Research fuels development of Scripture tools

If a book could jump up in front of a child’s nose and demand to be read, our job would be easy!

The next best thing is for Scripture tools to speak in a relevant and effective way to the heart-felt needs of each segment of the youth population — so that each tool

  • is attractive and meaningful to the children who receive it
  • clearly speaks the Word of God
  • and results in changed hearts and changed behaviors.

How do we know what elements to include in each Scripture resources, and whether the tools we develop are making an impact? Through extensive research.

Market Research

This “discovery” research provides the basic foundation to shape ministry design. We call it Spiritual State of the World’s Children, and it is conducted in two ways:

  • Surveys that gauge the Attitudes and Behavior of youth to yield a “national profile” of a nation’s young people.
  • On-site focus groups for Custom Discovery Reports which determine the social needs of young people for specific segments of the population.

OneHope has completed or will soon complete Spiritual State of the World’s Children research in 49 countries on five continents. Our research findings are available for free download at www.spiritualstateofthechildren.com

Program Research

Program Research measures a young person’s engagement with our Scripture resource to determine how interesting it is to the target population. We also evaluate the program of reaching the children and youth with God’s Word and follow up by measuring aspects of the entire program including: attendance, attrition, quality of the presentation and teachers, and how closely our partners stick with the program as designed.

Outcomes Research

Does the resource as developed work? Were the attitudes and behaviors of children changed? Were their hearts transformed? This is the focus of outcomes research:

  • Short-term outcomes. Did the children and youth understand the product given to them? Did it speak to their minds with important information on subjects that interested them?
  • Medium-term outcomes. Did the behavior of the children and youth change after engagement with the Scripture resources? Was the change beneficial and lasting?
  • Long-term outcomes. Did the community or society change after the children and youth were engaged with the Scriptures?

We believe in the power of God’s Word to change hearts and lives, no matter what. We also believe it’s important to be good stewards by developing ways to present the Word of God that engage young people and show a measurable result. This is what our research program helps to do.