These statistics are more than just numbers. They represent the shape of our city and the context in which we minister.
State of the Church
One of the key services that UBA provides to churches is contextual understanding about the city in which we live. UBA staff do this through research, demographics, conducting church surveys, or interpreting outside data points. We’re regularly asked questions about how current our data are and how it actually affects churches. I’m happy to report there is a new answer to these questions. UBA has been asked to be one of the pilot associations for a brand new national research project that has direct implications for you and your church.
R.I.P. "Back to the City" Movement?
It's official. The "back to the city" movement seems to be winding down, at least for the foreseeable future. For years now in North American ministry circles, much discussion has occurred over the rise of city populations. However, trends seem to be shifting once again toward the suburbs. While the particulars of strategy are most often confined to the specific local context, there are at least three high-level insights that merit a mention.
Ministering in New Territory: The Shifting Nature of the American Suburb
For churches that find themselves in the suburbs, the rapidly changing demographics of these neighborhoods matter. It is no secret that the majority of evangelical churches are located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas. We must ask ourselves, however, if our churches are prepared to minister to new territory. Churches located on the same plot of ground where they started 3 or 4 decades ago may not have moved, but the communities around them have shifted.
Preparing to Innovate
In a dramatic scene of the 1987 movie The Untouchables, Jim Malone presses Eliot Ness on what he is willing to do to finally catch Al Capone. Though I'm certainly not advocating for illegal activity as Malone was, I think it's a great picture of what we need to innovate and reach gospel saturation in and beyond our city.
If your way isn’t working where you are, are you prepared to learn a new way? As leaders, we need to be asking ourselves and allowing trusted people in our lives to ask us the same question: “What are you prepared to do?”
Four Online Resources for Demographics on Your Community
“Do you have any good websites I can visit for demographic data on my neighborhood?”
If I’ve been asked that question once, I’ve received it a dozen times. Many pastors and church leaders now understand the need to know their ministry context and contextualize their mission strategy to engage their neighbors in a meaningful way. But how do we find and use those resources?