Local churches are beginning to look beyond the number of people in their pews and toward the bigger picture of what they can do for the city of Columbus as a whole.
A local network, For Columbus, has been leading area Christian pastors since 2019 in collaboration,with the goal of bettering the city. Soon, that work will be aided by a new partnershipwith national research and technology companies so that Columbus pastors can have an even better idea of what the city —and their congregants —need.
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"We are here to help the community and to lessen human suffering and to improve thriving," said Adam Ward, city director of For Columbus."We can't impactthe whole city if we aren't collaborating. ... If we're not working together, no one's going to care and we're not going to make the city better.
TheBarna Group, an evangelical Christian polling firm based in Ventura, California, and Gloo, a Boulder, Colorado-based network that provides technology platforms for organizations, took notice of the work in Columbus and decided it would be one of the first communities where it launches a new national project.
The initiative, called Barna Cities, officially will be launched Wednesday to offer local data and live forums for churches infour areas: Columbus, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City and South Florida. Its goal is to get 150 local pastors on board.
Part of the reason Columbus was chosen, Ward said, was because For Columbus, part of the broader nonprofit Catalyst for Columbus, brought faith leaders together in the fall to offerlearning extension centers for Columbus City Schools. Local churches and faith-based organizationshosted 90 centers that gave small groups of students access to tutors, meals and the internet so they could study when school was being conducted virtuallydue to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At first, Columbus wasn't even on Barna's list of top 20 cities to work with, Ward said, but once he told them about the work that had already started in the city, they were on board.
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Now, Barna officials say they are excited to work with Columbus faith leaders.
"You generated so much momentum,"Savannah Kimberlin,Barna's director of published research, said during a video call with area pastors in February. "The enthusiasm we've seen in Columbus, it really feels like a very passionate grassroots effort. You do want to be leaders who are informed and connected."
Ward said he sees the collaboration with Barna and Gloo as another tool for the coalition of leaders that already exists in Columbus.The polling data provided on social, cultural, economic and religious areaswill allow church leaders to look back and see if they'remaking an impact, he said.
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More than 70 local churches already have signed up to be a part of the partnership with Barna and Gloo, and Ward is anticipating more will be on board after the Wednesday launch.
Churches can look at overall data on Columbus residents, but also drill down and see how their congregation specifically is thinking and what they want and need.
For example, if the data shows that more Columbus residents need food assistance, then the church network can work together to provide that. And if congregation-based data shows that people want certain topics addressed, pastors can retool their sermons to reflect that, Ward said.
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"We don't have to lead by feeling," he said. "We certainlyneed that part too, but by combining the two we can make very powerful decisions. ... It is a tool that is helping us say 'We're in this together;we're not independent,' while still benefitting independently."
It also can unite area churches around similar causes, he said.Ward also hopes it helps increase the relevancy of churches to society, which he says has been on a steady decline, accelerated of late by COVID-19.
"If two or more churches were to come together to help the church do something, solve an issue, more people outside would be willing to listen," he said.
The Rev. Mark Ford, pastor of care at One Church, which has two Columbus-area locations, agreed.
"The church of Columbus wants to do everything we can to love better and serve better and help people to be their better self," said Ford, who is excited to see the data from his church and the city through Barna and Gloo. "If we can do that by collecting our resources and bringing our individual talents and uniting them in a way people's needs are met better, homes are stronger ... that's what the Christian community is all about."
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Sometimes, people just need to know who's working toward the same goal and willing to work together toward it,Ford said.
The Rev. Ben Douglass, a part of For Columbus who has not yet signed on to participate in the research initiativewith Barna and Gloo,recently discoveredother pastors he can work with on the West Side, where he isthe lead pastor atFaith Community Church.
One question, he said, is how useful the national project will be to a small church like his, which has about 50 members. But either way, the idea of working together to help the city's residents is essential.
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"I feel like we have to collaborate together if we really care about people," Douglass said.
He and other churches on the West Side have hosted a prayer walk, welcomed children to learning extension centers and had a discussion on racial reconciliation.More recently, the churches have partnered with Lower Lights Christian Health Center to do a COVID-19 vaccine clinic, he said.
"Itwas a really cool thing that happened, and part of the reason it happened is because churches started working together," he said.
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Still, Douglass knows there are a lot of roadblocks to churches working together, including time. Many pastors are busy with their own flock and may struggle to find the time to collaborate. There's also an independence that exists inside churches, Douglass said.
Ward agreed and added that there also can be competition for congregants among churches.
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Butthrough For Columbus, local pastors are seeing that the churchis stronger together than it is apart, Douglass said.
"Jesus is bigger than our individual churches, and what he's doing is calling us to be doing something bigger," Douglass said. "If a church is only individually focused, you're missing your mission. I would be an unfaithfulpastor if Ionly cared about people in my church."
dking@dispatch.com
@DanaeKing
