session later in this manual. As an example, Session 1 ‘Discover’ is divided into four sections that reflect the four main ways in which people discover about the life and existence of a church – personal contacts, the church’s regular programme, special services and events, and its premises and publicity. Each section has some introductory input to it, in this manual and in the session itself, some of it on DVD. Course members are then asked to respond by filling in a personal tick-box checklist and talking through one or two discussion questions in pairs or small groups. The personal checklists will be issued at the start of each session.
At the end of the session the group will know the average score for each section. This will reveal where you think your strengths and weaknesses lie. At the end of the whole course it should therefore be possible to work out priorities for change. How can the strengths be reinforced and the weaknesses tackled?
During the week before each session please read through the relevant part in the manual and spend some time praying and thinking about the theme and its implications for yourself and your church.
As you read the Members’ Manual do note down your own ideas plus any sense of what God is saying to the church. These can be shared with others when you meet.
As with all things to do with the Christian life and church, our human efforts will be useless without prayer and without the work and power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that God the Holy Spirit has already been directing the Church towards improving its welcome and hospitality – we can see this through the progress of ‘Back to Church Sunday’, through our research into how churches are growing and shrinking and in the reactions to the drafts and trials of this course. We are catching God’s agenda for the Church. So do please make praying for the success and impact of this course a personal priority! You may wish to use the Course Prayer inside the front cover of this manual on a regular basis.
Session 1 pre-reading
Discovery as a starting point
People will not join a church until they discover it. In order to have a chance of welcoming people to worship with us we first have to show them that a living and active church exists. It’s surprising what people assume just from the look of the church building. If you board up the windows the vandals smashed, then the neighbours may assume the church is closed.
As well as the visibility of the church building, people discover a church through the activity of the church members. Churches need to live their lives visibly out in the open where others can discover their existence and begin to relate to them. Some churches have a low profile, very limited contact with their local community and, as a result, very few visitors. Others have a high profile, masses of contacts, a large fringe, and many people trying them out. What about your church?
There are four ways in which churches make contact with their local communities and we’ll look at each in turn. Your assessment of the church’s strengths and weaknesses in each area will reveal priorities for improvements and may also help you think through your own part in making the church more visible and attractive to the local community.
The four main ways of becoming visible are:
| 1 | Personal contacts |
| 2 | The church programme |
| 3 | Special services and events |
| 4 | Church premises and publicity |
1 Personal contacts
This is so obvious it is easy to overlook. So take a moment to think about how many family, friends, acquaintances, neighbours and colleagues you know who do not go to church. Some Christians have got so immersed in church over the years that they know hardly any people who are not already Christians. How ironic that faithful commitment to God’s Church can suck Christians out of the very places where we are needed! It is also a disaster! Christians should not live in isolated ghettos but be salt in society, learning from and contributing to a wide range of other people.
If your church has so taken over your life that there is little else in it you may like to consider how to start making friends with non-churchgoers again.
Now use your instinct to draw up a shortlist of people you know that may just accept an invitation to come to a church service or event. For some of you the list may be very short indeed but make it anyway! Write down the number of people you have identified in the box below and bring it with you to Session 1.
A recent survey found out how many people in Britain say they would like to go (often, return) to church if only they were invited. The answer was three million! That’s almost as many as those who go already. On average each churchgoer will know at least one other person who does not have the courage to go to church alone but is hoping to be asked by someone who already does go. But so far they haven’t been asked. So one or two of the people you have thought of might actually be thrilled to be invited!
So the first and most important way of making a first contact is personal and involves every church member. People discover our churches through us inviting them in.
Sometimes the first invitation will be to a social event or some other element of the church’s programme that is not an act of worship. Sometimes it is best simply to invite someone to a church service. This is what people expect us to be about, this is the heart of what we do and the best way to meet the church as a whole.
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