Massachusetts Conference Edition
Return
to main page
Read
National Edition
Read the UC News Spotlight E-Newsletter
Return
to main page
Read
National Edition
Read the UC News Spotlight E-Newsletter
by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor
April/May 2009
 |
July 6, 2007, marked the first year the new Mashpee Congregational United Church of Christ held a cookie booth at the town picnic and fireworks. Left to right: Jim Scovil, Diane Scovil, Adrienne Guptill (former member of Needham Congregational Church) and Denise Dutson who was the first person (and her husband Dan) to join the group. According to Scovil, the day Dan and Denise said yes, the "church" grew from 2 to 4! Dan Dutson is the brother of Mary Louise Gifford (pastor of Wollaston Congregational Church). |
What if you didn’t have members dedicated to outreach? What if you had no congregation at all? What if you didn’t have a building or even an office to sit down in? How could you possibly ask people to become a member of your church?
Well, that didn’t stop Jim Scovil. The Rev. Jim Scovil, founding pastor of the Mashpee Congregational United Church of Christ, said the key to attracting new members is to hit the streets, to be involved in neighborhood events, and to be visible within the community.
Finding New Members
When presented with the challenge of starting the first new UCC church on the Cape in 80 years, the first thing Scovil did was to browse the town website to get contact information for the community leaders. He then called and asked them to meet for 30 minutes.
The list of leaders with their fingers on the pulse of the community is rather lengthy: the fire chief, police chief, superintendent of schools, the state representatives and town council, the executive editor of the local newspaper, the heads of the town departments, the directors of the senior center and recreation department, other clergy, even business owners and realtors. All have unique perspectives into the life of the community, and almost all were quick to agree to a meeting to fill him in on the ‘goings-on’ in town and how he could help.
Sometimes those meetings took places in offices; other times they were neutral territories, like coffee shops. But no matter where they met, Scovil’s questions were the same:
It is this third question that Scovil believes is the most effective. “People would give me another name, or two or three,” he said. “Then as people would walk into coffee shops and see me chatting with all these various town leaders, some even neighbors of theirs, the buzz started. I became a familiar face in town, and people were more comfortable with me if I started a conversation with them because they saw me with another familiar face, or an important person in the community.”
In addition to visiting the 45 UCC churches in the area – which ‘triggered amazing networking situations’ – Scovil and his wife made sure they were active within the community. Although he lives nine miles from Mashpee, he would attend the Mashpee town events and do his errands and grocery shopping in Mashpee instead of his hometown.
“It’s about getting around the community and being seen,” Scovil said. He would introduce himself to the manager of the supermarket and the hardware store. Many times he would be in a coffee shop or convenience store and he would run into the people he had interviewed. That would start a conversation. And people would feel very comfortable chatting because they were in a ‘safe neutral’ place and had seen Scovil around town. The conversation felt so comfortable, Scovil would sometimes ask “So, do you have a church?”
That wasn’t the most powerful question, though. Scovil said he learned that the follow-up question was more important. If the person answered ‘yes,’ Scovil would then ask how it was going.
Inviting New Members
“Sometimes there is a long pause after that question, and the person will say ‘well, I haven’t been there in a while,’ or ‘I moved,’ or something like that. That answer will open up a whole new conversation,” Scovil explained. “That simple follow-up has helped bring in a lot of members because it opens the door to invite people.”
“Invite, invite, invite,’ he said. “But when they do accept the invitation, don’t assault them. Be sensitive to how they must be feeling on their first visit. We don’t insist on their signing a membership pad and in fact we don’t even pass the forms down the aisle. We have coffee hour before the service, which gives people high energy during the service. My sermons are no longer than 12-15 minutes so that high energy is kept. And most importantly, we refer to newcomers as ‘guests’ not ‘visitors’.”
“If you have a visitor show up, you may or may not be prepared,” Scovil explained. “But a guest is expected and welcomed. It’s a joyful feeling and people pick up on that.”
As guests became more comfortable, they would sign the guest register and ask to be contacted. Sometimes they would bring others into the fold, and the group multiplied. As they grew, they took on more community activities -- like holding a cookie booth at the July 4th picnic, marching in the parade, serving food at the Boys & Girls Club, or helping another church out with its spaghetti supper. And it seemed like the more they did, the more their pictures got in the paper.
Since Scovil had originally met with the local editor, she was interested in his progress. Scovil sent out press releases and pictures for every event the group attended or conducted, and the new church start got amazing news coverage, giving the church a high profile – which made people more familiar with it and comfortable ‘visiting’ it.
It’s been less than two years since Scovil’s journey began, and
the Mashpee Congregational United Church of Christ now has 65-70
people in worship every Sunday and 120 people on their mailing list.
“The point of all this is you have to be in the mission field,” said Scovil. “You won’t get more members by sitting behind your desk.”