Scholars have long been interested in nonprofits, religious congregations, and their collaborative activity. This research builds upon past large-scale studies of congregations to suggest a nuanced understanding of how clergy approach congregational partnerships and make decisions about collaborating with community organizations. Using qualitative data from a geographically bounded sample of 30 Protestant congregations and grounded theory methodology, we suggest that clergy view their congregations as serving a different purpose from nonprofit partners and navigate numerous tensions inherent in congregational life in their pursuit of collaborative activity. We introduce a new typology of congregational collaboration that posits collaboration as a strategy for providing material and spiritual resources, in and outside of their congregations.

长期以来，学者们对非营利组织，宗教团体及其合作活动感兴趣。这项研究建立在过去对会众的大规模研究的基础上，提出了对神职人员如何与会众建立伙伴关系并做出与社区组织合作的决定的细微理解。我们使用来自30个新教会众的地域有界样本的定性数据和扎实的理论方法，我们建议神职人员将其会众视为与非营利性合作伙伴不同的目的，并在追求协作活动时应对会众生活中固有的诸多紧张局势。我们介绍了一种新的会众协作类型，将协作视为一种在其会众内部和外部提供物质和精神资源的策略。