THE IDEA

Since May 2007, we have undertaken the enormous challenge of reactivating and updating our previous study on ethnic and religious diversity in GLAMA as a service to the general public. Our specific goal is to offer IDEA's Strategic Research and Information Services to educational institutions in the Los Angeles area as part of a joint venture to inform and educate a new generation of professors and students about the importance and value of community-based research and evaluation of ethnic and religious variables in a rapidly-changing urban environment. Los Angeles has been called "The Capital of the Third World" because of its tremendous ethnic and religious diversity today. The ultimate objective of such a project is to help community leaders recognize and respond more adequately to the holistic physical, social, spiritual and emotional needs of a diverse urban population in the "City of the Angels" that emcomposses those of nearly every people, tongue, tribe and nation on the face of the earth.

During 1990-1997, missionary researcher Clifton L. Holland (Executive Director of IDEA Ministries) and his associates conducted a comprehensive Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity that focused on all known ethnic and religious groups in the Greater Los Angeles Metro Area - GLAMA (Los Angeles and Orange counties); additional data was gathered on adjacent urban areas as well in Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. This larger area was defined as the Los Angeles 5-County Region.

The general purpose of this study was to further the Great Commission by helping Protestant denominations and mission agencies define and evaluate the status of the "harvest force" and the "harvest field" in a diverse urban context: Los Angeles is now the major port of entry for new immigrants to the USA, and a place where non-Anglos (including Hispanics) are now the majority and Anglos are a minority population.

The research team created a massive computer database that included (1) all known religious groups (both Christian and non-Christian), with over 12,500 listings, that were identified by ethnic, denominational and religious classification codes (based on a typology adapted from Dr. J. Gordon Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions, Fourth Edition, Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1993); (2) all known ethnic groups (based on race, language, national origin and ancestry of the population, using information from the 1990 Census of Population); and (3) five levels of geographical definition (from "county" to "census tract") that were correlated to census data for 1980 and 1990.

The original "Resource Center for Urban Ministry" that Holland created at IDEA's Pasadena office in January 1992, located on the campus of the U.S. Center for World Mission/William Carey International University, was moved to the Bresee Institute for Urban Training at the First Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles in December 1992. This project was developed under the sponsorship of the Consortium for Urban Leadership Development (COULD), and the "COULD Resource Center" was administered for several years by the Bresee Institute for Urban Training under the supervision of Michael Mata and, later, of Jolly Beyioku. Since 1995, the Paraclete Mission Group in Altadena, directed by Mr. Phil Elkins, has been the main depository of the research archives, databases and mapping resources for the IDEA-GLAMA Urban Resource Center.

Mr. Ben Capps of YWAM worked with Holland in the development of the GLAMA database and became the principal trainer using ATLAS GIS software, while Holland finalized the production of IDEA's Church Directory Software (ICDS) and the ICDS User's Manual, with technical assistance from Mr. Alan Young using Clarion Professional Developer. Holland and Young provided technical support for users of the ICDS software program, while Holland also provided training in the use of Atlas GIS software, from 1992-1997. During this time, IDEA's Strategic Mapping and Information Services provided its partnership agencies and the general public with copies of the computer maps and transparencies that were created for this study, as well as customized maps for specific geographical areas and ethnic communities, using color deskjet (letter size) and HP plotter (large wall maps) printers.

The IDEA-GLAMA RESEARCH PROJECT created the following products between 1990-1997:

	The Los Angeles A.D. 2000 Project: Targeting the Greater Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA) - January 1990
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): A Working Document (1991)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): General Overview (1992)
	The Greater Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): A Demographical Overview by Regions, Sub-regions and Major and Minor Statistical Areas, Based on the 1990 Census of Population (1993) - Map
	A Database of All Known Religious Groups in GLAMA (1992) - Final Version, 1994: 8,499 Listings
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-I, Central City (1993)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-II, San Fernando Valley (1992)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-III, West LA-Malibu (1992)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-IV, South Bay (1992)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-V, Norwalk-Whitter (1993)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-VI, San Gabriel Valley (1992)
	A Resource Directory on Ethnic and Religious Diversity in the Los Angeles Metro Area (GLAMA): RG-VII, Orange County (1992)
	A Report on the Status of Unreached Peoples in GLAMA: by National Origin Population, Race-Ethnic Categories, and Number and Ratio of Protestant Churches per Group (1994) - See Report (includes Los Angeles and Orange Counties)
	A Resource Manual for Community Analysis and Strategic Planning (1994) - See Questionnaire
	A Database of All Known Religious Groups in the Los Angeles 5-County Region: 12,433 Listings (1997) - See Overview
	The Geographical Distribution of Protestant Churches in GLAMA: June 1997 - See Report