November 20, 2019

Communio is launching a three-year initiative to equip local  evangelical, mainline and Catholic churches in Denver, Col. to strengthen marriages, reduce divorce, and grow their congregations through Data-Informed, Full-Circle Relationship Ministry™.

A coalition of local business leaders, philanthropists, and foundations have provided the funding for Communio to launch its third City Platform of 2019: Denver, Colorado.

• As the capital and largest municipality in Colorado and the Mountain West, the Mile High City will serve an important beachhead for producing larger shifts in family dynamics across this important state. 

Close to 70 percent of the $1.7 million, three-year City Platform budget has now been committed.  This effort will catalyze a self-sustaining relationship health movement that will equip roughly 40 large churches – evangelical, mainline, and Catholic – across two of the metro’s most populace counties – Denver and Arapahoe – to implement our proven change model: a Data-Informed, Full-Circle Relationship Ministry™. 

Through this City Platform, the churches will measurably reduce the divorce rate, boost family stability, and increase regular church attendance.  

You get a great idea of what the initial steps of this approach looks in different churches by clicking here. 

The three-year project covers a population of approximately 1.3 million people. During this period, Communio will:

• Train each church to diagnose marital and relationship needs of their members and those in the community through internal assessments and insights gained from consumer product data. 
• Consult with each church to develop and execute their own outreach and engagement strategy that puts people – both inside and outside of the church – onto a growth journey toward healthier relationships.  This makes the church a community change agent.  
• Run a city-wide digital marketing funnel targeted to at-risk populations and moving them into ministry engagement. 

Central to this effort is helping church leaders develop their own Ministry Engagement Ladder – a strategic framework Communio employs to help a church think through outreach and engagement opportunities for church growth.

Churches draw from a catalog of over 80 pieces of content to fill each critical rung of the ladder, including:

1. Outreach Events deploy an inside-out marketing strategy drawing in both existing members and those not already connected with the church into fun experiences that edify marriage. Those big events provide a clear next step that flow people into an…
2. Ongoing Engagement Experience – or smaller event setting like group date nights – hosted on or off the church campus – where individuals and couples can build relationships with their spouses and others. These events provide a clear next step into a final…
3. Growth Journey – Here, people attend skills-based ministry experiences that improve relationship health.

Through the Denver City Platform, Communio will “teach churches to fish” so that they are not dependent on our staff for long-term support. Each Data-Informed, Relationship Ministry is its own.  Once trained and supported during the platform period, churches are able to continue with our framework long into the future. Communio can then turn its focus to catalyzing a relationship health movement in new cities. 

With loneliness and social isolation at epidemic levels in America, Communio is empowering churches of various Christian faith traditions to build community by saving marriages.