Virtually every religious community in our sample engages in some form of intermittent direct relief though the time frame and substance of such relief varies greatly from one religious community to the next. Congregations marked by civic disengagement will, at the very least, provide holiday gift baskets to needy families during the Christmas season. Parachurch relief agencies often retain centralized records concerning relief disbursement and recipient information. Consequently, these agencies can reinforce social distance between the privileged churchgoer and the disadvantaged relief recipient. These relief missions can transform the perceptions of privileged congregants by exposing them directly to the plight of the poor for a predetermined period of time.
Mission trips vary in destination and duration.
They typically range from several days for regional trips to several weeks for international missions. In some cases, these pilgrimages offer the sojourner long term empathy for the poor and a heightened awareness of poverty. Read more about this research project and see additional research and resources on congregational aid delivery.