Profiles: How important is Context?

Back into profiles:

I've been wondering about how we describe ourselves, in particular our(Church)selves. I suspect that most of us start with describing the worship life of our congregation - because it is the major focus of our involvement. It is also the public face of the congregation to the community. But is it a 'face' that relates to the community that surrounds it?

As I perused the parish profiles this year with my 'mission' hat on, one of my questions was, "Does this profile describe a congregation in a specific community? Does the community context effect how the congregation / parish describes itself?"

Let me describe this in a different way. If I took the profile for parish 'A', could I put it in parish 'B's' back yard and not notice the difference? Does the community / context make a difference or is the parish described in isolation from its surroundings?

I want to suggest that it is crucial. In fact I wonder what would happen if we started describing ourselves with the community context. If we are connected with our communities we will describe ourselves in such a way that is both unique and exciting! On the other hand, If we are 'out of step' with the community in which we are set, we need to ask some hard questions.

This may mean that our profiles start with our 'mission selves' rather than our 'worship selves'. If we took our worship, many of us would be similar and the worship style could be transposed from parish to parish with little regard to context. If we started with our Mission context, our descriptions would be totally different.

An example: In the suburb where I live 46.3 percent of people were born overseas, compared with 37.0 percent for Auckland Region as a whole. What ministries might a church in this area provide, compared to Wanganui where the figure is 12%?

Does this information change our ministry / mission profile - and should this change the ministry we offer at worship on a Sunday morning?

Starting points have a great deal to do with where we end up!

(BTW access to this sort of community information is on the web. Go to Statistics New Zealand (Click here) and look up your community.)

How would you use this information? What might you change in your profile, mission or ministry goals?

-Nigel-