Ethnography

Ethnography uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive study of human societies. Many cultural anthropologists consider ethnography the essence of the research discipline. This may or may not be surprising to you, but many of the primary research techniques they employ are soft and emotive not scientific and absolute:

1. First-hand observation of daily behavior.
2. Casual conversations and in-depth interviews.
3. Discovery of local beliefs and perceptions.

But, sociologists aren't the only ones applying this discipline. National advertising companies, consumer marketing consultants and political strategists study people to sell products and get votes.

• Ken Strasma, political strategist, discovered one of the worst groups in Florida for Gore was young, white men. But, he also learned they could be moved with a message about the Everglades.
• Michael Meyers, marketing consultant, teaches companies how get get outside their own bubble; like showing GM how to attract a Ford or Toyota buyer.

They're investing their life and resources to learn what it is people want and think they need. They're working hard to figure out how they can answer the questions the people are asking. They're finding the space in which people rally, and they're going there.

Richard Reising [who looks a little bit like Vince Vaughn] tells a simple story that brilliantly demonstrates what this looks like in a very practical way.

A woman is driving down a pitch-dark road late at night and sees that she is almost out of gas. Her fear is somewhat relieved as she sees two gas stations up ahead.

If these two gas stations are equally accessible and the gas is equally priced, which will she choose?

Simple. She will choose the one with better lighting. Why? At that moment, her primary need is safety. Better lighting makes her feel safer. Her response is natural--just as natural as the first conclusions that people commonly draw about churches.

Imagine the owner of the less-frequently store. He tries to solve the problem by dropping prices, hiring a new graphic designer, making a new sign and increasing inventory...but his sales do not increase. He is missing the connection. He doesn't understand what drives people.

How strong is your connection? Are you providing the right light or are people headed to the other station?

Hey, Church:

• Are you an ethnographer?
• What are people rallying around? Are you there?
• What are people connecting with? Are you speaking to the need?

Comments

[Scott Marshall]

I am outing Elizabeth. She is the aforementioned ethnographer in my previous comment. Her husband also reads your blog and sent her the link to your post.

We were today trying to convince her to create an ethnography tool for churches. Something that helps a church know how to do anthropological/missiological research on their community so they reach THOSE people, not the people that nationally known example church "A" reaches (and who are doing the hard work off knowing their community). We're often guilty of that, aren't we (evangelicals)? Reaching people in some other church's community because they are "making it happen."

[Elizabeth Paul]

Love the post. Thanks for sharing.

My two cents for what it's worth: Ethnography is a tool used by cultural anthropologists, market researchers, etc. I think the better question is are you (church) an anthropologist? Do you make the effort to enter into cultures and worlds and understand the people within them?

I'm a creative strategist (cultural anthropologist) for an ad agency and the actual practice of ethnography is actually pretty involved and expensive (we're spending nearly $1 million to study 32 women in 8 cities). To answer Scott's question above, I doubt actual ethnography is cost effective for churches (even on a smaller scale), though I think the general principles involved in studying people (the way we do vocationally) is easily taught and practiced by anyone with interest.

[Kem Meyer]

I agree with all of your reasons and maybe would add one more… False sense of holiness. Sometimes to study and learn about people and the reality of their lives, it takes us into uncomfortable places. Many Christians and churches segregate themselves because it’s easier and they think it’s the right thing to do.

All of them are just excuses, though, you know?

Our senior pastor said something in our staff meeting last week that applies in a lot of contexts, including this one.

"We don't have to know EVERYTHING to admit we know SOMETHING...don't wait to know eveything before you move or you will never move." - Mark Beeson

[Scott Marshall]

Interesting that you post on this topic.

One of my closest friends wife is doing an ethnography study of the South for her ad agency (The Martin Agency--Wal-Mart, UPS, etc). They are doing exactly what you describe to get inside the heads of Wal-Marts prime customer--the mom.

It's a huge input of time and money--all to imprint on someone's imagination and get them to buy at Wal-Mart.

I've been wondering why in the world we (the church) don't do this. I'd love to hear your reasons for why we don't.

Mine.
$ - We don't have it (or are unwilling to spend it in this way).
Priorities - It SEEMS like a waste of time and energy.
Lack of strategic ability - We wouldn't know what to do with the information once we got it.

[Marcus Hackler]

Love the Church Marketing 101 reference - that book changed my whole perspective on marketing in the church environment.

[Kem Meyer]

Just received an email in response to this post from Pat Kase @ Cogun. (He's a friend of mine. We used to be neighbors.) His words were too good not to share with everyone here...

"Interesting that you are posing this topic. A standard piece of the consulting and development work we do for each of our church clients is that we commission a demographic and ethnographic study of the population within the primary geographic service area of the church (defined as the radius or zip codes of 75% or more of current church members – usually not much more that 5 miles). With both sets of information, it is possible to both quantify and qualify the set of non-attending church people who share ethos with that church. The report includes ministry style preferences, music style preferences, any feelings of link to a particular denomination, primary life concerns, social concerns and lots more. Kinda cool.

You already know the stats;
• 60% of the population of any community is “missing” (have not attended church except for wedding, funeral or major holiday in the past 6 mos.)
• 75% of that population is described as being a range of “neutral” to “highly receptive” to the good news (they’d go if they a reason – as if salvation isn’t enough!)
• 85% of that 75% believe they can have a personal relationship with God without visiting any church.

To know their ethos is to make sure you are targeting the right group, in the right way, with the right message - all while growing the ministry programs most likely to be interesting and needed to the group you hope to serve."