"Discipling a Whole Nation" Research Summary

Purpose: This page seeks to point to the need for church planting and to progress towards the national goal of planting 10,000 new churches by 2015 (In 1997 National Church Planting Congress Declaration).

Harvest Force: An update on national church planting results - by denomination and by composite average - since Canada's first national "Discipling a Whole Nation" Congress in 1997, is available in PDF here. These results were shared during the "Next...?" National Congress in Vancouver, Nov. 19-21, 2003.

Harvest Field: Our most comprehensive DAWN church planting research may be found in Transforming Our Nation, a publication of Outreach Canada's "Church Leadership Library."

Big Picture: Update on National Church Planting Progress since 1997 Congress: Pressing on to the Goal (in Word); Pressing on to the Goal, Appendix (in Excel)

PowerPoint Reports: (presented during 2001 Congress plenaries)

In English: The National Picture; Quebec Needs; New Canadians

In French: The National Picture; Quebec Needs; New Canadians

Bottom Line: When comparing the Canadian "harvest force" and "harvest field" since 1997 we find:

	1997	2002	Change
Harvest Force: “Evangelical Congregations”	9,152 churches	9,776 churches	624 net gain (Just over 100 per year)
Harvest Field: Canadian Population	29,987,200	31,414,000
National “Church-to-Population” Ratio *	Each church must reach 3277 people	Each church must reach 3213 people	Moving in the right direction, but much more to go!

* Ratio goal: one church for 2000 people in urban settings; one church for 500 people in rural settings.

The Details: Introduction to "Church Planting Needs" (for every city, town, and village). For detail by province and territory, please click on any of the following links for PDF files: Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Colombia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut
Research on Churches that Plant Churches : An international study in 2003 found churches that plant churches more healthy and growing more effectively than sterile churches. more

2003 Canadian Religious Beliefs and Practices: results of an Ipsos-Reid Survey conducted by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada through National Evangelism Partnership Research Track in cooperation with partner organizations 2003 for a PDF or for a PowerPoint presentation click here

2001 Census Report on Religious Affiliation: for a summary analysis click here.

For the full report from the Stats Canada website

Archives:

In 2000 denomination heads were asked about their institutional responses to the challenge of saturation church planting. For survey results click here.
The links below give access to 1996 research summaries preceding the first national DAWN Congress in 1997:
- National overview of church planting needs (45 pages), or
- Quebec church planting needs (433 K file - please be patient )

(Note: to access some reports below, some browsers request a password. If this occurs, simply click on "cancel" and the requested document will appear.)

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