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How to turn members into missionaries

by The Rev. Mr. Paul Nickerson, Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism and Church Vitality

April/May 2009

At a recent workshop held at the Waquoit (East Falmouth) Church, teams from Barnstable Association churches learned how the church can re-connect with the community around the congregation.  This workshop, combined with two similar workshops led by Jim Griffith, a leading church consultant and coach, during 2008, has now trained members of over 70 MACUCC congregations. 

The key issue “Turning Members into Missionaries” addresses is one of focus for congregations.   Many congregations over time turn more and more of their energy inward, focusing most of their efforts on meeting the needs and personal tastes of existing members.   Clergy efforts reflect this trend as well, with pastors almost exclusively working with current membership.  

Connecting congregations with the community around them “Members to Missionaries” helps congregations learn again how to:

• Discover the various subgroups  of people that live in their community.
• Prayerfully discern which group the church feels called to reach.
• Design events, programs, mission efforts and worship services that reflect the needs of the target group.
• Build a culture of invitation so that current members are inviting their friends to events and worship services.

All of this work reflects what the early Christian church did in the book of Acts.   The early church did not wait for people to come to them; they went out and met people in all the market places of life.  

In our culture today, congregations that wait for people to somehow find the church, wait a very long time. In fact, so many churches have waited and waited that 100,000 of them, across all denominational lines, closed between 1990 and 2000.  

The churches that are growing today do not wait for people to come to them; they go out into the community, catch the “pulse” of the people and invite others to join them.   In fact, 87% of the people in this country who come to church and stay, do so because someone invites them.  

In MACUCC, all of our new church starts spend most of their time not inside the church waiting, but out in the community connecting.   These churches include: Hope Church, Mashpee Congregational, UCC, and Hispanic new church starts in Jamaica Plain, East Boston, Lowell, Worcester and Springfield.

Long-standing churches that have turned around years of decline, like First Congregational in Somerville and Wollaston UCC, have re-connected with their communities and more than doubled their worship attendance.  Their pastors spend at least 25% of their time with those “not yet” in the church.

“Members into Missionaries” provides local church teams with all the skills and strategies to re-connect.  However, it needs to be said, that while techniques are important, the critical factor is one of “heart”.  As we grow in faith we come to value the needs of those not yet in the church more than our own needs and that motivation becomes the key catalyst.  

If a congregation is interested in learning more about “Members into Missionaries” please contact Paul Nickerson at the Framingham office or Nickersonp@macucc.org.