Scripture commands believers to love our neighbors, and we can better love our neighbors by learning more about the communities surrounding our churches. The Executive Office is excited to share a resource to help churches do just that. Through our partnership with Church Answers, your church can receive a personalized “Know Your Community Report” providing all kinds of information about your church’s community.
This report offers detailed demographics and information regarding the community surrounding your church. For example, you will learn the exact population, the marital status, age profiles, ethnic groups, and economic challenges facing your area. Find out how much people in your community spend on healthcare, the hobbies they enjoy, and much more. Depending on your preference, the report provides information based on data from a five, ten, fifteen or twenty-minute drive from your church. (View a sample report.)
However, knowing all the details about another person is of no value, if we do not act on the information. The Know Your Community Report can be overwhelming. So, we present the report to the pastor and church leaders via Zoom. After presenting the information, we email the report, presentation, and Excel files comparing their results to other Free Will Baptist churches whose reports were completed previously.
This allows each church to better understand and digest the information and compare their results with churches in similar communities. We also provide the option to hold a second meeting with a larger group from the church to review the report findings.
I can’t help but think of Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 9. We look for ways to approach and interact with others to reach them with the gospel most effectively.
Zoom meetings are held between churches with similar results to provide an opportunity for them to discuss ways to reach their communities. It can be encouraging and empowering to discuss ways to reach these groups with other churches and leaders with communities similar to your own.
That is the power of the Know Your Community process. You not only know your own community better, but you learn from other churches with similar communities and collaborate with them to help you reach your own.
Click the link below below to order your Know Your Community Report. Through a partnership with Church Answers, NAFWB is able to offer its member churches each report at a discounted rate of $100. Payment instructions are included in the order form.
Checks can be mailed to the address below. Please include “Know Your Community Report” on the memo line.
NAFWB Executive Office
PO Box 5002
Antioch, TN 37011