In Part V of The State of the Canadian Church at Canadian Christianity, Jim Coggins looks at attempts of  Canadian evangelicals to be noticed more by Statistics Canada, academics, and I assume by extension government funding.
He looks at a couple of new ventures that will attempt to pull together statistics and research for church planters.

Rick Hiemstra has been appointed full-time program manager of the centre.

The primary vehicle for the centre is an online journal called Church and Faith Trends.

Hiemstra told CC.com the journal will publish new research, some of it commissioned and funded by the centre, but will also offer links to other research available on the Internet. Stackhouse said the goal is for the journal to be the “first stop” for scholars, journalists and others who want to study Canadian evangelicals.

The first issue, largely devoted to the difficult question of how to define and count evangelicals, came out in November 2007. The second issue, due out in February 2008, will focus on efforts by evangelical scholars to convince Statistics Canada to refine its data collection so that the evangelical reality is reflected more clearly in statistics. The researchers also want Statistics Canada to ask questions about religious participation — such as who actually shows up at church — in addition to current census questions about religious affiliation.

Hiemstra said the goal is to publish a new issue three or four times a year, depending on “how fast we build the capacity for content.”

A significant evangelical culture

Hiemstra said the journal’s goal is to publish “the whole truth” even when it is unfavourable to evangelicals. The journal will thus serve as “a mirror for the evangelical community and a window for others.”

However, the effort is not just an academic exercise. Hiemstra said the journal is intended to help “ministry practitioners” — that is, leaders of churches and parachurch ministries. Hiemstra said often Canadian churches are “trying to translate American data and making inappropriate ministry decisions” as a result.

On the political front, Lloyd Mackey pulled together a list of evangelical religious lobby groups and wonders if they could interface with other Canadian religious groups petitioning the feds on social/faith and political issues. Many of the evangelical groups he mentions are offshoots of US ministries that have operated in Canada for several years.