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“MissionInsite is a means through which we can do some pretty extensive demographic analysis for all of the churches in the South Georgia Conference,” said Dr. Jerry Roe, pastor of Byron United Methodist Church and conference liaison for MissionInsite. “It really is amazing the amount of data that is contained within their database.” 
 

Falling under the umbrella of the New & Revitalized Congregational Development Office, the MissionInsite system provides more than 50 variables of current demographic information on the MissionInsite website (www.missioninsite.com). The MissionInsite website not only provides instant access to demographic data, but also has tools that will allow congregations to conduct their own mission discovery and analysis in real-time. Plus, the user-friendly system is free to all South Georgia United Methodist congregations.
 

“This is a free service; it’s paid for by the conference,” Dr. Roe said. “It’s enormous what it can do for church ministries.”
 

A replacement to the Percept system and in use around the conference for the past two years, MissionInsite extracts information from a variety of community demographic products, including census data, geographic data, client data, new residential development data, parcel data and aerial imagery. Three different levels of reporting – from a four-page report to an 18-page report – are available to local churches and congregations.
 

The beauty of the database, said Dr. Roe, is that it provides demographic information for the conference, districts, and local churches, and data can be detailed down to county, zip codes and even neighborhoods. The data provides detailed information to even the household level and gives insight into people’s spending, their magazine subscriptions, lifestyle trends, and much more. It even provides information about an area’s population density, and for the first time, there are noted electronic boundaries for the conference. Every church is plotted by satellite and can tell a user, down to two to three feet, where every church in the conference is located.
 

“MissionInsite gives the local church access to the same broad and deep market research that leading retailers and manufacturers have and use all the time,” said Rev. Scott Hagan, pastor of Waverly Hall and Ellerslie United Methodist Churches. “It helps the local church see how families in our neighborhood live and where their priorities are, which really helps us understand our neighbors better.”
 

Rev. Hagan says that MissionInsite has been a great tool to help educate church leaders at Waverly Hall and Ellerslie about the changes their communities have undergone in the past decade. Learning that 200 young children, kindergarten age and younger, live within five miles of one of the churches helped them reinvest and refocus their children’s ministries. 
 

“We’ve learned that families are moving here for the great education that is provided by the Harris County schools, and the church fails them if we don’t also offer them faith formation.
 

“We’re in communities that have changed,” he said. “MissionInsite helps us see what others are seeing about how our communities are changing. When the church can better understand our neighbors we are better able to serve them.”
 

MissionInsite was co-founded by Mike Regele, Chuck Salter and Peter Wernett, all of whom have been providing mission planning resources to regional and national church agencies as well as local churches across the United States for more than 20 years. All three are ordained clergy, including two United Methodists, who have served both within either a regional or national agency as well as served in firms providing demographic services.
 

The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church has formed a strategic alliance with MissionInsite designed to benefit Annual Conferences in the United States and their churches. MissionInsite currently has 28 United Methodist Annual Conferences as clients.    
 

“MissionInsite doesn’t create new ministry,” Rev. Hagan said. “It’s not a cookie-cutter program for starting new things, but it gives you insight into the mission you’re already committed to. We’re committed to making disciples, and it gives us insight into what that might look like in our context.”
 

To learn more about how your church can use MissionInsite, contact Dr. Jerry Roe at 478-956-5717.