Against All Odds Case Study

In Against All Odds: the Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations, authors Brad Christerson, Korie L. Edwards, and Michael O. Emerson present the results of their research into integrated religious organizations. To frame their research they employ a case-study approach, examining four congregations, a religious based university and a religious organization within a university. Through these case studies the authors examine what processes happen in an integrated religious community, and what can be learned about how these communities function and develop. Ultimately, Against All Odds concludes that while there is tremendous value in interracial worship experiences, there are significant challenges to forming and maintaining …show more content…
They are all from the evangelical Protestant tradition and are located in large metropolitan areas. While one congregation, Messiah Fellowship, was founded by an Asian minister and predominantly Asian congregants, the other organizations all fall into the Anglo type as founders. These communities now vary in being majority Anglo, Black, Latino, or having no majority at all. To gather information the researchers relied on interviews with leadership and laity at these organizations as well as with people who had previously been a part of them but were not currently attending. They also consider how individuals rank and perceive friendships within their organization, and how these friendships do or do not fall along racial lines. In their concluding statements regarding their case studies, the authors found several commonalities across the case studies pertaining to racial integration in religious organizations. In every case study individuals in the organization emphasized they felt they benefited from integrated worship. The primary “benefit” is spiritual enrichment that comes from interracial worship, which many parishioners in the church congregations explicitly