'Welcome!
... a 'how to' guide to promoting your church
A presentation to the Methodist Synod on how to get involved in your local community and improve publicity. We ARE doing awesome things as churches! We're just not that good at telling people about it!
Includes photos and stories of what we've done at Milson.
Includes photos and stories of what we've done at Milson.
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Why don’t they come?
a reflection on the challenges of being an 'invitational church'
3 November 2013
It was almost time to start. I stood looking out the church door, hoping. It was our ‘Celebrating Children’ service. The church looked amazing, with streamers, café-style seating around tables, a lively interactive worship service ready to begin, specially for kids and families. The table down in the lounge was bursting with chocolate brownie, popcorn & fairy bread. I had personally invited 30 families, hand delivered letters, to our preschool music folk, Girls Brigade, and various other families who have been part of the life of Milson Combined Church in some shape or form over the past year. 3 families had come: our 2 regulars, one who go to another church, plus a shy wee dot come with grandma. Plus my boys of course, dragged along and given jobs. But I had hoped for more! I really wanted to see Elly and Jack, whose beloved grandfather I had buried a few weeks ago, and little Connor from music group whose family seemed keen to come. Names and faces flicked through my mind, a real desire in me for them to walk through that door and share in this time of worship, music, community.
Why don’t they come?
It was time to start, but just as I turn to go inside a girl streaks up the path and bounces in the door. It is Brianna, age 7, from Girls Brigade. I had stood in her driveway last Saturday afternoon talking with her father, an older dad parenting alone, made all the more challenging by her ADHD.
Brianna pauses at the door, smiles a big smile at me.
“You invited me” she declares, “So I came!”
It was a good service. Sheila from the Churches Education Commission helped to lead, with bouncy songs and old favourite songs. She told the classic Oscar Wilde story, ‘The Selfish Giant’ and it moved several older ladies to tears. We stood all in a big circle at the end holding hands and sang “God loves you and I love you”, under the bright coloured streamers, and it rang with Spirit. It was good.
And I tried not to feel disappointed. I tried not to feel cross with the people who were not there. I tried not to feel let down by God.
I’ve heard it often enough; “We’re not about bums on seats”. People tell me to not expect the outreach families to come to church, that we need to just serve and not impose our agenda. But I still sincerely hope for new families in our church, for more children to love and to teach, for people to experience the warmth of Christian community and the presence of God in worship.
So why do they steadfastly refuse to come on a Sunday morning? Is church really so scary?
My problem is, I just don’t understand. Church has always been a part of my life. Many of the most wonderful moments of my life have happened on Sunday mornings in a building called a church with people called church; moments of deep meaning and joy, experiences of belonging and acceptance, encounters with the living God.
It grieves me that so few children are getting this opportunity. It grieves my church that so few families are interested in us. It defies the confidence and hope of our prayers for growth. It frustrates me that I work hard, our team works hard, we offer our very best, and chairs remain empty.
How do I sustain this? Can I keep inviting people again and again?
Lord God, what are you up to here? What do you require of us, and what do you promise us?
And I remember Brianna, how happy she was to be there. One child. And the boy who came last month with his grandma. And the family who came a few months ago to a holiday session. One new family each time we invite many. Just one.
Rings a bell …something about one lost coin, one lost sheep. Or that story with all those seeds thrown, almost all of it wasted on rocky ground or stony ground. Just a little bit grew.
I guess this isn’t a new issue.
And the good Lord whispers in my ear gentle encouragement, no accusation, just sweet words about patience and gratitude. About how precious each child is to God, yes even me.
Yes Lord, alright Lord, I guess I can do it all over again in a month or two. Maybe when I visit Brianna again I’ll get invited in past the driveway, you never know. Maybe they might even come back on a Sunday morning. Just maybe. Here’s hoping!
a reflection on the challenges of being an 'invitational church'
3 November 2013
It was almost time to start. I stood looking out the church door, hoping. It was our ‘Celebrating Children’ service. The church looked amazing, with streamers, café-style seating around tables, a lively interactive worship service ready to begin, specially for kids and families. The table down in the lounge was bursting with chocolate brownie, popcorn & fairy bread. I had personally invited 30 families, hand delivered letters, to our preschool music folk, Girls Brigade, and various other families who have been part of the life of Milson Combined Church in some shape or form over the past year. 3 families had come: our 2 regulars, one who go to another church, plus a shy wee dot come with grandma. Plus my boys of course, dragged along and given jobs. But I had hoped for more! I really wanted to see Elly and Jack, whose beloved grandfather I had buried a few weeks ago, and little Connor from music group whose family seemed keen to come. Names and faces flicked through my mind, a real desire in me for them to walk through that door and share in this time of worship, music, community.
Why don’t they come?
It was time to start, but just as I turn to go inside a girl streaks up the path and bounces in the door. It is Brianna, age 7, from Girls Brigade. I had stood in her driveway last Saturday afternoon talking with her father, an older dad parenting alone, made all the more challenging by her ADHD.
Brianna pauses at the door, smiles a big smile at me.
“You invited me” she declares, “So I came!”
It was a good service. Sheila from the Churches Education Commission helped to lead, with bouncy songs and old favourite songs. She told the classic Oscar Wilde story, ‘The Selfish Giant’ and it moved several older ladies to tears. We stood all in a big circle at the end holding hands and sang “God loves you and I love you”, under the bright coloured streamers, and it rang with Spirit. It was good.
And I tried not to feel disappointed. I tried not to feel cross with the people who were not there. I tried not to feel let down by God.
I’ve heard it often enough; “We’re not about bums on seats”. People tell me to not expect the outreach families to come to church, that we need to just serve and not impose our agenda. But I still sincerely hope for new families in our church, for more children to love and to teach, for people to experience the warmth of Christian community and the presence of God in worship.
So why do they steadfastly refuse to come on a Sunday morning? Is church really so scary?
My problem is, I just don’t understand. Church has always been a part of my life. Many of the most wonderful moments of my life have happened on Sunday mornings in a building called a church with people called church; moments of deep meaning and joy, experiences of belonging and acceptance, encounters with the living God.
It grieves me that so few children are getting this opportunity. It grieves my church that so few families are interested in us. It defies the confidence and hope of our prayers for growth. It frustrates me that I work hard, our team works hard, we offer our very best, and chairs remain empty.
How do I sustain this? Can I keep inviting people again and again?
Lord God, what are you up to here? What do you require of us, and what do you promise us?
And I remember Brianna, how happy she was to be there. One child. And the boy who came last month with his grandma. And the family who came a few months ago to a holiday session. One new family each time we invite many. Just one.
Rings a bell …something about one lost coin, one lost sheep. Or that story with all those seeds thrown, almost all of it wasted on rocky ground or stony ground. Just a little bit grew.
I guess this isn’t a new issue.
And the good Lord whispers in my ear gentle encouragement, no accusation, just sweet words about patience and gratitude. About how precious each child is to God, yes even me.
Yes Lord, alright Lord, I guess I can do it all over again in a month or two. Maybe when I visit Brianna again I’ll get invited in past the driveway, you never know. Maybe they might even come back on a Sunday morning. Just maybe. Here’s hoping!
Just visiting
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
please excuse me
I made a mistake in coming today.
If it's OK with you I'll just slip out quietly
and not bother you again.
I don't know what possessed me
to come to church at all.
I just knew I had to try
and I thought, just maybe,
I might meet God today
and I need that so much
that I couldn't stay home
But now I'm here ...
I could stay, perhaps,
if you make a space for me
and hold me in the stillness.
Could I enter the place where God might be?
Could I warm my cold heart by the fire?
I know you don't know me
but maybe God does
and maybe my worries
could find a new space
and maybe something might soak in
to the hole inside.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
please excuse me
I made a mistake in coming today.
If it's OK with you I'll just slip out quietly
and not bother you again.
I don't know what possessed me
to come to church at all.
I just knew I had to try
and I thought, just maybe,
I might meet God today
and I need that so much
that I couldn't stay home
But now I'm here ...
I could stay, perhaps,
if you make a space for me
and hold me in the stillness.
Could I enter the place where God might be?
Could I warm my cold heart by the fire?
I know you don't know me
but maybe God does
and maybe my worries
could find a new space
and maybe something might soak in
to the hole inside.