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Resources for growing faith

April/May 2009

Reading The Community

See these tips and others on www.macucc.org/emj/ReadingtheCommunity.htm

There are several important steps in understanding “who’s out there” in the community around you.

1. Percept Demographic Data.

Go to Link2Lead.com for basic information. There you may:

Complete a survey on your openness to change.
Complete a Leadership Survey.
Do a Ministry Match of your programs vs. community needs.
Download a “First View” Report.

2. Interview community leaders

It is important to interview key community leaders who work with various segments of the population.

3. Listening-Prayer Triads

This is the most difficult of the “who’s out there” pieces, but it is also the most fruitful.

Put together as many groups of three people as possible.
Each triad agrees to meet one evening a week for 2 or 3 weeks.
Gather in one person’s home, read scripture, and pray for listening hearts.
Go to any public place (arena, shopping mall, restaurant, etc.) Spend an hour listening and observing behavior.
Say little to anyone including your Triad partners.
Return to the home and talk about what you saw and heard.
Record in a journal the Triad’s conversation.
Pray for the strangers you saw.

4. Interview the un-churched

Herb Miller suggests that four questions be asked:

What are the greatest needs of people in this area?
Why do you think people don't attend church?
If you decided to attend church, what would you look for?
What advice would you give our church to better serve this community?

5. Collate results

Look for patterns.

Listed below are several resources available to local churches for direction and inspiration in growing faith. You can access these and other resources at www.macucc.org/emj.

Many of these items were noted in editions of “Growing Faith,” an e-newsletter of the Massachusetts Conference focusing on church vitality, evangelism and new church starts. To subscribe, free of charge, go to: www.macucc.org/email-subscribe.htm

A Mission Handbook & Yellow Pages

<www.macucc.org/emj/documents/mission_handbook.pdf>

This FREE indispensable resource for pastors and Mission/Outreach Committees includes how to understand, support and participate in wider United Church of Christ mission; guidelines for mission support; and “how to” ideas for mission committees.

Welcomers Instructions

<www.macucc.org/emj/Welcomers.htm>

Guest's Checklist for Hospitality

<www.macucc.org/emj/documents/NewHospitalityCheckList.pdf>

Developing Innovative Worship Services

<www.macucc.org/emj/documents/InnovativeWorship.pdf>

Book Recommendation:

Second Resurrection by Bill Easum

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

This is a great resource for any church that wants to turn around years of being plateaued or declining. In this book, Easum talks about the need for a turnaround church to have a “new” pastor; a pastor who has a new heart and is excited about the Gospel. Such a pastor then mentors leaders who then mentor others and so the turnaround begins. Easum rightly points out that all the strategies and programs in the world will not be effective unless our hearts are transformed and we are on fire about the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Book Recommendation:

Becoming a Multicultural Church by Laurene Bowers

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

In this book, Laurene Bowers, Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church in Randolph, walks pastors and church leaders through the process of building a faith community with respect for gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic circumstance, age and ability. According to Bowers, “Our world is becoming more diverse. Churches are renting space to ‘other’ ethnic churches because it seems too risky to talk about merging. Sunday morning at 10:00 continues to remain the most segregated hour of the week in American culture. And yet, Jesus commissions us to make disciples of all

ethnos, translated as ‘nations,’ but literally 'ethnicities.’”