About State of Our City
Built on the success and demand of FORCLT’s past “State of the City Reports”, the State of Our City Platform is our new dynamic and interactive tool. It’s designed to help pastors and Christian leaders have greater clarity when making decisions so they can work together to make a tangible impact for the flourishing of Orange County. On the platform, you will find the latest available public and curated demographic data and research about the spiritual, physical, and societal needs of Orange County, organized into simple and clear snapshots that are easy to understand. You will also find stories of impact, Scripture references and prayer points about relevant realities to help Christian leaders marry our shared, biblical convictions with the needs of our city. Finally, you can engage the data by asking questions, sharing it with friends, or exploring ways to get involved in improving the state of our city.
How to Use this Tool
As a pastor or leader, the following are some of the most impactful ways we recommend using this tool to empower you as you lead:
- To Preach and Teach - Using it to inform sermons or lessons to help frame how the church can best love and serve our city.
- To Convene - Using it to connect and convene leaders around engaging the needs of our city.
- To Strategize - Using it to frame your church or organizational strategy/missions retreat. We were amazed at how many churches and ministries used the report in this way.
- To Give - Using it to inform and focus how you best give and steward your financial resources for the greatest impact in our city.
- To Serve - Using it to find how to best serve the needs of our city.
- To Pray - Using it to focus your prayers for the people, realities and neighborhoods of our city.
Our Lenses
Our approach to designing and communicating the data, stories, and insights contained in the State of Our City Platform is through the following Christ-centered lenses.
About the Trellis Network
Trellis emerged from a group of leaders and pastors who had been praying for Costa Mesa for 15 years that were convicted it was time to move beyond prayer to more effective collaboration with one another as well as with other leaders in the city. In the process of convening leaders, developing partnerships, doing events, and establishing initiatives a strong team emerged.
Leaders in other cities started noticing what was happening in Costa Mesa and they began asking for help and insight to get movements started in their own cities. We are a team of practitioners who continue to work in our city but want to help stimulate and encourage church, business, and city leaders to work better together as they engage the city in which they exist.
Learn more about the Trellis Network at wearetrellis.com
