November 8, 2012
By Phil Maynard
It would seem to be a ‘no-brainer’. If we’re going to connect with our community, engage our community, and make a difference in our community we have to ‘know’ our community.
I am discovering however that ‘knowing’ the community is not always the case for congregations.
A while back, a District Superintendent asked me to work with a congregation which had entered into a tailspin. Nothing seemed to be working for them.
As I met for the first time with the leadership team, the children’s ministry coordinator gave a lengthy account of all the things the church had tried to build a strong children’s ministry. She closed with the statement “we know if we are to be a healthy church we have to do children’s ministry well’. This is certainly a topic for another blog!
As we worked our way through a discovery process (Discovering the Possibilities) that included a demographics study (MissionInsite) it became clear that even though there were two new schools in the immediate area (elementary and middle) there were a very small percentage of families with school-age children.
That, of course, didn’t make much sense.
So, the congregational leadership did some additional research. They sent out teams to interview the local school principles, local government officials, and other community leaders.
What they discovered was that children were being ‘bused’ in