Research
The most recent scholarly research of the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University identifies one of the modern congregation’s greatest opportunities: to create sustainable opportunities for congregants to meaningfully engage in transformational change with their communities. This could be walking alongside families in poverty, addressing hunger, or building trauma sensitive congregations. C3I prioritizes research that identifies promising practices of congregation-based community change efforts. Coming from the unique background of social work and ministry, C3I works with congregations to measure their impact and create research-based models in order to strengthen ecumenical congregations and communities across the country.
C3I:
- prioritizes research that identifies promising practices of congregation-based community change efforts
- highlights how congregations engage culture and create sacred space for social change
- addresses how congregations can plan and measure their impact
C3I also has Doctoral Research Fellows that are conducting research in topics such as congregational responses to domestic violence, clergy sexual abuse, gender equity in congregations, among others. You can learn more about current Doctoral Research Fellows here. If you are interested in becoming a Research Fellow, please fill out our interest form below.
You can find a list of research articles that have come from C3I's research on congregations here.