Making Maps for Ministry

Maps are effective communication media. There are many different ways to make a map ranging from simple (and free) to complex and costly. This article provides an overview of different approaches to mapping.

Make a Sketch
If you are doing field research and need to locate churches in a small area or doing "spiritual mapping" in a neighborhood, you might be able to simple draw a sketch of the area and note your observations. Graph paper could be useful to draw the map to scale and identify streets, landmarks etc. Your sketches can be shared with small groups for prayer and planning and further discussion.

Use Existing Paper Maps
Existing paper maps are also helpful when doing field research or spiritual mapping. Sources are road maps, atlases and sometimes local government agencies have maps of local ares. Look in gas stations and local bookstores. You can also take screen shots from Google Maps and print them out. Different colored stickers can be used to indicate types of churches. Number the sticker to correlate to the data form for the church.

Use Existing Digital Maps
Digital maps have advantages over paper maps in that they can be inserted into reports, articles, posted to the internet or e-mailed to others. There are lots of digital maps that can be found on the internet. You can use these for ministry mapping. You could also scan a paper map and create a digital file. Digital maps in .JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats can be edited in MS Paint, PhotoShop, GIMP or PaintNet (the last two are freeware). It is quick and easy to using the paint bucket tool to color a region to show the level of saturation (Church to Population ratio), AAGRs, percentage of evangelicals, etc. MS Paint works just fine for this (I've made hundreds of maps with Paint), but PhotoShop, GIMP or PaintNet are easier to work with because you can add layers to add text, church data, legends over the base map. By turning layers on and off, it is possible to make a number of different maps from the same base map. Because of these features, I've not used MS Paint for some time. Some maps are faster to make this way than by using Mapping software. (Of course, more features means a longer learning curve). The downside is that updating maps can be difficult. Digital maps have advantages over paper maps in that they can be inserted into reports, articles, posted to the internet or e-mailed to others.

Mapping Software
Mapping software is a powerful tool to generate ministry maps. Of course the learning curve is longer, and it is necessary to have a data base of the information you want to map. So more work is involved on the front end. The advantage is that it is easier to update maps based on new data, and it is possible to create maps will varying levels of detail - just add more layers, zoom in, zoom out, change colors. See the article on Mapping Software for more information.