Volunteering among church attendees in Australia : individual and collective dimensions

This chapter examines the relationship between involvement in churches and individual volunteering activity in the wider community in Australia. The findings confirm the importance of the degree of a person's church involvement, demographics and theological orientation in predicting individual volunteering by church attendees in the wider community. Church attendees' stated reasons for volunteering formed a pattern which did not vary across four domains of volunteering beyond the congregation, with altruistic and religious reasons being the most common reasons for volunteering activity. However, a distinction emerges in the findings between individual volunteering activity and collective involvement by the congregation in the wider community. The sense of collective efficacy among church attendees was strongly associated with the extent of congregational bridging to the wider community, but did not predict individual volunteering activity. The role of collective efficacy raises questions about the focus of congregations and the need for vision and goal setting as key ingredients in congregational life. The research sheds light on the relationship between bonding and bridging capital, and shows that the relationship is not a simple one. Bonding and bridging are quite strongly related where it is congregational rather than individual bridging activity that is in view.