Berlin Research Project

When we left our last meeting we were discouraged about how can we gather the resources to create a research project that would help church plants to know where to plant churches. How can existing churches know how to reach target groups. And the problem areas in their city?

A young theologian was asked to help us to do a statistical and spiritual map of Berlin.

Here’s a glimpse: We use Microsoft Streets and Maps that shows exactly where everything in Berlin is. You can input information into the program for any part of the city. The pins on the map are local churches. You can give them different colors and numbers. You can input ethnic groups, spiritual geography or at risk areas. You can search each or one to find out how to focus strategies. You can upload whole data banks into this system. This makes research much simpler and more intuitive for research and planning.

Andy: doing research for people can separate them from ownership. The process of involving people in research can help churches care for their communities and learn about them. We published the information where refugees live and it was the end of the world. People thought we were targeting them. We had to track them all down and change them all.

Sam: Perhaps that could be a topic of one of our meetings.