Studying Your Congregation and Community
In order to know who you are, you need to examine where you are and where you have been.
Looking at the social and demographic characteristics of the local community sheds light on the people to which we hope to minister. Looking at trends in membership, average worship attendance, and financial giving sheds light on congregational strength and whether current patterns indicate growth, decline or stability.
Click here to go to the Episcopal Church webpage on Studying Your Congregation and Community.
Percept Tools for Congregational and Ministry Development
What is Percept?
Percept is a company the Diocese of Atlanta has contracted to provide demographic and ethnographic information to aid congregations in understanding their ministry context better. Percept provides basic tools that are helpful to a group or a congregation to better discern the needs of the community and to help develop a plan of action to respond to those needs. Congregations of the diocese may access this information and tools through accessing this web site: www.link2lead.com. Once on the site one can benefit from having access to basic tools offered by Percept.
Visit Link2Lead for more information and registration
Download the Link2Lead Guide (.pdf file)
NOTE: The charts and profiles are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed, or if you have problems opening the chart, please click on the graphic to download it.
First View: A six page report of demographic and ethnographic information within a three mile radius of your physical church location. This report provides population growth, ethnic presence, generational information as well as income, education and community concerns, It is free to congregations that fall within the coverage area of the Percept study done for the Diocese.
M.A.P.: The Ministry Area Profile provides abundant demographics, religious preferences, and community concerns of a specifically designated study area. It provides a tool for new church plant strategy and for existing congregations to gain insight into their particular ministry area. The cost is $150.00 (plus $15. shipping)Reports can be ordered through our Percept Administrator, or on the Link2Lead website.i
ReVision: This tool will help your congregation answer the question, ''Are we a church for ourselves, or are we a church for this community?" Using exhaustive demographic and ethnographic information and a congregational survey it seeks to provide a comparative conversation between congregation and community. The cost is $570, plus 95 cents for each survey.
Read the article below, Percept's ReVision: A Direction-setting Process
Value
An essential tool for those putting together a discernment of what God may be calling God's people to do and be in a ministry context.
Benefit
Clearer and more realistic insight. Resources for planning.
To download a sample First View Report from our diocese, click here
Using this zip code, click on the following links to find some basic information about the people in this zip code.
10 Facts Series
After you've had a chance to reflect on 10 Basic Facts, 10 Race & Ethnicity Facts, 10 Faith Facts and 10 Generational Facts reports, consider a workshop for the rest of your leadership team. Download the 10 Questions / 10 Basic Facts Workshop instructions and the 10 Basic Questions Quiz (links are above). Print these documents and you'll have everything you need for a fun and simple introduction to your leadership of community demographic information.
Learn 10 Facts about this area and test your knowledge.
For more information contact:
Bill Monk- Percept AdminstratorThe Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta2744 Peachtree Rd NWAtlanta, GA 30305404-601-5348e-mail: bmonk@episcopalatlanta.org
Percept's ReVision, A Congregational Direction-setting Process
Does your congregation know its neighbors, how they are similar to you and how they are different? Does it have a vision of what God is calling it to be your community? Does it know how it might begin to achieve that vision? ReVision is a process offered by a company called Percept to help congregations find the answers to those questions.
The Process
There is first a survey of congregation members to obtain basic demographic and ethnographic information and preferences. Percept then analyzes the data obtained, compares it with similar information it has collected about the community in which the congregation is located, and provides the congregation with pictures of itself and the local community in what it calls a Context report.
In small groups the congregation then reflects on the information in the Context report in light of a set of Biblical passages in order to ascertain the gaps between the church and the community and the gaps between the current situation in the church, the "what is," and the situation as God would want it, the "what should be." Evolving from each group's discussions are 1) a vision of the congregation as God calls it to be; 2) a description of the congregation's mission, that is, how the congregation sees itself making that vision a reality; 3) recommendations for specific initiatives the congregation should take in the next three years to close the gap between what it is and what it should be; and 3) the steps to be taken in the first year.
A ReVision Task Force made up of members of the congregation assembles the groups' various recommendations, analyzes them, and incorporates them into a coherent draft ReVision Report containing statements of the vision and mission of the congregation, along with three to five major initiatives that should have priority in the ensuing three years and three to five steps it should take in the next year, all aimed at making the vision become a reality.
At a two-day retreat the Task Force works out a refined draft of the ReVision Report on which it can agree. After consideration by the entire congregation and incorporation of its input, a final ReVision Plan goes to the congregation's governing body for adoption.
Next comes work toward implementation of the first-year steps. At the end of the year, there is an evaluation of that effort and the following year's steps are chosen. The process is repeated and then, at the end of the third year, mission statements are reviewed and adapted as necessary in light of a refreshed Context report and new initiatives and one-year steps are set.
The ReVision process is fitted to the specific congregation. Built into the survey instrument is a section designed to let the congregation rate its own programs and ministries. The specific geographic boundaries of the local community used by Percept for comparison are set by the congregation. Some congregations have also amended the process, for example, by shortening the reflection process and by meeting in large, rather than small, groups.
The Outcome
The results include a better understanding by the congregation of how it compares with the local community, a vision it would like to achieve, and the beginnings of movement in that direction. There are also other benefits, those that come from a large segment of the congregation participating in serious Bible-based discussions of current conditions and visions for the future. People talk to each other more openly than they may ever have before. Significant issues are brought to the surface, perhaps for the first time. And the Gospel is more likely to be taken into consideration as the congregation chooses its path.
The more the members of the congregation are involved in the planning and in execution of ReVision, the more likely that positive concrete actions will be the result.
Requirements
In addition to Percept's fees, there are expenses for newsprint for the small groups in the reflection phase and for a great deal of copying. The human effort involves 1) planning and coordinating the whole process, beginning with the survey of the congregation; 2) as many members of the congregation as possible meeting in small groups for eight sessions of two hours each; 3) combining the diverse recommendations from all the small groups into a single report that represents the beliefs and thinking of the congregation; 4) working out a final ReVision Plan that the congregation and its governing body support; and 5) finally actually making the changes in the life of the congregation that are indicated in the plan. The grace of God, which is also needed for the success of the endeavor, is available for the asking, through prayer.
Further Information
For background on the development of ReVision and Context go to click here and then click on Company and then Milestones. At that same web address more information on the ReVision process can be obtained by clicking on Product and then ReVision.
