The Riverside Innovation Hub is a learning community made of local congregations who gather together to learn how to be and become public church in their neighborhood contexts. We convene congregations over two years together, shaped by learning and practicing the artforms of the Public Church Framework in each congregation’s unique context.
Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four different practices that help us hear our neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the first layer of accompaniment, the Demographics of the Neighborhood.
Introduction
Written by Jeremy Myers
Summary and Learning Outcomes
This lesson is intended to help individuals and/ or teams gather the demographic data of their particular neighborhoods and begin reflecting on that data in order to gain more insight into those who live in that particular neighborhood. Completing this lesson should help you:
- be able to find and collect the demographic data of those who live within a particular neighborhood.
- know more about the people who live their lives within this particular neighborhood.
- develop a deeper sense of empathy for these neighbors and become curious about how you might get to know them better.
Preparation
- Use “Preparing to Lead the Lesson Plan” to help you complete these following steps in preparation for leading this lesson.
- Read “What is Accompaniment?” and “Why Demographics?”.
- Generate your Demographic Report and familiarize yourself with it.
- Gather the following materials below.
Materials
- Whiteboard or large sheet of paper to write on
- Bible
- Copy of the demographic report for each person in your group
- Copy of the Presuppositions Worksheet for each person in your group
- Writing utensil for each person
- Drawing materials (optional)
- Access a pdf version of the Lesson Plan here!
