In a first, Anglicare, in partnership with the National Church Life Survey (NCLS), is releasing customised Census 2006 data in tailor-made kits for every parish in Sydney Diocese this month.
Sue King, Manager of Anglicare's Policy Unit which oversees mission research, says these Community Connections Packs will give parishes the survey tools and data they need to connect more effectively with their community.
"It is digestible and user-friendly," she says. "NCLS have worked very hard, going further than ever in this direction" I think it's the best resource they've produced."
The kits were road-tested at the Northern Region Clergy conference on May 19 to help iron out any bugs and were well received.
Nevertheless, in ringing around other rectors to find out how they will use the parish data packs, SC was underwhelmed by the response. Granted they haven't seen the new kits yet. But perhaps clergy feel swamped by data and are unsure how to ensure the statistics serve their ministry?
The Rev Andrew Nixon, Executive Director of Connect09, hopes ministers realise this is a brand-new product.
"This has the potential to be a very powerful tool for ministry," he says.
The kits include three separate products. Mr Nixon is particularly excited about the leaders' workbook which helps congregations interact meaningfully with the data and make plans to connect further with the community.
"The mapping tool allows you to see demographic differences right down to the individual census areas: these are the households surveyed by one census collector," says Mr Nixon. "This is the sort of walkable area we will be covering in our Connect09 campaign."
Customising digs up ministry gold
One reason for the lack of enthusiasm is that in the past some ministers have found it difficult to extract the specific data they wanted about their congregations. For example, some rectors said they had not been able to isolate information about their youth congregation or their new church plant.
However, the fact is that individual church service level information was always available on the NCLS website for the small additional fee of $15.
And for those who want deeper analysis of the census, help is also available.
The Rev Fergus Semler from Dural District Anglican churches has six congregations spread across multiple sites from semi-rural villages to the fringes of Sydney's suburban sprawl.
"Our parish needed to get the information broken down if it was going to be useful," he says. "The great difficulty [for the researchers] is that our parishes are all different shapes."
Each page of the new Community Profile focuses on one particular topic, such as age, ethnicity or income. For those parishes that participated in the 2006 NCLS, the workbook compares Census data for the parish area against the congregation itself.
Mr Semler believes these comparisons will be "very helpful'. However it has been difficult for him to get a handle on the differences in demographics across the various communities in the parish.
Sue King's team was able to help by customising the data to their needs. Mr Semler says it was particularly valuable to have the Census mapped for each village.
"It quantified some facts that we had a gut feeling about," he says. "It showed that the parish had sold the wrong building in the 1970s" the centre that was sold would now be serving a community of 6,000 while our remaining branch centre is in a village of 2,000."
The data has helped the parish prioritise mission goals. "While [planting] is a long way off…it has confirmed where we should work next."
Focus on gospel connections
Another reason some are wary of using statistics in ministry is a fear of falling into "naturalism': this is the idea that science always trumps the Bible.
The Rev Tony Payne from Matthias Media certainly agrees the data will help ministry . However he also hopes that the insights of the Bible will not be lost - something he fears, if we treat lost sinners as if they are niche markets that we want to tailor our gospel "product' towards.
The Rev Andrew Nixon agrees with this concern, pointing out that Connect09 starts with prayer.
"However we will never see gospel connections if we don't take time to listen to the wider community," he adds.
Indeed, Sue King wants to encourage parishes to actually do their own community surveys as a way of opening doors into the community.
"The kits will include examples of the sorts of questions that could be asked and advice on how to collect the data," she says.
The Rev Michael Williamson, rector of Shellharbour City Centre Anglican Church, has taken up the idea of a community survey.
He says he was sold on the idea after reflecting on the Archbishop's presentation at the Connect09 briefing he attended at Bishopscourt in February.
"The Archbishop was asking us about our local communities and we were all rattling off our demographic data. Then he asked, "But do you know what people are actually thinking?'. I thought, "He's right. I can't answer that. There is a difference between quantitative and qualitative information'."
Mr Williamson has suspended all Bible studies in the parish for May and June so that congregation members can actually take their first steps in connecting with the community. Members were split up into teams. Each group agreed to a project that would last for 10 weeks.
Mr Williamson gave them some "connect' ideas to inspire their thinking " these included collecting cans door-to-door for Anglicare, meeting with an existing community group such as a playgroup, or doing the survey.
A number of teams took up the survey option. Mr Williamson says "there is no target' but he expects the teams will survey about 100 to 150 Shellharbour households over the 10 weeks.
"I think it will be a real education process for our people," he says.
He explains that when he first raised the idea of the doorknocking project most immediately dismissed it.
"There are a lot of presumptions around that people are not interested," says Mr Williamson, "but I think we may find there are actually a lot of lonely people out there who will be very happy we have contacted them."
