18 DECEMBER 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition CHURCH UNITED Joining a national pilot being led by the Every City Coalition, last month Church United Southwest Florida officially launched one of the most innovative and transformative tools in the city-movement landscape: the State of Our City Platform. As the first Church United region to pilot this cutting-edge initiative, Southwest Florida is pioneering a gospel motivated, data-driven model that will soon scale across the Church United network — including a full launch in Church United Broward in 2026. More than a digital dashboard or data portal, the State of Our City Platform is a strategic engine for unity, mission and measurable Kingdom impact, giving pastors, ministry leaders, donors and civic partners unprecedented visibility into the real spiritual, cultural and social realities of their neighborhoods. For Southwest Florida, this is more than an innovative idea — it is a bold step toward collaborative transformation at a moment when the united witness of the Church is needed most. A platform purpose-built for Christian ecosystems Drawn from the proven success of the platform pioneered by For Charlotte (North Carolina’s version of Church United) the State of Our City Platform brings together multi-sector data — spiritual, social, economic and demographic — into a single, intuitive, real-time intelligence tool. The platform is designed to aggregate spiritual, social and economic data, visualize real-time community needs, empower churches and leaders with contextualized insights, and fuel collaboration across networkers of churches and ministries. In practical terms, this means that movements like Church United can now see which neighborhoods have the least church presence, where social pain points are must acute, where opportunities for ministry, evangelism, and church planting are emerging, and how collaboration is impacting the region over time. This turns historically fragmented or inaccessible data into a shared language for mission — unifying churches, donors and ministries around a common understanding and vision of their city. Turning data into insight, and insight into action At the core of the platform is an elegant logic flow: Data → Insight → Strategy → Impact. Southwest Florida leaders can now identify gaps, opportunities and urgent needs with unprecedented clarity. A zip code with high food insecurity and limited church presence becomes an invitation to collaborative strategy: churches deploy outreach, donors resource the work and impact accelerates through evangelism, service and long-term transformation. This is where the platform becomes more than analytics. It becomes missional fuel. Pastors gain clarity. Ministries gain direction. Church United gains alignment. And donors — often waiting for a clear path forward — gain confidence, transparency and concrete opportunities for catalytic giving that’s driven by collaboration. For Pastor Charlie Mitchell, of Summit Church, who is also helping to lead this Church United effort in the region, “So much of pastoral ministry is done in the dark — we feel the needs of our city but we don’t always see them. The State of Our City Platform turns that darkness into light. It helps us understand where God is already at work and where the Church is needed most.” Activating kingdom collaboration and donor engagement One of the most core contributions of the State of Our City Platform is its ability to activate latent generosity. High-capacity givers often want to contribute to the mission of God in their city, but hesitate because of uncertainty: Where is the need most urgent? What efforts are working? Which opportunities will create the highest Kingdom impact? This platform answers those questions in real time. It builds trust through transparency, activates dormant generosity and provides a “return on impact” as donors see measurable outcomes of their investments. A strategic catalyst for unity and mission in Southwest Florida The platform gives Church United Southwest Florida a new level of strategic capacity. It’s a strategic tool in our work of connecting leaders, uniting the church and fueling Kingdom collaboration. We see the launch of the State of Our City Platform as not simply a technological advancement — it is a regional discipleship moment. Southwest Florida is stepping into an era where unity is not abstract, mission is not assumed, and impact is not anecdotal. Everything moves toward clarity, action and measurable transformation. Matt Richard, executive pastor of Citygate Church in Fort Myers, put it like this, “We’ve never had this level of strategic intelligence before. It allows us to match the passion of our people with the real needs of our neighborhoods. That’s how real transformation happens.” Scaling the model: Coming to Church United Broward in 2026 As the Church United Southwest Florida pilot plays out, it paves the way for the next major milestone: the full deployment of the State of Our City Platform in Broward County in 2026. We are already talking with local municipalities and cities regarding data sharing and strategic collaboration around the platform. This expansion will give hundreds of Broward churches, ministries, leaders, donors and civic partners the same ability to see their city with deeper clarity, understand the missional landscape in real time, collaborate around shared, datadriven priorities, mobilize resources with greater speed and confidence and strengthen unity for the sake of Kingdom mission. Learn more about Church United by visiting churchunitedfl.com. - Eddie Copeland - Executive Director, Church United Church United Southwest Florida Launches “State of Our City” Platform to Fuel Kingdom Collaboration The State of our City Launch event at Summit Church in Fort Myers, featuring Pastor Charlie Mitchell casting vision for the platform of over 60 key pastors from Naples and Ft Myers.
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