encouraging Congregations to Share or Covenant with one another in Ministry and Mission

Encouraging Large, Wealthy Congregations to Share Resources with Small, Poor Congregations, Second Research Report, Part B

Research Report Conference III: Regional Leaders Ways of Working with Congregations

Research Report Series IV: Getting Pastors for Churches & Clergy for the Judicatory

Research Report Series 4.2: Finding Leaders at All for Part-Time and Rural Parishes

Research Report Series 4.3 - 4.4:  Nonstipendiary and/or Non-M.Div.  Pastors for Small Congregations:  Education, Oversight and Impact on Community and Covenant Within the Judicatory

Research  Report V:  Connections and Unity Among and Between Congregations, Middle (Regional) Judicatories and Their National Church