Explanation

Our catechism states (1979 BCP 855) that “the mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ,” a mission which is carried out “through the ministry of all its members.” In order for The Episcopal Church to continue pursuing its mission in a technologically-advanced modern society, we must utilize data in professional, efficient ways to understand and evaluate our past, current, and future ministry endeavors.

The ministry of our Church’s members spans geographic, cultural, socioeconomic, racial, and numerous other differences. The wide-ranging nature of our ministry (not to mention our mission field: “restore all people . . .”) requires information. Technological advances in our contemporary world provide us with endless new ways to gather, analyze, and disseminate this information, and our peer denominations have responded to this with increasingly robust data offices (see, for example, Chapter 16, Section 12.B20.c of the “Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America”). It is past time for The Episcopal Church to rise to the current data demands of our congregations, dioceses, synods, and partner organizations.

The ability to access timely and accurate data about our ministries can bring insight and understanding to a wide range of needs across the Church. One such example is the efforts of the Interim Bodies of General Convention; these commissions, committees, task forces, etc., provide robust ways for specific ministry challenges to be addressed between convenings of the General Convention and are the backbone for future legislative action across the entirety of The Episcopal Church. However, interim bodies are severely limited in their ability to collect, analyze, and evaluate essential data necessary for making mission-critical recommendations and decisions.

The Episcopal Church’s data efforts are largely conducted by volunteers rather than professional data analysts. When professional expertise is utilized, it is through an ad hoc mix of contractors and consultants which create increasing inefficiencies for both financial and information management. When one considers the data disparities across our different dioceses, it is easy to see how the opportunity exists for inequitable deployment of resources, misunderstanding and miscommunication in cross-denominational discernment processes, and duplication of efforts due to missed collaborative efforts.

Creating a centralized, funded effort with an Officer for Mission-Driven Data Strategy will allow The Episcopal Church to support its ministries through the appropriate and accurate use of data. The efficiencies that this Officer would support would reduce overall spending by centralizing data collection efforts. For example, resolutions currently being considered by the 81st General Convention alone include over $800,000 in allocation requests for data collection and analysis. In-house collection and analysis will save us money and provide for continuity of knowledge, both necessary to preserve and improve the health and vitality of our Church. Professional information management will allow us to move beyond reactively gathering data in an effort to confirm pre-existing suspicions. An Officer for Mission-Driven Data Strategy will be able to monitor and track data in real time, identifying trends as they develop so that we support the ministry of our members with data-driven decisions, not data-reactive responses.

 

Support Document:

ELCA Reference (EN ES)

 

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