Demographics: What Good Do They Do
King of Peace, Kingsland on Easter 2010. An aerial photo of the church and kids enjoying a Vacation Bible School are shown below.
The key to coming to understand Kingsland, Georgia, where my wife and daughter and I went to found a new Episcopal Church, was through a mix of demigraphic data and shoe leather. Along the way, I learned the value of the demographic data. Not only did the data prove accurate, it gave me a view of the community that was incomparably more helpful than any other viewpoint.
While at Virginia Seminary, Dr. A.L. Addington of the diocesan office ordered a 5 and a 10-mile radius of a point in Kingsland very near where the church sits now. It was a blessed guess. That data, which I looked at with other church planters showed the area to be younger and (therefore) less affluent than a typical Episcopal Church. There was a lot of detail in there, but the gist of it was that a church would have to attract a younger, largely blue-collar group if there was any hope of getting off the ground. After all, 68% of the people were under forty and on the average they were earning below state average income, which was below U.S. average income. At 37, married, with a nine year old, I was toward the old end of the typical resident.
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I backed pouring over that data with systematically knocking on 100 doors when I got to town. The streets were picked as a cross section reflecting proportionally the demographics of the town. I said, “I have come to Kingsland to start a new church. I don’t want you to attend, but I do want to know what you think a new church could do to help the community.” Two things emerged. First, I noticed who answered the doors and could confirm readily the accuracy of the reports from the Percept Group. Secondly, the conversations resulted in questions and discussions and an overwhelming sense that we should start a preschool and possibly school. The first, I chalk up to good data. the second I chalk up to the Holy Spirit putting me at the right 100 doors to hear what I needed. The resulting church and successful preschool came directly from the marriage of the demographics and the felt need of the community.
The above gives a feel for how I have used demographics in building a church. Next week I will cover some ideas for how any congregation can benefit from this data, without having to knock on doors and ask questions to fill in more.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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