What if there were something you could do this coming year—an action you could take—that would make your life better, improve your church community, and help democracy? Such action is possible! These benefits happen when people and places of faith get involved in their local communities.

Since 2012, my research team and I have worked with all kinds of congregations in Little Rock, Arkansas—from Evangelical megachurches to Islamic mosques, from rural Baptist churches to multiethnic congregations in the heart of the city. The data we collected, through hundreds of interviews and thousands of surveys, repeatedly show that faith-based community engagement is good for everyone.

Individuals, congregations and society all benefit when congregations get involved in the community. If you are looking for a New Year’s Resolution worth keeping, consider how your congregation can serve your community this year. It’s a resolution with widespread benefits.

In my new book, Faith and Community, I use statistics from more than a decade of research, along with stories from real congregations, to demonstrate the benefits of faith-based community engagement. Members feel happier, healthier, and closer to God.

Places of worship have higher attendance and warmer congregational cultures. Democracy is stronger because people feel that their voices matter and that they can make a difference. 

There are many ways congregations can get involved in their communities. From food pantries to neighborhood cleanups to interfaith dinners, opportunities for service abound. There are people in your own congregation who are likely already serving your community. Expanding these efforts to the whole congregation will make 2025 a better year for everyone.

Our research shows that when people get together with others from their place of worship to serve their community, they feel happier and closer to God. These are critical benefits at a time when loneliness and social isolation are public health crises, with negative consequences as serious as smoking or obesity.

Those who connect with others through service ministries find joy there. As one lay leader who participated in our study put it, “If you get people involved in the outreach projects, they have a good time.”

The benefits don’t stop at the individual level. When people get together with others from their places of worship to serve their community, they build relationships, creating warmer religious congregations where political divisions are less likely and attendance is higher. For many places of worship today, attendance is a critical issue.

From 2000 to 2020, median worship service attendance decreased by over 50 percent—from an average of 137 to just 65. Yet, our data show a clear and positive relationship between congregational growth and community engagement. As one religious leader put it, “Those who are involved in our outreach efforts…benefit, but it also buoys our communal sense of well-being and satisfaction.”

At a time when many are feeling disillusioned and disengaged, getting people from your congregation to serve their community together can help society and democracy. When people are serving, they are less jaded, more hopeful and more likely to participate, thus making democracy stronger. Their efforts are efficacy in action, reducing political tensions and healing divides. 

One example is how congregations across Little Rock, from diverse religious traditions, worked together after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 to sponsor twelve Afghan refugee families. This partnership of faith communities gathered donations, organized carpools, built furniture and found jobs for the new arrivals.

One lay leader who helped coordinate her church’s efforts said, “The church has been lucky to have these relationships. It’s one thing to do a [one-off, impersonal service event]. The Afghan families were different; they were our families.” Nothing may be more beneficial for healing political division and increasing efficacy than people working alongside those with different beliefs and seeing their efforts make a real difference.

There are many ways for individuals to get involved in their communities that aren’t connected with religion. In fact, one religious person who participated in our study told us that they were inspired to better live out their faith by working with non-religious partners in the community. 

Speaking of one community activist in particular, they said, “I know Jesus, but I am not doing half as much as she is doing to serve people as Jesus would want us to serve. She just inspires me to do more and be a better neighbor.” 

However, places of worship are often critical neighborhood institutions trusted by marginalized communities. They are centers for connection; as such, they have essential roles in organizing people, motivating engagement, and supplying resources and leadership to make real change happen. 

The specific issues your congregation might decide to get involved with will depend on your theology, neighborhood, members and resources. But your engagement really matters. It makes a positive difference for individual members, congregational well-being and democracy as a whole.

Faith and Community provides a compelling case for why congregations should get involved. Getting beyond your four walls and serving the community is a New Year’s Resolution worth sticking to.