Introduction to Our Community and Church Our Church: The current Strategic Plan (5-year Plan) states that Prairie Hill seeks to minister to our community and world through sound biblical teaching and a focus to make disciples, providing a church for individuals and families to grow spiritually, being the hands and feet of Christ in an open, friendly and loving manner, and supporting select missionary efforts here and around the globe. Part of our plan recognizes the need to increase our focus on addressing the changing demography in our community and growing secularism, that result in fewer young adults and young families committed to Christ, and to develop outreach to people who have stopped going to church, people whose lives are not focused on Jesus, lapsed Christians, non-believers and those going through life’s transitions. The proposal to hire an associate pastor to minister to the millennial generation is a part of the plan to fulfill this need. Prairie Hill is currently a church with attendance in the 200-300 range. Our staff consists of a Senior Pastor, a part-time worship leader, part-time children’s ministries director, and a part-time youth pastors. The Associate Pastor position is new and is full-time.
Church attendees by age-group:
• 70 or over: (27)
• 50s and 60s: (86)
• 40s: (52)
• 20 and 30s: (24)
• under 18: (67)
Our Community:
• Prairie Hill Evangelical Free Church is in Eden Prairie, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis. The current population of the city is 63,914. A CNN/Money Magazine report listed Eden Prairie as the best place to live in America in 2010 and ranked it at #2 in 2016. The report cited good schools, safe streets, 57,000 jobs within the city and a low 3.6% unemployment rate. The city contains 37 parks, 17 lakes, and 125 miles of running, hiking and biking trails.
Demographics:
• The racial makeup of the city is estimated to be 81.7% white, 9.2% Asian, 5.7% black, 3% Hispanic or Latino, and 2.3% mixed race.
o About 1,800 Eden Prairie residents claimed Somali ancestry on the latest U.S. Census survey, but city officials peg the number closer to 4,500 in a city of about 81,000, making them the city's largest group of non-European descent — only those with German, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Irish, English or French blood account for a bigger share of the local population
• Roughly 20% of the population is aged 18-34.
• Education level in the city is quite high with 69% of adult residents having obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• 80% of the workforce is employed in white collar jobs.
Beliefs:
• 78% of residents believe in God, less than the national average of 85%.
• 53% of residents believe God is actively involved in the world, compared with 64% nationally.
• Still, faith involvement is marginally higher than the national average with 35% strongly involved with their faith, 32% somewhat involved, and 32% not involved with their faith.
• 55.10% of the people in Eden Prairie, Minnesota are religious, meaning they affiliate with a religion. Religious preference shows the two highest denominational groups are Catholic and Lutheran.
• There are 22 churches in the city of a variety of denominations (and non-denominational churches) including four mega churches—two of them Evangelical, one Lutheran, and one Catholic.
