Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

 In "The Fence-sitters: How real is the hope?" (Observer, Nov. 2009), author Richard Wright questions the role of research numbers in church growth efforts, including The United Church of Canada's Emerging Spirit initiative. Since data formed part of the Emerging Spirit research we had to make some decisions about their use and authority.

Wright raises the question of whether the 77% identified by Environics as "Potentials" is a valid statistic. We believe it is. In addition to Bibby, a 2006 Ipsos-Reid survey collaborates what many church leaders know - a significant interest in spiritually and faith exists "out there."  The Potentials identified in the Environics quantitative research are just that-those with a potential interest in a church with the attributes of The United Church of Canada. There was never any guarantee that these people would become members of the United Church according to the definition of the last century.

I continue to be amazed by the increasing use of words heavy with theological overtones by business authors. Take the word "trust" for example.

Stephen R. Covey (The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen R. Covey, Stephen M.R. Covey, and Rebecca R. Merrill (Paperback - Feb 5 2008)) and Jeffrey Gitomer (Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Teal Book of Trust: How to Earn It, Grow It, and Keep It to Become a Trusted Advisor in Sales, Business and Life by Jeffrey Gitomer (Hardcover - Dec 17 2008)) are two noteworthy entries.

"Trust" is very prevalent in discussions about Web 2.0 and what will characterize the coming world.

Jeff Jarvis, in his helpful book What Would Google Do?, devotes an entire chapter to exploring trust as a key characteristic of a Google world.

"Trust is an act of opening up; it's a mutual relationship of transparency and sharing. The more ways you find to reveal yourself and listen to others, the more you will build trust, which is your brand." Jarvis could be writing to the church.

From a letter we received recently at Emerging Spirit.

Question: We have had a lot of success with the Emerging spirit campaign and I'm happy to say that we have many new families joining our vibrant congregation. 

Here is my question - we started with a stable aging congregation but are finding it hard to balance our budget without really asking new members to give more money - which we feel in their early involvement we are hesitant about.  

Do you have any thoughts, suggestions or research on this topic? 

Response: Thanks for the question about talking about money with those "new people" between the ages of 30 and 45. It is one we have increasingly started to receive.