Demo-what?
The young man had no idea that during a class offered at seminary, he would learn about a service offered by the Lutheran Church Extension Fund that would ultimately change his future congregation’s ministry focus. “Dr. Bruce Hartung taught the class”, he remembers, “but he had a guest speaker from LCEF who spoke to our group about ‘demographic resources’.”
LCEF offers a demographic product called “In Our Community”. When a congregation requests such a study, they will receive parish data, area data, lifestyle profiles of the congregation and community, a religious survey, and help from their local LCEF Vice President in interpreting the study. Countless hours can be spent evaluating a ministry’s needs and better decisions can be made when they are based on accurate information. LCEF is ready to help congregations and schools with the same demographic information that retailers such as Starbucks or Applebees is willing to pay thousands for.
The young pastor remembers sitting in his seminary class that day, thinking, “Demo-what? What is this information?” Once it was explained to the soon-to-be-graduates that they were going to receive summary reports about their future congregations, he took more interest. “I thought, ‘I can bring this information to my parish and share it with them. It will be a positive way to begin my vicarage.’”
The Pastor received his call to a parish founded in 1954 with currently 156 communicant members . Although many of the members had told him that the community included mostly “older families”, his demographic study said otherwise. “I had read in that report that there were many young, up-and-coming families, so I drove a group of church leaders around the neighborhood one afternoon.” What the group encountered were soccer fields filled with young children, young parents pushing strollers down sidewalks, and principals from other schools telling the group that they had kids on waiting lists.
After the neighborhood tour, Pastor proposed to his congregation the reopening of their once-vibrant preschool. “We had visited other local preschools and all of them were full. The closest one to our church had a waiting list of 160 kids.” After much planning and praying, the church reopened its preschool in September.
As a result of the demographic data, Pastor says that the congregation is also focusing on new programs that reach out to younger families in the community. One type of class being taught on site at the church is about parenting. Pastor addresses the group and welcomes them to the church. He often sits in during the class and intersperses Christian teachings with the secular curriculum. “I am able to say ‘hello’ to these parents and children and, as time goes on, they often come up to me wanting to discuss other issues,” notes Pastor. “They open up to me because a relationship has been formed, and many of these families join our church, realizing they need Christ in their lives.”
Pastor says that over the past year, the average weekly attendance has doubled and Sunday school has tripled. How can demographic information help you? For more information, contact Carole White.
Carole L. White
LCEF VP
Iowa District East & Iowa District West
6428 160th AveStorm Lake, IA 50588
Ph: 877.439.5233
Cell: 515.240.2229
carole.white@idwlcms.org
or carole@lcmside.org
