|
 "Best Practices" Goes Local
First Congregational
Church of Milton Hosts a Night of Ideas
First Congregational Church of Milton, UCC, hosted a "Best Practices" event in which the church representatives who attended were asked to share some events and strategies that had been successful in attracting and nurturing new members.
"The initial idea came to us after we were invited by the First Congregational Church of Sharon to come and share a few success stories with their Board of Deacons," said Steve Paxhia, Chair of the church's Membership Committee. "We were flattered that they were interested in what we had been up to. As we started to think about what we would say, we got the idea to invite other churches to participate. So we contacted the Rev. Wendy Vander Hart (Associate Conference Minister) and Paul Nickerson (Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism & Church Vitality), and asked them to suggest some other churches that had done some creative things."
"We planned it for a Monday night in January, and figured that the best way to make it easier to attend was to provide supper and start at 6:30. Representatives from five different UCC churches joined together, and the sharing of ideas and resources was very rich," said Paxhia. "We also had a great time just getting to know each other. Reading about somebody's experience is very helpful, but hearing them talk about it and getting the chance to ask questions is much better. One reason that the event was so successful is that it was very informal and unstructured. Creative ideas sprang forth all night."
"Believe it or not, we even had a pastor come down from Maine for the event," adds Rev. Jeff Johnson, pastor of the church. "Rev. Nancy Duncan, pastor of the Broad Bay Congregational Church in Waldoboro, grew up in our church and she and I had been in recent email contact. I invited her, and she made the trip! Her ideas about creative possibilities in worship were a big hit."
Representatives also came from the First Congregational Church of Sharon, Hope Church in Jamaica Plain and Newton Highlands Congregational Church UCC.
"It was neat to see these churches from a wide variety of communities and contexts contribute to each other through their sharing," continued Johnson. "Some churches are farther along than others in terms of outreach and vitality strategies, but every church had something important to share, and every church learned something new that they could take home. It was exciting to see that many of our UCC churches are working very hard to become more vital, and have come up with a wide variety of approaches and events --and most of us don't know what the other is doing. We have to change that. This kind of event is easy to do. Just invite some churches in your area, provide some food and hospitality, and turn them loose. They'll do the rest! Everybody wins!"
Rev. Johnson can be reached at First Congregational Church, UCC, 495 Canton Avenue
Milton, MA 02186-3258, (617) 696-8517, Email: info@fccmilton.org.
|
|
Share Your Still Speaking Story
Tell us how God is speaking in and through your church. Have you reached out to the community in unique ways? Initiated a new mission project? Found a new way to minister to those within the congregation? Share your story and help us to spread the good news! Contact Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor, at cochranem@macucc.org.
|
You may reprint this story by including the following line in your article:
"Source: Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ, www.macucc.org/spotlight" |
|
|
