Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART I: D EVELOPING U RBAN C ONGREGATIONS • 51

6:12). The starting point for winning a community is to understand and battle the evil forces that seek to control it.

Researching Your Community Church planting presumes a thorough understanding of Scripture and its commands. However, these commands are put into practice in a very concrete world. Our ability to obey Scripture is inseparably linked to our knowledge of the community in which we minister. The church-planting team should focus its efforts on a specific community. Geographical boundaries and contacts within the com munity will influence the intial selection of a target community for church planting. However, later discoveries may modify this selection. The task of the team is to discover as much as possible about the make up of this community. This effort should start with a large map of the city. Detailed maps of a specific area of the city can often be obtained at no charge from the mayor’s office, chambers of commerce, planning commission or highway department. “The idea is to walk through the neighborhood and note on the map locations of agencies, institutions, places of employment, stores, parks and public places; to note the conditions of housing, parks, streets, and institutions; and to write down impressions about the tour and about places that might merit a second visit.” 78 Mark existing churches on the map using symbols to denote specific denominations. 79 Identify and mark residential and business sections as well. Study the population data available for the target area. Ethnic make-up of the area, education levels, age structure, types of housing and population mobility can be obtained through studying U.S. census reports, and by contacting city or county planning commissions. Collect these in written form and refer to them in all stages of planning. Where applicable, incorporate this information onto the map for easy visual reference. Professionally prepared demographic profiles and display maps for church planters, based on U.S. census data, are available for a fee. 80

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78 Stockwell, Signs of the Kingdom , pp. 101-102

79 You should obtain a handbook of denominations that will acquaint you with the basics of any church group with which you are not familiar. Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Nashville: Abingdon Press, Ninth Edition, 1990) by Frank S. Mead is one example of a useful guide to this area. 80 For more information on professionally prepared demographic information contact Church Information and Development Services, 3001 Redhill Ave, Suite 2-220, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, (800) 442-6277