Recent research indicates that London is more of a “Post-Christian” city than a Christian city. In the London area, Atheism is the second largest religious world view. Furthermore, the study indicates that many of these Atheists are concerned that members of their community are not Atheists and nearly 5.5% of them (compared to 4.8% of those affiliated with Christianity) have attempted to convince members of their community to “convert” to their own world view. These facts combined with the fact that more than 60% of Atheists (compared to less than 5% of Christians) do not share the same faith as their parents makes Atheism the 2^nd largest evangelistic[3] religion in metropolitan London.

While most Londoners would describe themselves as Christian, nearly one third of them would indicate that there is no God (Atheism) or that it is impossible for there to be any spiritual truth (Agnosticism).

Based on the data from a follow-up question, the first phase of this study estimates that just 23.6% of Londoners regularly attend meetings with others that share their religious world view. Most of these attendees are either Christians (9.3% of the general population which is less than ¼ of all of those affiliated with Christianity) or Muslims (4.2% of the general population which is about half of those affiliated with Islam). It is not at all surprising to find that very few Atheists or Agnostics attend meetings.

Religious Concern and Conversion in London

Perhaps the most interesting part of the first phase of this research is the estimation of the number of Londoners that are concerned about their fellow Britons following their particular religious world view and then acting on this conviction.

This study estimates that 11.8% of Londoners desire other members of their community to adopt the same religious world view as them. While most of these are Christians (5.1% of the general population and 13% of Christians) it is surprising to note that the second largest population segment is Atheists: 17.2% of Atheists which is 3.2% of the general population. While 19.1% of Muslims are estimated to desire others in their community to adopt Islam, this portion of the general population is still just 1.6%. This means that in London you are probably twice as likely to encounter an Atheist with a desire to convert you to Atheism as you are to encounter a Muslim with a desire to see you follow Islam.

This trend continues in the estimation of Londoners that act on the conviction that others should adopt their religion and have actually tried to persuade someone else to “convert” to their world view.  The study estimates that 73.3% of Muslims that desire others to adopt Islam have actually tried to persuade someone else to become a Muslim. However, because of the smaller number of Muslims, this translates into just 1.2% of the population of metropolitan London. Similarly, 38% of Agnostics and Atheists that have a desire that others adopt their own world view have acted on that conviction and have tried to convince fellow Britons to believe that there is no God or that God is unknowable. Interestingly, a similar percentage of Christians (37%) that desire others to become Christians as well have acted on that conviction. However, the larger population of Christians translates to a larger portion of the general population of evangelizing Christians compared to “evangelizing” Atheists and Agnostics.

The study indicates that these estimations have been “yielding fruit” for both Agnosticism and Atheism. In this study, a majority of Agnostic and Atheist respondents indicate that neither of their parents were either Agnostic or Atheist. In other words, at some point in their life, these respondents “converted” away from their upbringing into a different religious system. This stands in very sharp contrast to the other evangelistic religions: just 9.1% of Muslims come from homes where neither parent was Muslim and less than 5% of Christians come from homes where neither parent was Christian. Not surprisingly, a majority of Agnostics and Atheists come from homes with at least one Christian parent.

“Nations have long been considered the fundamental economic units of the world, but that distinction no longer holds true. Today, the natural units—and engines—of the global economy are megaregions, cities and suburbs in powerful conurbations, at times spanning national borders, forming vast swaths of trade, transport, innovation, and talent.”

- Richard Florida

When emRG started we originally had the massive goal of gathering motivating information for church planting for every province in Europe. Now we are moving more and more toward the urban center. They make up the mega-regions that are driving Europe into the future. Here is a map of the regions published by Richard Florida, Tim Gulden, and Charlotta Mellander in their paper The Rise of the Mega Region

As you can see there are 12 mega-regions the largest of which is Am-Brus-Twerp with an out put of about $1.5 trillion and the smallest is Berlin with an output of $100 billion.

How are mega-regions relevant to church planting? Their relevants comes in the way each region is interconnected. As researchers look into the factors that connect cities in these regions they are developing ways of seeing these connections that we did not notice before. For instance, Peter J. Taylor and Kathy Pain reference the work of theGlobalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC ):

Inter-city relations are modelled as an interlocking network; cities are ‘interlocked’ by advanced producer service firms in their everyday tasks of providing financial, professional and creative services to their (often multinational) business clients. These services are provided through office networks and it is the inter-city office networks of service firms that are the focus of all empirical analyses.1

This interlocking of cities based on the service is also one way of looking at the possible avenues where missional communities and churches could be spread throughout the region. There is every reason for this to occur just as the gospel spread during the first century via the network of Roman roads throughout the then Roman empire.

Further the Globalization and World Cities Research Network has analyzed over 530 firms and developed classification of world class cities based on the interlocking of business offices. They list them as alpha, beta and gamma cities. Here is The World According to GaWC 2008 Cartogram of alpha cities 2008:

In addition to the interconnectedness of cities based on the interlocking of firms the mega-region has a high population density and geographic proximity which facilitates the spilling over of knowledge and innovation in industry (Urban Density, Creativity, and Innovation – May 2007). This proximity and density of peoples and networks would most likely enable the spreading of missional communities across a mega-region.

Lastly Taylor and Pain have shown that these regions are “Polycentric Mega-city Regions” meaning that they center of the mega-region is not one large city. There are a number of reasons for this one of which is the way commuters move across a region. Here are the interconnected commuting paths of the British mega-region stretching from London through Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and into Birmingham.  Although it is true that London sits at the center of this region it is also true that the smaller cities are interconnected as well.

This great amount of daily travel between cities shows that face to face contact occurs across the region. Missional incarnational ministry requires person to person, face to face contact on a regular basis. The mega-region’s polycentric nature allows for this kind of ministry.

Europe’s mega-regions are thought provoking as we look at them and consider how missional incarnational communities can be built and can spread easily across these increasingly important regions.

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1. Taylor, Peter J., and Kathy Pain. “Polycentric Mega-city Regions: Exploratory Research from Western Europe.” PDF. The Healdsburg Research Seminar on Megaregions, April 4-6, 2007. 28 Jan. 2009 <http://www.america2050.org/Healdsburg_Europe_pp_59-67.pdf>.

Josiah Venture is a Christian ministry in Central Europe that longs to see a movement of God among youth that connects these young people into the local church and transforms the society in which they live. The key questions for the near term strategy of the ministry are 1) Where to focus ministry efforts to engage and disciple youth and 2) How to better understand the condition of the local youth so that the local church can be better equipped to reach their own context. In January 2011, Josiah Venture and the Maclellan Foundation approached Clarity Research to design and manage a researh project to answer these critical questions. A marketing research approach was used whereby more than 8000 2^nd and 3^rd year secondary school students where given a 34 question survey. The research focused on 30 Czech and 10 Slovak communities that were of particular interest to Josiah Venture. Answering the first strategic question- where to focus ministry- was answered by meauring the concentration of the ministry’s Target Audiencein each city. This Target Audience is defined as secondary school students that believe that Jesus is God’s Son and they expresses interest in learning more about the Bible: in other words, students who are open to Christian Discipleship.

The concentration of the Target Audience varies widely over the Czech Republic and Slovakia ranging from 49% of the student population in Bardejov to no measurable target segment in Jablonec nad Nisou- a town in northwest Czech Republic. In general, the concentration of the Target Audience is higher in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic showing the ministry where students are ripe for their particular ministry of evangelism and discipleship. The research study also shows that while a large portion of students in both nations indicate belief in Jesus Christ (21% in Czech and 55% in Slovakia) the number drops significantly with the additional qualifier of being interested in knowing more about God. This indicates that these students are not experiencing a crisis of belief, but a crisis of concern. This highlights the importance of answering the second strategic question of understanding the condition of the youth in order to effectively reach these students. For those on the front line of youth ministry, issues such as substance abuse and sexuality are seen as problems. In reality, these issues are actually “solutions” that the students go to for deeper problems such as guilt, isolation, and purposelessness. In ministry, a transformative relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the only fulfilling solution to these deeper issues. In this research, we focused on five issues common to people of all ages and all cultures: Happiness, Autonomy, Acceptance, Freedom from Guilt, and Purpose. A pair of questions was asked for each of these needs to understand the current fulfillment of this need and the importance of this need in the student’s life. The size of the difference between the importance and the fulfillment of this need indicates the magnitude of this need. In other words, a student indicating that purpose is an important need but that they are not fulfilled in this area is “hungry” for this need to be fulfilled. 

Personal happiness is the least fulfilled and the most important need measured in this survey. In other words, students are “hungrier” to fulfill their happiness more than acceptance, autonomy, purpose, or freedom from guilt. The hunger for happiness is even greater among both female students and the Target Audience when compared to the typical Czech student. Armed with this strategic insight, ministry knows to focus gospel engagements on how only God can fulfill happiness in a student’s life.

A third question is asked for each of these unmet universal needs. Students are asked about where they seek solutions to meet this need: God, parents, friends, dating relationship, etc. These answers inform the ministry about the competitive solutions to the deeper needs of the students.

For example, students look primarily to their most personal human relationships to fulfill the need for happiness while looking to God to fulfill this need is rarely indicated. The fact that God does not seem to fall in the same category as parents and friends may indicate a deeper belief that God is truly impersonal: He cannot be related to in the same sense as a father, mother, friend, or lover.

This research data can also be used to compare the relative effectiveness of each of these “solutions” to meet the deeper needs of students. For example, students looking to philosophy (indicated by -) or science (indicated by o) for life purpose are significantly less fulfilled and more indifferent than students who look to God to meet this need.

These research methods pioneered in youth ministry in Czech and Slovakia translate well into other ministry contexts globally: a relevant Target Audience identified by any ministry can be measured geographically and fulfillment of universal needs can be evaluated across broad segments from university students to immigrants. Please feel free to contact the research designer- Scott Friderich (sfriderich@clarity-research.net)- for questions and califications. You can find a full copy of the research report, TOUCHING THE HEARTS OF CZECH AND SLOVAK YOUTH, at http://clarity-research.net/TouchingHeartsCzechSlovakYouth.pdf

A full report on Foreign citizens in the European Union’s 27 countries in PDF format can be downloaded here (11mb).

I’ve also tried to be honest with my own leanings, wrestlings, and internal tensions as to what this looks like for me. What that has done in a good way has forced me to ask questions like, “Who am I?” Both Katie and I have been asking each other those kinds of questions a lot as well as asking God for continued clarity as to who He wants us to plant churches among. I’ve also had a number of church planters here in metro Vancouver weigh in and share with me what they thought and saw from afar and I am grateful for that.

Here’s where I’m at today. Maybe I’m saying this out of principle, but I don’t want to necessarily gravitate towards planting among people and in areas that are hip, trendy, and cool. Hear me clearly, there’s nothing wrong with that and we need more and not less. Sure, I’ve questioned out loud as to why, wether the urbs and burbs, the hip trendy places get all of the church planters. In regards to urban environments I struggle with why everyone all of the sudden wants to reach urban hipsters. I believe the answer to that isn’t even scandalous. Based upon my own research and conclusions I set forth  in my dissertation I believe that church planters are part of Richard Florida’s Creative Class. Therefore, it makes sense to plant churches among those who we’re like.

I might be committing church planting suicide but I don’t want to plant churches necessarily among people like me. Sure, I gravitate towards maybe the outdoors crowd or coffee house lovers, etc, but me and Katie were texting back and forth this morning about our own neighborhood. I see the area that is 70% Asian and my pulse quickens as I think of how much God loves us all. I look at all of the refugees whether from Asia or eastern Europe and although I’m just a simple dude from small town Iowa I want to see one of the Ion Communities established here. I want them to know that Jesus too was an Asian refugee who fled to Africa as a child because his family feared for their lives. In a neighborhood beautifully rich with diversity I want them to see how Jesus was mixed racially on His human side and He can relate to us in more ways than one.

So there you have it …

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Sean Benesh whos blog blog is The Urban Loft  He says, “born and raised in Iowa (ok … oh so NOT urban), I am married to my high school sweetheart, Katie, and we have 3 sons; Grant, Camden, and Seth. I hang out / office at local coffee shops too much where you can find me almost anytime. We live in Burnaby (Vancouver), BC where I’m in the beginning stages of starting the Ion Community as well as continuing to direct the Epoch Center.”

“How one choose to view the city will depend, in part, on what features of the city one wishes to emphasize.” (The World of Cities by Anthony Orum and Xiangming Chen)

How do you view the city? What lens are you look at it through? The lens of which you don will colour and flavour the way you look at the city. Some people look at the city through the view of an urban planner taking note as to how it is laid out and issues of mass transit and how people get from Point A to Point B. Others are more keenly aware of certain social issues such as sex trafficking and homelessness. Still others see the built environment with slender glass towers protruding into the skyline that give the city most often its identity. What’s your lens?

How aware are you that this lens colours the way you go about church planting? You see, depending on what lens you put on or happen to already have on by default will affect your church planting process. If you’re concern is primarily for social issues it’ll drive you in one direction. If you pan the camera back and take in such issues as how your city develops its built environment then you’ll be influenced to engage in other areas. This isn’t a right or wrong issue but more of an awareness issue which will set a certain trajectory for your church plant. All of these issues are indeed important and even critical for the church to engage in. However, we need to realize that one church cannot do it all.

Sometimes I meet with a church planter in their community and as they show me around they share the issues that are on their heart. I often times feel guilty because maybe my heart isn’t there. It’s not that I don’t care or that I don’t think it is a valid issue of concern its simply not my lens. Now what I mean by that is that I’m not advocating apathy and calousness. It’s that one person or one church cannot tackle each and every issue in the city. But if you look at the church in its entirity in a city you’ll see that collectively we’re accomplishing much.

So what is your lens? And depending upon that will also dictate what you think of a city whether good or bad. Some cities may be stunning in its built environment but negligent in many other blatant areas while others may have a subpar look, feel, and vibe but there’s a strong sense of civility, care, and collaboration to ensure a healthy city. While this is not a make or break issue it is helpful to begin peeling back the layers of who you are to find how your view not only of cities in general but in your particular city affects how you plant your church.

Sean Benesh -

His blog is The Urban Loft. He says, “Born and raised in Iowa (ok … oh so NOT urban), I am married to my high school sweetheart, Katie, and we have 3 sons; Grant, Camden, and Seth. I hang out / office at local coffee shops too much where you can find me almost anytime. We live in Burnaby (Vancouver), BC where I’m in the beginning stages of starting the Ion Community as well as continuing to direct the Epoch Center.”

Today I found an encouraging video on successful innovation. Henry Blodget, CEO & Editor-in-Chief  The Business Insider, asks a few people, “There is Pleanty of unsuccessful innovation in the world. If you had to boil down your keys to successful innovation what would be your top three?” The answers were great but the ones that really struck home for me came from Marc Andreessen who has been an amazing innovator in internet software and is often a keynote speaker in Silicon Valley conferences. He inspired me this morning. You can watch the video below but let me quote a couple of things he said in response to Henry Blodget’s question about the keys to successful innovation:

“There has to be very very strong vision, which, by vision I mean there has to be a very strong understanding of context. Its what you find in all the great innovators, in my experiance. They really understand how things  work today, they really understand how technology works today, they really understand how technology is being used and they can just see in their head, just see there is a better way to do it.”

Who innovates, “Almost always only one or two or a very small team of people. … And its gotta be the right people, got to be people who have a real vision, and a real idea, and a lot of drive and a lot of knowledge.”

 

“Determanation, it doesn’t magically happen over night and in a lot of cases it takes itteration, it takes refinement, it takes changes of plans. And so the willingness to stick with it and continuiously addapt and fundamentally not give up, I think is a recuring theme. Marc Andreessen co-founder, General Partner Andreessen Horowitz

It takes time. and fundamentally not give up.”

Take a look at the video for yourself. What do you think?

 

I really enjoy logic problems. The answer to this one is in the first comment of the post

Gospel brain teasers are the conclusion to missional research. They are what comes at the end of numerical and qualitative investigation into the church and its social context.

Connected links between elements of scripture and elements of community suggest several ways in which Christians and churches can communicate the Gospel in relevant ways.

“Relevant” does not always mean “like they do it”; it can also mean ‘counter culture‘ or ’social rebellion.’ These can be ways in which we speak into a specific culture or sub-cultural.

PS. I got the Brain Teaser from here.