…Last night our church welcomed Doug Ruffle, conference visioning chair-person, who assisted us in beginning the visioning process. There was a great turnout with 22 members of Ad Council attending. Dr. Ruffle led us through several different visioning excercises and presented us with a number of different options to further our ministry. He is involved with the Natural Church Development program, which follows five steps (prepare, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate) to help your church grow. This program begins with a survey of the congregation, identifying your collective strengths and weaknesses, and continues with a coach provided by the district to help improve on your weak points. The Ad Council will be waiting, and will pray about using Natural Church Development, or another program written by Doug Ruffle, and will decide which visioning program to use in August.
There are several booklets on the Natural Church development process circulating through the congregation, please ask a member of Ad Council if you can read their copy.
A few of the subjects we touched on are listed below:
Our Celebrations:
- The children of the congregation
- We are supporting a missionary
- For the second time we will be supporting a young person on the Pilgrimage to Taize
- We host three festivals a year
- Our music program—Jeff Fornoff does a great job with both the adult and the childrens’ choirs!
- Our acolyte program
- Our youth leadership
- Dynamic worship
- We are living up to the motto “Open hearts, open doors, open minds”
- The food in Fellowship Hour is usually great!
- A sense of family among the congregation
- Our Lenten Soup Suppers are a great outreach, fellowship opportunity, and ministry to the community, as is our Advent Wreath-Making Dinner
- We have an active UMW group
Our challenges:
- Better ministry to youth and the elderly
- Keeping up with the rapid growth of our community
- Increasing average worship attendance
- Expanding on the programs we already have
- Making a lasting impact to inspire people to come back
- Deepening our ministry connections
The Seven Things People Look For in a Church (reprinted from an article in the United Methodist Relay by Doug Ruffle:
- Does it fit my schedule?
- Do you care more about me or about my money?
- Are my kids really welcome?
- Is this a place where, in time, I can make a friend?
- Can I explore my faith without fear of being judged?
- Is the church ‘infighting’?
- Do the leaders ‘buy into’ the vision?
