Everybody Welcome - Fifth and Final Session

This is an extra, but in no way is it tacked on the end of the course.  If we are to make something useful of what has been presented, and start to think more deeply about the way we welcome people, then this was the first step of the next phase.
We started with a couple of videos, I can only find one of them:


The launched into discussion about what we could do about welcome, what we should do and how we could do it.  There were some good ideas.  Particularly the statement that the END of the service is more useful for welcoming than the start.  At the end we server coffee, and have time to chat.  At the beginning we are finding our places and trying to get settled with just a minute or so to go before the service leader welcomes people.

What should the welcome (co-ordination) team do?  We recognise that the entire congregation must take some part in this, there were less than half present last night.  Some of those are already starting - they have the badges to prove it.  It is a small start, there must be more, there must be some organisation, and there must be some management.  But just as people remind me to introduce myself when I forget, there must be people watching and willing to comment to all involved on the things we can and should be doing.

Now we must wait to see what the next steps are ...

Everybody Welcome (4)

After they've been welcomed, how do our newcomers get to the point where they feel they belong?

This was unfortunately the weakest of the courses so far.  Maybe the fact that I didn't get the pre-reading done has something to do with it.  Nevertheless there were some good parts.  Discussing the situations that the church might have to deal with was interesting.  We had a simple solution to our problem - it was simple because it was never going to have to be implemented.  All that was needed was to find a way to support a young family with a very grizzly baby.  Easy - surrogate grandparents!  The questionnaires made me think too.  Just how much pastoral care really is going on in the church, and how do we know if there are people who are not cared for?  I also learnt that our Home Group structure may not be all that it should be - and that people found it intimidating - not knowing how join or who to talk to.  I had done a feature on Home Groups at one of the services a while ago.  It sounds like it bears repeating or improving - perhaps both.

The hardest part of this session though was the DVD (again).  The part I'm talking about has two women sitting outside a church discussing groups in the church and how they are joined by newcomers.  The expert was the most confusing person I have listened to for a long time.  She seemed to be saying:  Groups of people form naturally, its the way humans are made.  We should go out of our way to welcome people and include them in our groups.  There was a question about whether everyone could do this and the response was that people need not go out of their comfort zones - even that they should not.  How do you grow if you don't go out of your comfort zone, if you don't experience new things, if you don't ever tackle anything difficult?  As you can see I reacted to that, so I lost the next bit - it all got very confusing after that.

Everybody Welcome 2 - the buildings

Tonight the church IS the buildings. We looked at all aspects - how the buildings work for those with disabilities of various kinds to people with not enough hair. We looked at the outside (even in the dark) and the inside, the front and the back. So what came out of it?

Everyone recognised that we have a superbly flexible campus. Most agreed that the utility nature of thebuilding means that it does not easily stand out and represent the Glory of God. Our discussion group seemed to agree that it was a good trade-off. That in itself underlines the fact that we can never be evrything to everybody. If you want to worship in a 'glorious' building you won't be happy at Christ Church.

We seemed to agree that the outside and the foyer leave something to be desired, that the worship space looks cluttered and could do with a makeover.

There were a few more insightful comments:

• Jane pointed out that we are neither one thing nor the other - the building is 1960's, some of the trappings are much older and look out of place.
• Rita thought the church looked unfinished with its bare brick walls and cable runs here, there and everywhere. She even had some pictures that indicated how it might look.

Both these people are seeing the church as relatively (to me) new members. They have not seen the years of small changes that I have lived through. They have noticed that the net effect is not positive, although each was done for a good reason. I just haven't stood back and looked at our building like that before.

Just this one change of view made the evening worthwhile for me, so thank you to those with a fresher view of the buildings. There is MUCH more that that to be had from the conversations that took place.

One major talking point was the length of the coffee queue. Various ideas were offered aimed at getting people away from the hatch, and generally serving faster. None of us like to wait for our tea and coffee after an exhausting worship session.

The first DVD section was called 'Worrying about Anxiety', the presenters are sitting in a kitchen. My main anxiety at this point was for the person who designed the tiling behind them! That's what my mind does when I loose concentration for a minute or so.

Everybody Welcome (1)

On a Monday evening may not be the best time, but Warner had asked for one member from every family. I don't think it worked out like that, but there were a lot of people.

We looked at our contacts - individual and those who come through our many activities. It was a long list of things, and it is said that growing churches are those that do a few things well. If that is true, what should Christ Church specialize in?
Or put another way, What should Christ Church STOP doing?

There were also 4 'Surveys' about what we do in certain categories and how well we do it. Personally, I never scored us above the OK total score on any of the Surveys. Does that mean I'm out of touch, naturally pessimistic, or does it reflect on the church?

I will be very interested to see the overall scores.

Some of the video (we did not see all of this):

Another question we were asked was how we might be able to bring church into some of the groups, although this wasn't discussed in detail, but if we are to turn it into church the groups would have to amend their behaviour to include Worship, Prayer and Scriptural teaching.

In all, it was a good evening, and generated a lot of discussion. If it is to turn into a useful exercise, then it must result in some changes.

My main concern was that the video, in particular, spoke to situations that were entirely unlike ours, where the need can be readily identified. We will need another phase, before we start work - identifying the needs in the community and the best way to address them - something we have yet to succeed in doing.