Compassion By Design

If you are a church planter, or someone considering starting a new church, an emerging practice in church planting is the use of community needs assessment as an integrated part of the “pre-launch” phase up through the first couple years of the new church. As we explore this idea we must first, answer the question:

“What is a community needs assessment?”

A needs assessment is the process of systematically listening to community members and leaders through surveys, interviews and other methods. This is a period of intentional “listening,” that when approached in the right way, can have dramatic benefits for the growth of the launch team, new church and its impact on the community. To work for churches, the process has to be modified from the traditional social work approach and should engage volunteers as the primary workers, include questions about strengths and needs in the community and help the new church focus its ministry both inside the new church and in its community. It will result a public report that can be issued to coincide with the launch date, and help to establish a clear community focused identity for the new church.

Now that we know “what it is”, we need to answer the why question:

“Why Should I Include Community Needs Assessment in My Church Plant Process?”

WHY #1-It’s the natural prerequisite to the New Testament model of Demonstration and Proclamation. For us to effectively demonstrate through service, we have to first “investigate.” To use the words of Rick Rusaw of Externally Focused, who believes in “show and tell” as a key ministry approach, needs assessment creates a process that is “LISTEN, SHOW AND TELL.” Listening and intentionally networking increases the impact of service and helps to embed our demonstration of love in respect and a relational network.

WHY #2- Maximize your servant “outreach” activity. Many new churches include a series of outreach events that range from free car washes to block parties. The impact of these activities can be improved when they are linked to a needs assessment. The team simply does intentional survey work during the outreach events to help them focus on listening, make better connections with those who attend and to listen to the heart of the community.

next blog…more “Why Needs Assessment?”
Check out the community needs assessment kit for new churches
Check out the community needs assessment for existing churches
Join a free conference call to learn more

I don’t usually write about pending legislation, but this has real impact on “faith based” and community ministry.

We need to pay attention to the effort to strip the Charitable Choice language out of the bill that pays for Substance Abuse and Mental Health in our nation. Charitable choice protects churches and faith based ministries and was landmark legislation first signed by President Clinton. There are lots of folks in the federal government that want this stripped out, but to think that we can restore the addicted and help with mental illness without church help is not clear thinking. Respecting religious institutions who deliver a substantial amount of this nations recovery is not optional. Think about all the Celebrate Recovery and Teen Challenge groups serving across this nation! Secular help groups have made quite a bit of progress in respecting the importance of faith in recovery. This is a step back and your communication with your congressman and senator could really help. You simply need to ask them to make sure that the SAMHSA Reauthorization Bill retains Charitable Choice.

If you care about this simply sent an email.
Senate emails go here.