Helping Neighbors in Need – the role of our church in doing this – what functions should our church do in this area – doing mission projects (funding & doing, ASP, Mainspring House). Being a Cheerleader – of our own program, celebrating those who do it, celebrating the people in the agencies who do it. Acting as a facilitator or coach – how do we help people who have a desire to be involved in the community – what agencies are already in place that could use our help. Should our church be a nexus of info?

Are there other areas?

Does the Mission have money set aside for Scituate Disaster relief – for instance the recent fire?

Restate: There is not a “black and white” either/or quality of the conversation with respect to local/national/international – all of them have needs that are real. All of the above…

The church doing stuff, cheerleading, coaching.

Which is the most important?

Doing is important – and we need to make it possible for people.
Facilitating is important – resources are key

Scituate Library had a volunteer Expo – important to have info available. Bulletin Board or Website. Be able to assist people on a Sunday because that’s when people are here.

Perhaps a similar thing to our Ministry Team Fair – only with info about the community and the needs around.

Could this kind of thing “Ministry Board” be on the Website that would have info about places to volunteer and needs to be met in the community. Maybe it possible for people to post “opportunities.”

Prayer may also have a spot on the website – what are the needs and joys?

Courier is a good place.

One of our nearby UCC churches – their key focus and theme – is the importance of each one of us being a minister – in and around the community. The same church prohibits people being on more than one church Ministry Team.

We probably need to do more to encourage and facilitate.

If you want people to be involved, they must be asked person to person.
Otherwise the 10% will continue to do the 90% of the work.

There are people willing to volunteer and we don’t know how to accept their offer sometimes
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How do we sort out the local and the wider world needs? How do we even definite local (FTCC, Scituate, South Shore, MA,?).

We have about a $30,000 mission budget – on what basis do we give what to whom? Right now – we give much more local vs. international (much of the UCC money returns locally).

It is difficult ot put a number on the division. Flexibility is important so that we can react to the situations in the world.

The pastor’s discretionary fund is one source – the used to be envelopes in the pews (used to be the communion envelopes were put in the discretionary fund).

SANDS is the local emergency response group here in Scituate.

Do we have funds available from Mission that have already been set aside for disaster?

Our Mission Team is, in fact, very responsive and flexible. We currently give 50% of our Mission Dollars to OCWM (Our Church’s Wider Mission).

Currently, there is nothing in our Bylaws that says exactly how/where/who we should give our mission funds to. “Guidelines” may be better than “policies” –

The sense that more than 50% should be local.

The part that we send to the UCC – about 20% of that actually goes to Mission work, the rest goes back to various Associations, New Church Development, etc.

Should we make all of this more public? People don’t really know.
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Two categories of help – one is $$ and the other is “doing” stuff – ASP, Mainspring, Career Closet, Senior Lunch, etc.

Are we doing enough hands on?

If we should be doing more – how do we start doing this?

We facilitate people who have a desire to do things.

How do we “approve” of a project – (Council might have this role)

Maybe we would have a “Doing” Mission Ministry Team and a “Funds Mission Ministry Team” –

Bread for the World is an advocacy group for decisions in Congress.

Perhaps we should help adopt some of the things the town has already sponsored?

Perhaps we should be more intentional about involvement of our Teens. They want to do things that are meaningful, important.

How do we make the things we do here really count?
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Targeted Vs. Broad Programs

We have limited volunteers – we do a once-a-month Mainspring Meal – what if we decided we wanted to add a component in which the church school was going to make suff for the people of Mainspring. So, perhaps we could add “doing” to some of the things we are currently simply giving money? Perhaps we could offer “management” or “promotion” volunteer expertise to organizations? Are there other ways we could add to the population that comes to the Senior Lunch. Some of this is happening already.

Who makes these “overall” decisions? Often they are spontaneous, individual. Putting the ideas out there may spark possibilities for someone.
Eg. – a bin where people could bring infant clothes, and take a similar amount of the next size.

The planting of seeds may be the best approach. What if we had a clothing exchange the same day the Food Pantry was open?

Should we have a “community action” team as a separate entity? – Clearly this is an excellent question for us to think about.

How about a “publicity” page in the Courier – followed by a description about possibilities for community action.

We need to be more mindful of publicity in the community – via Newspaper, etc. We don’t do much of this at all. We don’t get enough press.
Put in the calendar / or bulletin – DID YOU KNOW THAT – that AA meets here, etc. DID You Know that it costs $1000 a day to run our church? We need a publicist….
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What about a Christian Voice in Public Policy?

We have mentioned Bread for the Word and it’s public policy part.

We don’t do much of this – should we do more?

Haiti has been living in “dirt” for about 3 years – and only a small percentage is living like kings – should we be taking a stand in the community about our concern for such things?

We need to be making our voice an alternative to the consumer world.

We want to be careful about the difference between social policy without getting “politics” – though we may find that it is difficult to address social policy without getting “political.”

We may be able to find ways to meet “needs” of people in Haiti – and figure out how to meet those needs and thus stay away from social policy. We could perhaps use the Newspaper to make people aware.

We might want more information being available in church to let people know what we are actually doing. Religious Charities are far more efficient than Governmental agencies.

We also may want to think about our “voices” – speaking out – in addition to our money. Or perhaps sending out people to explore and come back and develop a plan for meeting those needs. It makes a big difference.

Again, it is important to be spreading information of what we are doing.

We need more involvement in own food pantry.

Why be welcoming?

Because is it part of who we are

It enhances our life together

People come for some reason – we need to be offering the right fruits of the spirit for the real needs – we have a lot to offer and need to be sharing that

“Inviting” may be more passive than “welcoming”

Welcoming is the degree of response we evoke from the guest

The whole community is the one that needs to be doing the welcoming

Inviting and Welcoming is often one on one – and it can involve inviting people to participate

Inviting is the initial approach; the welcoming is what happens when people have come

Inviting:

Most studies show that the most effective way of having people come/join is by personal invitation (parishioners, not the minister). This minister is paid to invite…The parisihioner invitation comes with a relationship that preceeds it.
It means that the one inviting does in fact like the church enough to make the invitation

Plus, when coming with someone, they do not do it alone.

Do we do a good job at this?

We are not so active in inviting as we might think we are or could be.

It is difficult to ask someone to come to your church – requires a very comfortable friendship – hard to know how to do it?

For many people their closest friends are already in the church
Give them a ride to church.

The fair is an easy vehicle to invite people to come to.
Children do tend to invite other children – we might want to follow their lead.

Invite a Friend Sunday – it’s an idea that works to some degree.

Unchurched people feel more comfortable participating in a non-religious church activity prior to entering the worship environment. Perhaps the route “into” the church is through the ministry team involvement prior to worship.
It is easier to invite someone to tea than to invite someone to worship – even though the “product” we have to “sell” is of more significance.

Perhaps we need to be able to invite people either to programs or worship.

ASP is an illustration of the wide range of people’s religious. Our ASP is less of a “religious” group than a “community service” – how might we move from this kind of service to invitation into the religious experience.

The number of people who join the church have often first come to the Beechstreet Nursery School – this has been a source of first exposure for many of them.

What can we do outside in the community to gather people together as a first meeting, and subsequent relationship with the congregation may result.

Perhaps pulling together people for serving others in the community will lead to a positive spirit, which might lead to church involvement. From Community Service to Christ…

People may not even realize they need a sense of the sabbath / worship.

Two components: one is individual; the other is organization program

We ought to be welcoming to people who are NOT like ourselves – we are mostly a “vanilla” group. Actively seeking involvement, vs. passive openness.

Each member of the church should take it upon themselves to invite someone at least one time a year.

What is the pastor’s role in all this?

Teaching people how to do this is important. Roll playing can be helpful.

We have a lot of different groups here already – we are not always moving from this to the church.

Music can be important – people who come and experience it when their kids are singing – some people are afraid that church are “too good” for us.

Upon membership it can be good to assign someone to a committee for a year

The UCC has a number of new church starts – the pastors are told that they need to allow something on the order of 2/3 of their time inviting people – in the community on a daily basis, on the golf course, marina, grocery store. Bringing new people in is the first task. What is left is to minister to those who are already present. What role the pastor plays may well need to be reviewed.
WELCOMING

People are coming – do people believe we are welcoming? Perhaps not. While we may be doing better than we did a couple of years ago, most of the people in the new member group – highlighted the we were, in fact, been welcoming. Nametags, visitor center, are significant.

It is better than it was 4 years ago – coffee hour felt like glacier age – the visitor had to introduce themselves. It is probably better, but it is truly up to everyone to learn some of those skills. Training is important.

Part of it has to do with identification – we are not easily identifying people we are new – in real time. Knowing people are knew is likely to invite more conversation. We need to suggest people go over and talk with that person over there.

Should the minister make some offer to welcome guests – issues of exposure and initial shyness.

The issue is to be welcoming versus going over the top.

Today I want especially to invite …so and so to coffee hour.

It falls to all of us to introduce ourselves to others.

First encounter with our church….you are a family with young children, and were part of a church family when you were teenagers. You pull into the church parking lot, what are the things they are concerned about

which door do I go in
is there child care and where is it.
Children were greeting with adults and giving other kids crayons
Should we have someone in the parking lot or out front being welcome
Signs put out on Sunday Morning pointing people toward childcare or worship
Do ushers need more “training” for ushers.
Should the visitor center have someone before worship as well as after worship.
Having a handicap door opener.
Having a more welcome door would be good.

The church service itself –if you are non-churched.

The music is good. The service may be fairly welcoming.

The first concern is whether you are taking someone else’s seat.

We are different from other churches in the sense that in many churches guests are asked to stand.

A sign in book in the center aisle – for everyone to sign. Especially for visitors.

The addition of the opening statement – is good – it helps put people at ease.

Something in the service that suggests we take a moment to greet people around you….passing the peace by any other name….
Concern about germs.

Perhaps greeting someone before you leave the sanctuary after the benediction.
In summer (in another church) do you have a choir here? One of our biggest assets is our choir/music Perhaps video clips on the web

Being inviting requires some organization, training, planning.
Welcoming also require some organization, training, planning.

Being hospitable is not an accident – everyone needs to be involved in this.
If it has improved – it is also contagious.

Name tag – we pick it up at the front door – and wear it home – we need a collecting point in the coffee hour, perhaps a cart that rolls from either place.

Maybe the nametag itself needs to be improved – being able to see the first name larger. Should it be around the neck rather than a clip on. Someone with color badges are “veterans”

What is there that people could pick up when they are visiting for other reasons.

Photos of the senior lunch, etc. on the website.

Notebook on the welcome center with ministry teams – etc. – with all aspects of church life.

Standard practice for new members to volunteer. Periodic calling for volunteers to do things such as being liturgist.

What is our loss of membership rate?

Do we ever survey the people who have no longer are part of the church?

Are there ways for new comers in town to get information to them? Real Estate people may be a source of this information.

Below is a fairly long article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. It is written by Alain de Botton who on March 6th will publish “Religion for Atheists: A non-Believers guide for the Uses of Religion.” It is a wonderful article about the secular world can draw useful lessons from religious life. I hope that you find it useful..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221603720817864.html?KEYWORDS=religion+for+everyone