What is a Survey Trip? Part 2

In less than a week Laura and I will be heading to London for a ten day survey trip. As we have shared our plans with friends and family, the overall reaction has been, "That is awesome...so what exactly do you do on a survey trip?" This is an excellent question! I'm glad you asked...

In the last post I discussed three foundational pieces of a survey trip: information gathering, networking, and prayer. Now I want to get specific about our upcoming trip...


In July 2011 I went on a survey trip to the UK to learn about existing church planting efforts, the situation of churches of Christ in the country as a whole, and the state of belief among the people. I also spent focused time with God, asking for direction toward a specific city for our future work. In two and a half weeks I networked with three different church planting organizations, several established churches, and two new mission efforts. I was able to gain an understanding of the level of belief in a post-Christian setting while gathering information on successful strategies for reaching this context. Perhaps the most significant part of the trip was a clear direction toward London as the setting for our work. During this trip we cast a wide net for a broad range of information, but next week we will be diving deeper into specific areas and situations to better form an idea about strategy, location, community development, and logistics for living there.

We will be using two sets of interview questions to help us network and gather information. The first set of questions are for learning more about the context of belief. We will be asking the same set of questions in London, a neighboring city, and a neighboring country. Luckily we have two great opportunities to travel to a nearby city and country in order to give these interviews. We'll spend one day in Leicester (about an hour train ride from London) for Laura's graduation, and one day in Sweden where Laura's brother (Josh) is attending The Florence Academy of Art. Josh has been a great resource because of his studies on European spirituality represented in art. We will be interviewing any willing people we meet on the street, in a park, at a coffee shop, etc. Here's a sample of questions for these interviews:

• What do your friends believe about God?
• Would you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?

This interview will help us piece together a belief system and collective story aiding us in developing a strategy for sharing Jesus.

A second set of interview questions will be for churches and missions organizations around London for the purpose of networking and building a strategy. We already have a relationship with groups/churches such as Co-Mission, Urban Expressions, 3DM, Holy Trinity Brompton, and Christ Church Mayfair. Along with reconnecting with some of these groups, we will begin a relationship with the Eden Newtork. Networking with these church planting organizations gives us a head start in building a strategy for our own church by learning from others. We will ask questions like:

• What is your target group?
• Why did you choose this target group (receptivity of the group, ministerial gifts, a combination...)?

We will spend a large amount of time getting to know the city. First, we will be locating community organizations, events, public spaces, etc. These organizations and events will likely be key entry points for the foundation of our work. Second, our city scavenging will help us determine logistics about living in London. We are meeting with several realtors to determine a cost of living map that will help us formulate our living budget. Being able to match affordability with high impact probability is important. Also for living logistics, Laura will be meeting with the career center at the University of Leicester and Pepperdine's London campus to discuss opportunities for further schooling and teaching.

We are perhaps most excited to spend time praying over London. Laura and I have several paths marked out for prayer walks (for praying over a community). One target location is Hyde Park. Thousands of people frequent the park daily (though perhaps not in January): families and businessmen, wealthy and poor, Muslim and Hindu, Christian and Atheist. We will be praying for reactivated belief, lives restored to Jesus, and for London's natural influence to be reconnected to the mission of God.

Will you pray with us?