By Pamela Housekeeper and MaryAnn Gittens
As part of the Natural Church Development Team meeting April 16, our NCD coach, Jack Scharf, led our group through an Affinity Exercise. The Worship Committee joined us for this meeting to look at our minimum factor; Inspiring Worship Service. In this exercise, two questions were asked: 1) what are we doing that’s having a positive impact on our minimum factor and 2) why aren’t these activities having more of an impact? We were each asked to list five answers for each question.
Our group found that the area that got the most positive comments was music. Other areas that were listed most often were children in the service, participation by lay people, the pastor’s passion that shows during the sermon and in his daily contact with people, liturgical aspects, prayer during worship, and the friendliness of the congregation.
As we looked at why these activities are not having more of an impact, comments about areas of weakness included: the sermons, too “high church,” too many distractions during the service, and lack of personal sharing in the second service.
As opinions seemed to vary according to what service the team members attended, it was decided that we needed more input from all of you who attend both services.
The results of the first service showed that music was the greatest strength, followed closely by the warmth, support, caring & family atmosphere experienced by the participants. A major factor in the group’s satisfaction with the first service is the passion, inspiration, love & commitment of the pastor. They liked his acceptance of people and his concern for them. Individuals commented that the pastor’s sermons were inspiring, comforting, touching, & lifted them up.
Several participants in the first service had difficulty identifying areas of weakness. Some individuals would like special music, others expressed difficulty in singing unfamiliar hymns. Sermon length or lack of focus was mentioned by a few people.
In the second service, the two areas of greatest strength were the music and the pastor’s sermon. People love the choir and they love to sing the hymns! They like the way the music ties the different parts of the service together and how the hymns support the pastor’s message. They like the pastor’s sermons and note his nonjudgmental attitude, his “down-to-earth” nature and how he helps us relate aspects of our faith to our daily lives. Another major area of strength noted was the feeling that we are all sisters and brothers, that we are a friendly and accepting bunch of folks, and that there is a peace to be experienced in the service and among the people who make up our church.
In the second service, there did not seem to be any clear consensus about areas of weakness. Comments about music included choosing hymns that are easier to sing, more traditional, spirit-filled, and with a more common theme to support the message. Some want more prayers of praise along with concerns and more personal testimonies about how the Lord is working in our lives. There were critical comments about people talking during the offering and Communion and a desire for more respect in the sanctuary and a more reverent atmosphere. There were comments about saying the Lord’s Prayer and Apostle’s Creed too quickly and a desire to pass the peace more.
We appreciate the time that so many of you took to participate in our survey. The NCD team meets again May 21 when we will look closely at your observations and continue to analyze the results of our survey and make plans to address the issues that are identified.
Pamela Houskeeper
Mary Ann Gittens
NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
The Natural Church Development team has received the results of the survey we asked many of you in the congregation to complete. This process is based on the premise that there are eight quality indicators of a healthy church and that there is a systematic way to measure the degree that these qualities exist in individual churches. The Natural Church Development process “aims to release the potential that God has already put into our church.”
Overall, the results of the survey done in Milford were fairly average compared to other United Methodist churches throughout the nation. Our maximum quality score was 53 (with 50 being considered average) for Passionate Spirituality. Interestingly enough, out of the 104 churches in the Conference that have done the survey, we are one of only five that had this
quality as their highest score. We celebrate that we are a passionately spiritual bunch of folks!
Results
Passionate Spirituality - 53
Loving Relationships - 51
Need-oriented Evangelism – 50
Gift-oriented Ministry - 49
Functional Structures - 48
Holistic Small Groups - 48
Empowering Leadership - 47
Inspiring Worship Service - 37
The Next Step
In the coming months, our team will be meeting with our coach, Jack Scharf, from the Conference to look closely at our “minimum factor”, Inspiring Worship Service, to determine the “root causes” and what can be done to improve this area. It does not mean that the style of worship or the choice of music is wrong or that the pastor’s sermons are boring. The Natural Church Development program defines this area as one where:
- People feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship.
- People are participating in the worship service.
- People feel energized to carry the message during the week.
Our team wants to hear from you. Please share with us your thoughts, your ideas, and your experiences. We are committed to being open to the process so that we can discern how God wants to move among us and to use our church to share His message.
Our members are Pastor Dave, Laura May, Dick Weifert, Barbara May, Gretel Metzger, Jane Frey, Dorri Stewart, Rachel Hendriks, Jackie Viserta, and Pam Houskeeper. You will hear more from our team shortly. - Pam Houskeeper, NCD Team leader
Jack Sharf and Alan Hahn discuss Natural Church Development Sunday.
Congregants at both the 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. worship services were briefed Sunday on the Natural Church Development program we have started.
Jack Scharf, a certified NCD coach, gave a slide presentation about the program after each service. The program is intended to statistically identify what areas our church – MUMC – is strong in, and what areas we are weak in, among eight categories. Higher scores tend to strongly correlate with a healthier church that is more likely to be growing and have higher membership and worship attendance.
Sunday’s briefings followed a meeting last fall involving the Administrative Council, interested parishioners, and the Rev. Doug Ruffle from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. Following that meeting that the Ad Council discussed the matter over several months and decided to go ahead with the NCD program. Pam Housekeeper will lead the MUMC team on NCD. The only cost to the church itself is $160 for the surveys needed to assess where our church falls in eight categories of ministry and leadership. These categories are:
ð Empowering leadership
ð Gift-based ministry
ð Passionate spirituality
ð Effective structures
ð Inspiring worship services
ð Holistic small groups
ð Need-oriented evangelism
ð Loving relationships
Mr. Scharf, who attends the Morristown, NJ, United Methodist Church, said the NCD program involves five steps, which typically occur over a 12 to 18-month period. They are:
ð Prepare
ð Diagnose
ð Plan
ð Implement
ð Evaluate
MUMC is currently in the preparation phase. As part of that, next Sunday and the following Sunday, surveys will be distributed that include a number of questions designed to assess how we fall on the various topics (empowering leadership, need-oriented evangelism, and so on). All members of the church, or those who attend regularly, are invited to complete the surveys. From those, the parent NCD group will analyze a random group of the surveys.
The answers will help us identify the “minimum factor,” or the category among the eight where we are weakest. Mr. Scharf described that as the area of “maximum leverage,” where by making improvements in it, we can most easily and effectively boost church attendance and membership. If MUMC decides to continue with the program past 18 months, additional surveys will help benchmark our progress, and identify new areas to target for improvement.
Mr. Scharf will work with the MUMC team once the results are back to identify the root causes behind the results. That will usually take three to five meetings. Sometimes, churches are surprised by the results. “I know when we got our results in Morristown, it was a bit of a shock in some areas,” he recounted.
More information about the NCD program is available at http://www.ncd-international.org/public/essence.html , which has a number of resources to examine. Some information can also be found at the conference website, http://www.gnjumc.org/.
Updates about the NCD progress will be posted here on our website and in the Flaming Spirit newsletter. Questions can also be addressed to Pam Housekeeper, Pastor Dave, or the other members of the team.
July 9, 2008 Visioning Meeting
…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?
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