Pastor’s Page: Thinking about 2011 & 2012 In most ways, 2011 was a year given over to trying to do better what we are already doing. This year, we received wise council from Rev. Dick Jones, who analyzed our programming, and offered specific concrete suggestions on how to do things better. Following his recommendations we have: •moved coffee hour to the narthex; •rotated 9:15 service 90°; •began collecting attendance cards each service from every person/family; •become intentional about recognizing visitors when they attend and making some form of immediate follow-up contact with first-time visitors; •shortened the announcement time and the greeting time during worship. Some of these changes have puzzled folks, causing them to ask, Why do it differently when things worked just fine for us? So, let me give you a brief summary of the rationale behind each change. 1. For a person visiting the church, the measure of friendliness is not in how members treat each other, it is about how members treat the stranger. Positioning the coffee hour in the narthex creates a natural opportunity for visitors to be offered signs of welcome (coffee and donuts), and that process starts people talking with them. 2. Church folk in America don’t like being too crowded. So, the capacity of the worship space will control the amount of growth in the worship service. 9:15 service had reached its “comfort capacity” and so, new growth was unlikely. Rotating the service 90° simply created more room. And, in a weird “if you build it they will come” manner, new people started showing up. 3. Attendance cards are really more about getting information from visitors than getting updated information from members. However, if only visitors are asked to fill out the cards, they won’t. The members fill out their cards to model the desired behavior for the visitors. Cards are collected during the offering time so that everyone (especially visitors) has something to put into the plate, and so that everyone (especially those considering membership) develop the habit of putting something in the plate. 4. Being intentional about recognizing visitors gives congregation members the chance to be truly welcoming. And, whether a visitor returns is significantly influenced by whether the church made a follow-up contact with them. Our goal is that a first-time visitor receives a phone call from a member of the congregation the day they visit, and an e-mail from the pastor the next day. 5. During the worship service, announcements and greeting times are mostly about the members of the church and their activities. Shortening the time for these allows visitors to have a sense of the spirit of fellowship and activity in the congregation, without feeling uncomfortably excluded. Ultimately, growth is not just about bringing in more people. If we were able to bring in enough people to fill our church to the brim, but they were all folks over the age of 40, it would not make us a growing church. To be a growing church we must welcome, receive, assimilate and disciple a new generation of Christians. That means, we must reach out to young families, and invest in the youth. Doing this is difficult, because it means that those of us who have been around the church for decades have to change in order to accommodate new styles of worship, music, scheduling, volunteering, etc. It means we have to change to meet their needs, rather than grumbling that they aren’t choosing to embrace the things we hold dear. What is hard about this for me personally, is that I want to roll along on prior experience and practice. I’ve become very good at doing things the way I have always done them. To adapt to meet the needs of a new generation involves effort, learning and change on my part. And, I assume, if it is challenging for me, it is challenging for other folks as well. But, acknowledging the difficulty in the task, doesn’t alter our need to fulfill the task. The future of the church depends on our ability to serve the church of tomorrow today. This is one of the reasons we give so much space and leadership time to young people. By giving Praise Band as much worship leadership as Chancel Choir (for example), we are thrusting young people into the forefront of the church. And, we are actively creating an environment in which we expect young people to lead. We are seeing the results. We have youth participating in Bible Study and faith development beyond the Youth Group meetings. And, increasingly, youth are bringing other youth into the church to become a part of our work, and youth are becoming bold advocates for the faith among their peers, both in and outside of church. Similarly, as a traditional Sunday morning Church School schedule is less effective in meeting the needs and fitting the lifestyles of young families of the 21st century, we have focused on strengthening our non-traditional opportunities for faith formation. Both our Pizza Church “Sunday School on Monday,” and our Wednesday night Logos program expand on Sunday morning, as well as reaching children who are not part of the regular Sunday School. In 2012, I see the need for us to be intentional in two important areas. First, we need to get about the business of giving. Interestingly, and to our credit, when it comes to the maintenance of our property, we have shown ourselves very faithful. This year, we easily raised the funds (about $50,000) to re-roof the building. When it comes to the budget, it is another matter. 2011 is the third year in a row we have failed to pay our part in the global ministries of the church (called the “Apportionment”). And our 2012 budget means 4 years in a row of frozen staff compensation. I hear people worry about the financial solvency of the congregation, and throw up their hands in helpless surrender. But, the solution is simple and Biblical – give more! God’s minimum allowance of daily giving is 10%. We are to return to God 10% of the blessings of this good life which God allows to pass through our hands. Until we do that, it is dishonest to act as if we are actually concerned about the financial status of the church (what we are really concerned about is avoiding the tithe). Good news, however, we don’t actually need to tithe in order to fulfill our budgetary obligations. Even a 10% increase in giving by each member would go a loooooong way to resolving our financial issues. And that is easy math – if you give $10, start giving $11; if you give $100, start giving $110; if you give $250, start giving $275. The second area in which we need to be intentional in 2012 is reaching out to young families. God has literally placed within our building a steady stream of young families who are bringing their children to the Little School, Inc. A regular study, or class, or support group, started within our church and offered to those families (during the weekdays) could meet a significant spiritual need in the lives of some young parents. Offering ministry for these parents will encourage all of them, bless those who choose to participate, and strengthen us as a church as some of them become part of our congregation. To do this, all we need to do is BE the Church – to be a community of people who truly and earnestly serve Jesus as Lord. So, the question is simple: will you be the one to step up and volunteer to reach out to these young families? Will you be the one to lead us into our tomorrow? Pastor Tom
PORTAGE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
|