About State of Our City
Inspired by the success of FORCLT’s State of Our City Platform, For Columbus gathered data and realities specific to our city. State of Our City is designed to help pastors and Christian leaders have greater clarity when making decisions so they can work together to make a tangible impact for the flourishing of Greater Columbus. On the platform, you will find the latest available public and curated demographic data and research about the spiritual, physical, and societal needs of Greater Columbus, organized into simple and clear snapshots that are easy to understand. You will also find stories of impact, Scripture references and prayer points about relevant realities to help Christian leaders marry our shared, biblical convictions with the needs of our city. Finally, you can engage the data by asking questions, sharing it with friends, or exploring ways to get involved in improving the state of our city.
How to Use this Tool
The following are some of the most impactful ways we recommend using this tool to empower you as you lead:
To Preach and Teach - Using it to inform sermons or lessons to help frame how the church can best love and serve our city.
To Convene - Using it to connect and convene leaders around engaging the needs of our city.
To Strategize - Using it to frame your church or organizational strategy/missions retreat. We were amazed at how many churches and ministries used the report in this way.
To Give - Using it to inform and focus how you best give and steward your financial resources for the greatest impact in our city.
To Serve - Using it to find how to best serve the needs of our city.
To Pray - Using it to focus your prayers for the people, realities and neighborhoods of our city.
Our Lenses
Throughout the Scriptures, we see that God loves cities. In Jeremiah, we see God command his people to seek the peace (shalom) of this city where they were in exile. In order to love and seek the peace of our city, it requires that we must know and understand our city. To this end, our city research is presented in two ways: the Realities and Neighborhoods of Greater Columbus.
Realities have to do with the current state of issues or needs in our city. Jesus regularly spoke to the present realities in his day, such as poverty (both spiritual and physical), homelessness, hunger, and the like.
Neighborhoods have to do with local geographic areas in cities where people live, work and play. Jesus loves cities. He wept over a city, did ministry in cities, and will consummate his mission in a city, the New Jerusalem.
About the For Columbus Network
The State of Our City Platform is a collaborative initiative of For Columbus, currently comprised of 33 networks and over 350 churches across the Greater Columbus region. The mission of For Columbus is to inspire, gather, and activate followers of Jesus to pursue the common good in our city. We accomplish this mission by:
Inspiring: We tell stories across the city, curate valuable data to inform the Church of our city’s realities and highlight partnership opportunities for everyone to get involved.
Gathering: We host strategic events that unite leaders for renewal and invite them to greater participation in the Church of Columbus.
Activating Networks: We launch, resource, equip, and deploy impact networks across our city that drive gospel saturation, harness existing ministry, and scale impact.
Learn more about For Columbus at www.forcolumbus.org
