Revitalizing communities & families by equipping churches
Communio is a nonprofit that consults with churches to use 21st century data tools and ministry best practices to create ongoing relationship ministries.
Our communities are in crisis and our churches aren’t yet equipped to help
Across the country, loneliness is skyrocketing. Life expectancy shrinks as addiction and suicide rates rise. Too many people lack meaningful relationships. At the same time, churches empty at alarming rates.
A primary factor driving this mass exodus from faith is the collapse of marriage. Millennials with married parents are almost twice as likely to attend church regularly when compared to counterparts from unmarried homes.¹
The future of faith is directly tied to healthy marriages. Yet, churches are not engaged in this area. 75% of churches lack a substantive marriage ministry.²
Less than half of Americans reach adulthood with married parents. If the church focuses its considerable energies here, families will flourish and churches will grow. Every community would thrive.
At Communio, we partner with churches to build out data-informed, full-circle relationship ministries to ensure that more people choose the adventure of marriage, and that marriages are healthy.
¹ Relationships in America Survey, 2018
² 2019 Barna Relationship Ministry Survey
1
Serve
We help you diagnose the unique relationship health risks in your church and community.
2
Support
We support your church in developing and running a customized relationship ministry, including programming and targeted outreach to those most at-risk.
3
Scale
We help your church grow through ongoing marketing consultation and benchmarking to track your impact over time.
What our partners have to say:
Sun Valley Community Church
“I’d like to say thanks to Communio for allowing us to think differently. There is so much fertile soil for radical change in all of our communities. It’s through relational ministry. And when you and I can take Big Data and get the actual facts, we can wave the flag of ‘we’re here to help you’ and then actually help people in a real way in Jesus name. That’s how we change our communities.”
-Pastor Chad Moore
News
“To understand the vast gap in efficacy between government work to promote healthy marriages and the work of civil society, one privately funded project, now called Communio, worked with local organizers and churches to produce a sharp decline in divorce in Jacksonville, Fla., by 24% over three years.”
“Communio…used the latest marketing techniques to “microtarget” outreach, engaged local churches to maximize its reach and influence, and deployed skills training to better prepare individuals and couples for the challenges they might face. [Communio] highlights how employing systems thinking and leveraging the latest in technology and data sciences can lead to significant progress in addressing our urgent marriage crisis.”
“This is a very sophisticated program to try to intervene and get people to start families and get people who have families to stay married. You are getting serious and taking on this crisis the way that you would if you were running a business.”
Matt Lewis & the News
Do Millennials Believe in God?
Communio President on The Hard Question
Communio’s President JP De Gance sits down with Blanquita Cullum on The Hard Question – a local Chicago-based show broadcast locally on WCGO and on Soundcloud – to share our key findings on the direct relationship between the strength of married life and active faith practice. They also discuss the launch of Communio’s first City Platform in Billings, Montana as well as our plans to scale into new cities in 2019.
Faith is Falling Because the Family is in Freefall
Communio President on Bill Martinez Live
Communio’s President JP De Gance sits down with Bill Martinez on Bill Martinez Live – a nationally syndicated conservative talk show – to share our key findings on the direct relationship between the strength of married life and active faith practice. They also discussed the launch of Communio’s first City Platform in Billings, Montana as well as our plans to scale into new cities 2019.
About Communio
With a direct relationship between the strength of marriages and active church participation, Communio helps your church develop a data-informed, full-circle relationship ministry.
Communio consults with churches to launch a data-informed, full-circle relationship ministry
This means your church provides vision, skills, and community to individuals at each stage of a relationship – leveraging 21st century tools of predictive analytics and microtargeting to reach out to those in your community most likely in need of help. Communio does not author or publish ministry content. Rather, we work with the nation’s leading publishers within relationship ministry to curate the most effective approaches for your membership and community.
Singles
Establishes healthy dating habits and encourages marriage discernment.
Marriage Preparation
Couples assess compatibility and work with mentors before and after their wedding.
Marriage Enrichment
Married couples continuously learn skills to strengthen their relationship.
Marriage In Crisis
Couples have access to marriage intensives to help save struggling marriages.
Singles
Just 7% of churches report having this area of ministry.¹ For many twenty-somethings, “hooking up” is the norm. The most recent academic research finds that the modal time (most frequently occurring time) for when couples first have sex is now “before a relationship begins.” Meanwhile, many young adults view cohabitation as a better alternative to committed marriage. Setting aside the biblical and moral implications, social science continues to show that cohabitation increases the likelihood of becoming a single parent, suffering domestic violence, and getting divorced. Any effort to recover marriage as a social norm must square with these realities. An effective ministry for singles establishes counter-cultural norms and skills proven to improve happiness, relationship satisfaction, and life outcomes over the long term.
¹ 2019 Barna Survey
Marriage Preparation
Only 12% of churches offer substantive marital preparation with couples relationship education.¹ Most that do offer marriage preparation still lack many of the ingredients that foster healthy marriages. One critical component to an effective marriage preparation program is helping couples understand their compatibility. Ministries should also provide couples with communication skills, and help them form meaningful friendships with mentors in marriage who can help them work through the inevitable challenges that occur in early married life in the early years.
¹ 2019 Barna Survey
Marriage Enrichment
Experts in Couples Relationship Education recommend married couples commit to a habit of eight hours of marriage-strengthening activities each year. A consistent refresher for couples on how to communicate, show affection, and understand each other’s needs will ground a marriage in a set of skills to weather the normal ebbs and flows of life. Churches can also strengthen their marriage culture by providing an ongoing community where these skills and habits are practiced and encouraged.
Marriage In Crisis
94% of pastors report doing pastoral counseling for couples, but 57% report being only “somewhat” or “not very” qualified to provide effective pastoral guidance to these couples.¹ Most churches lack an ongoing ministry or road map to serve couples heading for a divorce. Communio helps your church develop its own marriage crisis game plan, anchored in best practices, to give couples the greatest chance of experiencing health, happiness, and forgiveness in their marriage.
¹ 2019 Barna Survey
When partnering with Communio
Divorce Rates Plummet
Over a three-year experiment, over 50 churches used Communio’s model to drive divorce rates down 28% in Jacksonville, FL.
Church Attendance Rises
Leveraging data insights and new relationship ministries, Communio helped partner churches boost weekly attendance by 23%.
Weekly Generosity Increases
As Communio-supported churches grew attendance and regular participation, they saw an average 28% increase in weekly generosity.