The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board launched the See Tennessee website this month. It’s a digital map that gives pastors and church leaders a snapshot of the physical, social and spiritual needs in their county.
“Our hope is that it will help churches identify opportunities to engage their communities through meaningful ministry and service,” said Lewis McMullen, multiplying healthy churches team leader at TBMB. “From my team’s perspective, it also helps us identify areas where new churches are needed.”
McMullen’s team pulled data from several sources, including MissionInsite, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, the Tennessee Department of Health, the Pew Research Center, and Every Child Tennessee.
“As they explore the data, I hope they will be encouraged to dig deeper into the specific challenges and opportunities around them and discover new and existing ways to engage their communities for gospel impact,” McMullen said.
Two separate ideas
The project began as two separate ideas. Daryl Crouch, TBMB’s strengthening healthy churches team leader, had explored ways to help churches understand community needs related to foster care, child welfare and poverty. At the same time, McMullen developed a mapping concept to identify underserved and underreached communities that needed new churches.
“We wanted to provide information that would be both meaningful and actionable for pastors and churches as they seek to make a greater impact in their communities,” McMullen said.
Crouch said the project reflects a core conviction driving the Healthy Churches team.
“Only the church is responsible for the spiritual and social condition of a community,” Crouch said. “When we see Tennessee, we cannot unsee it. This map is designed to help church and associational leaders understand the spiritual and social condition of our neighbors, and to ignite a fresh urgency for gospel engagement.”
Crouch said healthy churches strengthen and multiply by making disciples of Jesus in the communities where they are planted, and that knowing neighbors and communities is the first step toward that goal. The See Tennessee Map, he said, helps church leaders see the realities of their state, associations and counties.
Key resources
The site also identifies key resources available to churches and associations, including Tennessee Baptist universities, ministry training centers, and pregnancy care centers, as they equip and mobilize believers to serve.
One feature on the site tracks “church engagement,” a marker that hovers around 50% for most Tennessee communities.
Using that marker alongside population data and the size of a normative Tennessee Baptist church, the Healthy Churches team asks a guiding question: How many new or renewed churches will it take to move the needle of lostness by 3% in a community?
Crouch said the answer creates a compelling vision for churches to align ministry priorities around lostness in their own communities.
The site also draws on the TBMB’s Act 2:17 Initiative, which prioritizes children and families.
Social markers on the map, including poverty rates, single-parent homes and children affected by the foster care system, give churches and associations practical information to better serve their neighbors.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by the Baptist and Reflector.
