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Knowing and proactively responding to the community in which the church is located is a strategic step in evangelizing effectively. Rather than a posture of a Christian church-culture residing in the community insulated from it’s language, media and issues, the church must know and adopt the community.

Who has God called our church to love and reach- how well do we know them?

Knowing the leaders, habits, and history of the community are critical to planning and planting the seeds of the gospel.  Some areas are going to be very receptive while others will require patient hard work.

For the local church to be missional and evangelistic, it must know and understand the field it seeks to harvest. This has been a key value of international missionaries and indigenous church planters for many years, but much less practiced by local churches. The church needs to exegete the direct culture that God has uniquely planted it into, so that a harvest can be brought in at all.

Resources Useful for Preparing the Soil: 

1. 1. The Center for Missional Research by the North American Mission Board is a strong and useful tool for examining the soil of your community.
2. BCNE has received the rights to share a very special article (PDF) for your use in understanding the New England soil within which we seek to grow a harvest. Understanding the Environment in Which We Minister: New England Culture and Ministry Dynamics written by Dr.J.David Jackson, former Church Planting Strategist, Greater Boston Baptist Association, Needham, Massachusetts. 
3. BCNE has excellent Powerpoint presentations full of strategic mission research for each of the six states of New England as well as key cities.  To request a presentation for your region or others, go to contacts and ask for New England States presentations.  
4. Key also to preparing the soil is prayer. Here are several Prayer methods and resources to consider:

Lighthouse_of_Prayer- consists of a group or an individual committed to intentionally pray for, care about, and share the gospel with individuals in their neighborhood or community. Lighthouses of Prayer are evangelistic prayer cells that are extensions of a local church’s evangelistic prayer ministry.

Taking Prayer to the Streets: Prayer Journeys - The ancient proverb says "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Prayer Journeys is one step to spiritual growth and renewal.This Prayer Journeys website guide book is for a teacher or prayer coordinator. It includes everything needed to help believers to pray for and share Jesus with people in the communities where they live, work, play and worship. Several translations into other languages are also available.

Prayer Guide for Associations & Churches- This excellent online guide for churches and Associations to build a strategy for effective prayer by C. Thomas Wright challenges believers to reclaim the church as a house of prayer with a passion for lost people.  "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us…." Psalm 90:17  The resulting strategy provides a specific process to challenge believers. The strategy helps associations and churches create a prayer ministry that is foundational to everything done in and through their ministries.

The BCNE can come along side and help your church assess its outer community and field needs.

For additional resources relative to Soil & Field Preparation see... 

The five stages of the Harvest Process are…
1.    Lord of the Harvest – Harvest begins with God

2.    Farm and the Workers must be ready

3.    Soil must be Examined, Prepared and Adopted

4.    Seed Sowing must be Regular, Persistent & Intentional

5.    Harvest is the culmination of the process and a new beginning