It appears that samples biased toward larger, urban congregations may have caused previous studies to substantially overestimate the proportion of all congregations involved in formal social service projects. Table 1 suggests that congregations favor some types of projects over others. 4 Taken as a whole, the results presented in this table suggest that congregations are more likely to engage in activities that address the immediate needs of individuals for food, clothing, and shelter than in projects or programs that require sustained involvement to meet longer-term goals. The numbers in table 1 disguise a great deal of variation in the intensity with which congregations are involved in social service activity. The 33 percent of congregations supporting or participating in food programs, for example, encompasses a wide range of involvement levels, from donating money to a community food bank to supplying volunteers for a Meals on Wheels project to operating a soup kitchen.
Similar variety is evident among housing programs and programs to serve the homeless.
One measure of the depth to which congregations are involved in these activities is the extent to which they administer programs under their own auspices. For each program or project reported by a congregation, the survey asked whether it was completely run by the congregation, or whether it was run by, or in collaboration with, other organizations. About one-third of congregations with food projects operate them on their own, which means that only 12 percent of all congregations run such programs by themselves. By far the most typical pattern of involvement in social service activity is for congregations to support programs and activities operated by other organizations. Other indicators of the depth of congregational involvement in social service activity are equally informative.