How to Discover Needs in Your Community

Every area has needs—places of brokenness that God has called us, as the Church, to help restore. Use this step-by-step guide to discover the needs all around your neighborhood.

In 2013, Ashley Austin and his family relocated to Victoria, British Columbia, to begin the process of planting a church there. In order to plant a church that met the community’s needs, they spent time learning the community’s context. By discovering the context first and then building relationships in the community to discover specific needs, the church has grown from the original group of nine adults and six children to 350 attendees at the original site and has planted a second church in another part of the city.

“There’s now a sense of belonging, a sense of family and a sense of community for a city longing for relationships,” says Ashley. “That has led to countless opportunities to communicate the gospel. If restoration is taking something that’s disconnected and making it whole, when we join God in what He’s doing, He transforms even the most unlikely of situations.” Read More