Tap Here To Return To The Spirit
By Pastor Jason
In Sunday’s sermon I said that “To live and thrive – we need to change our focus to growing – what that means is that we need to focus on bringing new people to Jesus through First Church!” This can seem like an overwhelming task. So I want to help break this down into steps which we need to take as a church, and steps we each need to take individually. Some of these steps are things we are already doing – and we just need to keep on doing them! Some of the steps are new practices or new directions we need to take. Let’s start with some of the easier steps and work our way up.
First – we are a very welcoming and friendly church already! We need to continue to welcome new people who come to visit. Wearing nametags; smiling; welcoming new people into conversations; introducing them to others; bringing them to the Welcome Desk in the Narthex to find out more about First Church and receive a gift; if they have children, telling them about our childcare and then introducing them to someone in Family Ministries – you get the idea. These are things we already do well, so good work!
Second – we need to extend our welcome into an invitation. What this means is we need to take our practices of welcoming outside the walls of the church. We need to use the same skills to invite new people to church.
How?
It’s just like telling a new family about our childcare and introducing them to another family in the church or a member of the Family Ministries Team.
1) Smile and strike up a conversation with someone;
2) During your conversation listen to who they are, what they like, what you have in common – and then share information about what you have in common with them;
3) If you hear that they have something in common which involves church – bring in the church! For example, if you hear that they like knitting, tell them about our knitting ministry; if they have children, tell them about our children’s ministry - you get the idea.
4) When you find a common connection with something at our church, after you tell them about the connection – give them a First Church Calling Card (coming soon!).
This card will take them to our website where they can read more about who we are and how they share a common connection to our church already (They are a knitter already! They have children!).
These are the exact same skills we already use to welcome new people who come to our church – we are simply taking them outside the church and using these skills to invite new people into our church!
Third – share the knowledge and skills you have through our church, to increase the number of connections to our church.
For example, do you know how to cook? Could you lead a class or lesson in how to cook at First Church? Could you cook a meal for someone who is sick, or who has lost a loved one and needs a little extra help? Could you help organize a cooking ministry like that – or participate in one through First Church? Would you be a part of an experimental cooking group through First Church? Do you like to garden? Do you like to fish? Hunt? Do you play the guitar? Are you an artist? Are you into drama? Do you like to read? Do you have a skill or hobby I haven’t listed? Let us know what skills you have to share, so we can increase the number of points of connection we have with others in the community.
Fourth – we need to hire a full time Family Ministries Director; preferably an associate clergy person.
Why?
There is a reason that more than 70% of Methodist Churches have 100 or fewer members, and that is one pastor can only handle right around 100 members. Right now, we have about 200 active members. If we are to grow – we need a second pastor, or at minimum, a full-time lay Family Ministries Director. A growing vital church needs to focus on growth!
A single pastor is asked to focus on being the church Administrator, Chaplain, Evangelist, Counselor, Worship Leader, Ambassador to the community, often the Youth Director, and in the Methodist Church is expected to sit on one (or more) committees at the District or Annual Conference level (I serve on two). It is impossible for a single pastor to focus on all of these tasks and focus on church growth.
Our growth will come through our Family Ministries. We need a full time Family Ministries Director. To be able to hire a full-time Family Ministries Director who is a clergy person, we need approximately $100,000 per year. We would need less (~$80,000) to hire a lay Family Ministries Director.
A full-time Family Ministries Director will help us organize and grow our points of connection between individuals, families and new people in the community. This will be the focus of the Family Ministries Director – a focus to grow our church!
As I’m writing this, I see that growing First Church means growing the number of connections we make with people. Another way of thinking about this is we are growing the number of friends we have in the community.
By focusing on welcoming, inviting, finding connections, sharing common interests, making new friendships – we are growing the love of Christ in our community! Growing the love of Christ is Growing the Church!
In Growing the Love of Christ, we are living out our Core Values!
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, Jesus, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” – John 3:16
We receive our highest values from God. We love because God first loved us. Loving God, we follow the commandments we receive through Jesus: loving our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and even enemies.
We love by bringing people together in worship, fellowship, and friendship.
We love by serving God, serving people, and serving God’s creation.
We love by spreading the love of Jesus to all people - “ . . . making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)