Nielsen Study of Optimism and Opportunity for Women

I have not written much about our 20/20 Vision process lately.

It has been dormant while St. Timothy’s searches for a new rector believing that whoever God calls to be the shepherd of our flock should be an active participant in framing our parish vision for the future.

But that should not stop us from research and examination of useful information when that 20/20 Vision process picks up again hopefully next year.

So here is a good news story to keep your attention focused on our 20/20 prize.

Nielsen is out with a very interesting new study of the attitudes of women.  What makes this study useful for our work in the Church Growth Program is the breakdown of the data from the survey results across ethnic and other demographic lines that make it a good resource for planning mission and ministry programs.

We’re learning from the 2010 Census data about the profound changes in demographics reshaping our country.  Those changes are not just ethnic they are also being reshaped by the changing role of women in the workplace and in our society.  Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group and their attitudes about optimism and opportunity will have major impacts on media, retail and manufacturers now and in the years ahead—and provide lessons about of message of hope and opportunity for an optimistic role for woman in the Episcopal Church.

The Nielsen study offers good news for our mission and ministry work in the vineyard over the next year working congregation by congregation to help each devise a church vitality and growth strategy that works for them.  Its focus on attitudes about optimism and opportunity are very important benchmarks for our church vitality and growth work ahead.

So what are the headlines from this Nielsen study?

• Optimism was highest among African American and Hispanic women, especially how they viewed the opportunities they have had compared with those of their mothers.
• Women of today are not only optimistic for themselves, they expect their daughters to have more opportunity than they do.
• American women are heavy users of technology – even if they aren’t early adopters. Women of all ethnicities use media in similar ways, with one key exception: smartphones. Just 33 percent of Caucasian women have a smartphone in their household, compared to penetration rates in the 60s for women of other ethnicities.

I recommend this Nielsen Report to you:  Women of Tomorrow: U.S. Multicultural Insights.

Related articles

• Church Growth and Vitality in East Contra Costa County (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• DioCal Convention Endorses Bishop Marc’s Call for Church Growth & Vitality (churchgrowthprogram.com)
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Disciples in the Dougherty Valley

Notes from the October 15th Workshop on Collaborative Ministry at St. Clare’s Pleasanton.  If you were there please add your comments to this post.

No, we are not wandering in the wilderness!

It was a wonderfully sunny autumn day in Pleasanton, California as we pulled into the parking lot at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church for a workshop on Church Growth in the Dougherty Valley.  Rector Ron Culmer was decamped in a folding lawn chair at the cashier’s table for the parish rummage sale to raise money for youth ministry.  He had not slept much overnight while the “lock in” of kids took place in the church.   But he called our workshop crowd of 20 people from across the Diocese to prayer with his call to the Holy Spirit to fill us up and send us out to roll up our sleeves and get to work out in the vineyard.

It was altogether a wonderful day.

Bringing people together in community is our first step in sharing the Good News.  That was the message Shelton Ensley the project manager for the three congregations, St. Clare’s Pleasanton, St. Bartholomew’s Livermore and St. Timothy’s Danville, reported as he explained the task before them.

Bishop Marc has asked these three congregations to not only define the mission and ministry needs of this vast developing area at the edge of the Diocese of California but also to model collaboration ministry as a great ‘lab experiment’ for the vitality of our church future.

Collaboration is the current day term for what Jesus might call discipleship.  Ron Culmer reminded us that the common mistake today is to think of the church as being in the membership business and even our own church growth program talks about growing average Sunday attendance, membership and pledge units—-but instead we should see ourselves in the discipleship business and invite others to join us.

You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Questions

We laughed about that line as the project team described the rich multicultural nature of the Dougherty Valley area with a large Asian population from many nations, many languages, many faith traditions.  But that is the challenge the church faces in our future.  How do we reach out to many different cultures and communicate in ways that is welcoming and open, respectful yet transparent about our own faith journey testimony.

How do we ‘do church’ in a geography spread out in valleys and beyond the next hill where small Episcopal congregations live at the boundaries of old growth and new growth, old ways and new ways, and minister to such diverse needs as three generation households where the oldest generation may not speak English, may not drive, may not have a support system like they once had.  How do we minister to the needs of kids who often are the translator bridge between generations yet are growing up in an American culture vastly different that their grandparents could have imagined.  How do we reach out to working parents leading busy lives with competing demands for their time.

You have questions, we have questions

The Dougherty Valley project is designed to find ways to be in community with this new community.  To reach out and talk to people, to listen to their views and needs, to find ways to bring the message of Jesus to those who are open to hearing it without turning off those who are not yet ready.  The Dougherty Valley project is designed to get three congregations and the Diocese to work together outside their comfort zones to try new things, explore new ideas for doing church, and focus on building community beyond church that keeps the conversation going.

You have question, we have questions

We do know this—God has given us this wonderful opportunity to be disciples.  He has set before us a “project” that is not like anything and or anyplace we have tried before to serve.  He is challenging us to be open and transparent about our own personal testimony about why Jesus is important in our lives.

He is calling on us to be the Body of Christ and invite others to join us and do it in the ‘languages of the people’.

The Dougherty Valley project is our Pentecost—-how will we respond?

Here are some resources we learned about at Saturday’s Workshop:

• Grow My Church by Chris Yaw
• David Gortner at the Virginia Theological Seminary
• Unbinding the Gospel

Related articles

• Collaboration Ministry: The Dougherty Valley Project (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Visualize The Great Commission (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Growing the Church is about Community (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Membership Growth Team Workshop – September 17th 9am-2pm (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Census 2010 clues for Growing the Church (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• CHURCH2GO: Connecting the Body of Christ in an Episcopal Social Network (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Does Growth = Evangelism? (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Parable of the Wicked Tenants: What are there Lessons for the Church Growth Program? (churchgrowthprogram.com)

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