rethink church
Rethink Church

WELCOMING - IDENTIFY - CONNECT

Monday, January 4th, at 7 p.m. we held our first Rethink Church meeting with 16 people in attendance.  Rev. Tac introduced the group to the Rethink Church lifestyle.  It is not a program, but a journey where everyone of the faith community can learn more about Welcoming, Connecting, and Identifying guests into the family of God.  "Our job is to plant trees under whose shade we may never sit."  It is a lifestyle, not merely some church program.
 
John Wesley was notorious for living out the lifestyle of Rethinking Church.  He constantly went into the streets, fields and villages.  He took a large role in Rethinking Church, and sharing God's love with others.  Hebrews 13:1-2, "Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."  While you might be shy about sharing your faith with others, you can learn how to effectively show Christian hospitality to each of the guests who come to our Lord's House.  Our relationship with God is lived out through our relationship with others.  Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors is known as a slogan for The United Methodist Church.  The next step is understanding that "open" is a verb where our actions will allow the Love of God to be experienced by all those we come in contact with in our lives.  Come and experience an opportunity of learning more about sharing your faith through being a Christian of generous hospitality.

Rethink Church is imperative and beneficial in guiding us into this Church's future.  We should not have to struggle, rather it should be a great joy in fulfilling God's call upon our lives, both individually and corporately.  We are the body of Christ and the way we welcome others can make a difference.

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WELCOMING

On January 11th, Rev. Sharon held the first session on Welcoming reminding us of our OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS theme.  OPEN IS A VERB!!

"If you do not change, you become extinct." Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. (pg 46)

Rev. Sharon shared the Barna Research group definition of the Unchurched as someone who may have had previous involvement with a church but now have little or no connection to a congregation.

Two terms used to identify unchurched:

  1. Seeker - those people who are actively seeking spiritual fulfillment, or acknowledge something missing from their life.
  2. Unchurched - are people with some potentially negative baggage from life experiences or even with other churches who want to reconnect with a faith group to get back on their spiritual journey.

In general, seekers are:

  • theologically liberal
  • less committed to the Christian faith as the only religion to explore
  • less interested in being active in the church in tradition ways, such as serving on committees
  • watching to see that Christian live what we say we believe.
These characteristics help inform us of "felt needs".  Knowing what motivates seekers to fill the "hole in the sole" helps us know what we have to meet that need.
 
Newcomers want to know if there is anyone like them and if anyone is interested in them.  Answer: Yes! We all have a desire to connect with God and others.
 
Things to keep in mind when welcoming others:
  • They feel uncertain and insecure.
  • They don't know what's going to happen to them in this place.
  • They come looking for something - maybe even they don't know what yet.
  • They make up their minds within 10 minutes of contact with the church if they are going to return.
  • They may want to be anonymous, coming late and leaving right away.
  • They want to set the pace of sharing information about themselves--don't force them to introduce themsleves or sign anything until they're ready.

 How can our church plan welcoming ministries and activities to address these newcomer concerns?

Follow up with Newcomers

  1. Know your regional differences and societal norms to handling this situation. What's considered "friendly" and "neighborly" varies greatly in different areas of the country and even down to local neighborhoods!
  2. Indicate in advance what you will do with their contact information, so they can "opt in" accordingly and not be surprised at your follow-up. 
  3. Use newcomer card and add a section to it for people to state a preference of how to be contacted for follow-up.  
  4. Give a gift
Show We Care - Simple strategies
  • contact first time guests within 24 hours (by phone, e-mail, a letter, a visit).
  • Provide opportunities to explore membership prior to joinging so people know what the church believes and wha it expects from them.
  • Make 'shepherds' or 'mentors' available for newcomers:  offer some to be their 'dfiest friend' in the church and get to know them.
  • Implement an 'Absentee Invervention Team' to track attendance, watch for patterns that may indicate that someone is leaving the church, and intervene before it is too late (3-4 weeks is the critical window).
  • have a careing outreach ministry ot make calls perhaps twice yearly to all memver households and once yearly to all those non-members who regularly attend the church.
  • Call new members 3 and and also six months our to ensure they ahve connected and are still having a good experience with the church.

Why People Leave

     Research shows that people who leave a congregation may ...

  • Long for a sense of community they haven't been able to find in the church.
  • Suffer from an extended illness, or an emotional or personal crisis.
  • Not think they have time, especially if they don't have special relationships or other connections at the church.
  • Realize the theology isn't a good fit for them.
  • Have lost the energy and enthusiasm they once had for staying.  They have found it difficult, if not impossible, to get connected to something that could sustain them.

What would be effective follow-up strategies for our church and community, both with newcomers and non-attenders to show that we care?

Handouts and role-play were introduced throughout the session.

On January 25th, JoAnn Snow conducted the session on "Identify", where we talked about finding out who we are as a church, what our community thinks about us and how we can meet the needs of our guests, members and the community.

IDENTIFY

On January 25th, JoAnn Snow held the session "Identify", where we discussed who we are as a church, what our community thinks about us and how we can meet the needs of our guests, members and the community.

"Imagine if everyone who came to our church was sent by God."

The "Identify" Process:

Five Points of Connection

1. We will discover in future workshops what our church strengths and core values are:

  • Core values clearly communicate who we are, in the congregation and in the community
  • We will discover our church's core values
  • Assess our own commitment to those values
  • Learn what people like about the Unite Methodists
  • Discover three things seekers are look for
Definitions:
  • Core Values:  Who we are at the core; our church's foundational principles that don't change no matter what our strategies, surroundings and circumstances are.
  • Vision: Our Outward Destination; sets our church on a course toward a desired destination and takes what God has uniquely created our church to be and points us toward what He designed us to accomplish.
 
2. What our church is know for:
  • Physical
  • Geographic
  • Programmatic
  • Historic
  • Theological
  • Lifestyle
  • Other
3.  Process of Discover -Design - Do
 
Definition: Perception - is how people view our church from their own point of view.  They form opinions and make assumptions based on their own background and experiences combined with what they see, hear, and know about the church.  Internal perception is how your church looks from the congregation's perspective.  External perception is how our church looks from the community's perspective (those not associated with the church).
  • Discover who we are -where we are - who we want to reach
    • Learn church member passions and skill sets
    • Conduct a ministry in-reach/outreach audit
    • Decide what our Core Values are
    • Find out perceptions and/or realities of our congregation/church
    • List communication methods
    • What our community demographics are
      • There are 6 community contacts to find out what people in our community need: police, educators, government agencies, community organization, hospitals, neighbors
  • Design:  Flows from Core Values and what we discover
    • Ministries - What ministries do we currently have, need to implement, or drop?  Are they meeting the needs of the community?
    • Communication - How can our church describe itself in a succinct and memorable way?  How can we have some fun or humor with our church's identity?
  • Do! Identify with seekers, implement ideas, and start tomorrow!
    • Involve church leadership
    • Involve congregation
    • Implement a Marketing & Media plan
    • Implement personal invitation (FRAN Plan)
    • Followup with newcomers
    • Initiate Inviting 101 training
    • Survey Community
    • Do a Walk-thru assessment
    • Have a Mystery Guest Audit
    • Use the phrase "Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors" on all church printed materials to help connect the theme of the TV messages with our congregation.
Our plan will be to involve church leadership, the congregation, work on a media plan, follow-up with newcomers, initiate training/workshops, and survey the community. 
 
Handouts were introduced throughout the session.

CONNECTING

On February 1st & 3rd, we met with Rev. Tac for his session on "Connect" where he talked about this being a lifestyle, not a program.

Hebrews 13:1-2 says, "Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to stranger, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."

There are four areas of connection:

  1. Community - both inside and outside the local church
  2. Connection - The UMC on District, Conference, and General levels
  3. Creator - God
  4. Change - Change is situational & transitional

We can Connect with SEEKERS in 3 areas:

  1. Seekers' intent
  2. Seekers' spiritual journey
  3. Seekers' desire for connection 

The #1 reason seekers return: Friendly, warm & welcoming

  1. 85% Make Friends and stay involved in Church
  2. 92% Want to learn about God
  3. 89% Want to understand the Bible

There are 5 Points of Connection:

  1. National Advertising
  2. Local Advertising
  3. Personal invitations, Evangelism, and Outreach 
  4. Welcome & Worship
  5. Discipleship

Two questions Seekers ask themselves:

  1. Is anyone like me?
  2. Is anyone interested in me?

New Groups are a MUST:  Why?

You cannot add fruit to Jell-O except when it is first made.  Adding new people to an existing group is extremely difficult.

INACTIVE PEOPLE wait 6-8 weeks to see how we respond.  Cards are located on table at the back of sanctuary.  Use them or, call/email people you know have been "missing in action".  Shouting WE CARE is another reason for people to return.

New Beginnings:

  1. A Purpose
  2. A Picture - How are we going to carry out our purpose?
  3. The Plan - Action Plan
  4. A Part to play - where do I / what is my part?

People support what they help create.  We must eliminate the "We never did it like that" mentality.  Adjust and move on.

Handouts were introduced throughout the session.

HANDOUTS
Anyone interested in the hand-out worksheets, please contact Rev. Tac, Rev. Sharon, or JoAnn Snow.