Part of an ongoing series, focusing on those who are dedicated to evangelism in the 21st century. These articles will spotlight individuals who offer Leadership with young adults and evangelism in the United Methodist community.
Liberty Crossings United Methodist Church is a unique church. Nestled in the woods just outside Birmingham, AL, Liberty Crossings is approximately 10 years old. In the past year and a half, we have seen our average worship attendance rapidly rise from 195 in 2009 to 358 YTD. Thus far in 2011, we have seen a net increase of 38 new members, and we have 5 families who have requested to join but are waiting for our new member class to begin again. These new member numbers would be higher, but we are also in the midst of purging our rolls by sending letters to people who have moved away. In terms of worship, we offer traditional and contemporary worship and regularly incorporate multimedia resources into both services.
Within months of our arrival at Liberty Crossings, my wife and I began to see that God had been at work here in amazing ways long before we ever began. Two former pastors had done wonderful work here in creating a very cohesive and harmonious church family. Moreover, it was obvious that the Spirit had raised up some very effective leaders for the church. Our church has a core group of leaders who are highly committed and yet lack the control/power issues that plague so many churches. Due to this commitment level, we were able to take almost 20 folks out to the Leadership Institute at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City for a wonderful weekend of conferencing and training.
Lesson #1: Are your key leaders unified, equipped and motivated?
As you will see, I cannot overemphasize the importance of attending excellent training events with your core lay leaders. Our time in Kansas City galvanized our leadership team and jumpstarted our efforts to develop a tactical plan for 2010-2011 and a mission statement for our church. Having spent a few months in scriptural study and in “reading” our ministry context, I was prepared to share a draft mission statement that we could use as a starting point. This time together (away from home) with our leaders was a real turning point for us.
Like you, in the past I had attended ministry conferences, been filled up with good ideas and come home eager to begin implementing them. More often than not, the revelations I had while being away at a conference generated quizzical looks when I shared them with my leaders back home. Having not heard it first hand, I had to “sell” them on the ideas I had heard and the visions I had seen. It is totally different if you take your leaders with you. They come home fired up to lead the church in new ways and passionate about new ideas and ministries. They sell the vision for you. This one new approach was a true game-changer for us. If nothing else, you must commit yourself and your leaders to a yearly time of learning, training and growing. Ideally this will be away from home at a church or conference where they can see and experience what God is doing in other places.
Lesson #2: Do you have a clear mission statement that is Spirit-given, Biblical and contextual.
Once we arrived home we set up several town-hall style meetings to share our mission statement and ministry plan for 2010-2011. In each of these gatherings, I presented the plan and mission, and then we had table leaders prepared to gather feedback in small groups. We took this feedback, carefully reviewed it and used it to revise our mission statement. This time of sharing and listening was critical for us if we wanted to truly unite the church around a common mission and ensure that they took ownership in the mission. Our mission is to “Strengthening families by making and growing highly committed disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. NOTE: It is critical that this be more than a slogan. To have any power, it must be THE organizing principle for how you allocate your resources and develop your programming.
Lesson #3: How do you follow-up with your visitors? Do you treat them as the answer to your prayers? That’s what they are!!!
We began by totally overhauling and expanding our visitor follow-up program. This is the quickest and easiest way to improve your visitor return rate! Visitors are now contacted by clergy and laity in non-intrusive ways. I highly recommend Nelson Searcy’s book, “Fusion: Turning First-time Guests into Fully Engaged Members of Your Church.” This book will help you start over and totally rebuild your visitor follow-up plan. Following Nelson’s lead, we also use surveymonkey.com to gather feedback from each and every visitor.
Lesson #4: Are your sermons or teaching times wisely planned, scheduled and marketed to attract non-Christians and nominal Christians?
It is critical to go away twice a year for a time of prayer and sermon planning. During this time away, I prayerfully planned several sermon series that related to real life issues people struggle with in their daily lives. Example might include child-rearing, finances, strengthening marriages and finding balance in life. Then, I put them on the calendar for the time in the year when people are statistically most likely to consider visiting a church for the first time. (Beginning of the school year and January) I am indebted to Adam Hamilton and his book, “Unleashing the Word” for this wonderful insight.
Beyond having the right message at the right time, you have to be sure your neighborhood actually knows you are doing it! For each sermon series we carefully prepare banners and mailers to promote the event just prior to its beginning. It is amazing how inexpensive these marketing tools can be. Direct mail, public radio, yard signs, invite cards, door-hangers and especially banners will provide you the best “bang for your advertising buck.” We used them all. Outreach.com is an excellent resource for beginning to market your ministry. As you explore their site, you’ll get a lot of great ideas.
Lesson #5: Do you have meaningful small groups for all ages and stages in life?
Right away we began to expand our small group offerings so that we could truly be focused on “making and growing highly committed disciples of Jesus Christ.” Our current goal is to start 1-2 new permanent groups per year because new groups attract new people. This led us into space issues due to our small building. If you find yourself dealing with facilities issues, always proceed slowly and prayerfully. The question shouldn’t be “What do I need right now,” but rather, “What will we need 3-5 years from now.”
Lesson #6: Do you “feed your sheep?” (See John 21)
While this text certainly applies to having effective small groups that offer real spiritual growth, I think it also applies to how we care for one another as believers. We developed a lay shepherding program to be extension of the pastoral care that I can provide as pastor. Each member is assigned to a trained lay shepherd who checks on or touches base with that family on a monthly basis.
Lesson #7: Are you a Matthew 25 church?
We spent this year working to lay the groundwork for a three-tiered mission program: local, regional and international with an objective of “transforming the world.” This has probably been the most challenging of our goals. We have yet to truly organize our missional work in a way that we are satisfied with, and this will probably continue to be a goal for next year. As a start, we are sending a mission team to Nicaragua this summer to partner with a Catholic mission in Chacraseca, Nicaragua. In addition, our youth will be going on mission in Appalachia. Finally, we have been very engaged in sending tornado response relief teams in the past few weeks. At the very least, these are some good first steps to developing a clear mission plan and eventually becoming a truly missional church. This must be a part of any vibrant church’s ministry plan. To make new disciples and to help those in need are the defining principles for any Christian church.
Postlogue:
While all of these tactics are sound, two other things must be mentioned. First, with everything we’ve done we have strived to be led by the Holy Spirit. Each day I pray and ask God to lead me as I lead His church. Without the presence and clear leadership of the Spirit, we would not know how to reach our community, and we have truly seen the power of prayer-led leadership over these past several months.
In addition to prayer, one thing that is easy to overlook is simply asking & training your congregation to be inviters. Remember: a good coach says the same thing 100 different times; a bad coach says 100 different things one time. If you want to be an evangelism-oriented church, teach it and preach it constantly. At the end of EACH service, ask your congregation to “invite one person this week.” If they hear that calling every week, and if they know the worship service will be something they can be proud of if they bring a friend, they will energetically share their faith by being inviters.
To sum up our recipe for success, I’d say that 1.) The ministry must be prayer-led; 2.) Worship must be excellent; 3.) Visitor follow-up should be consistent and effective; 4.) The church must have a clear understanding of its purpose & 5.) There must be engaging small groups offered for all ages.
We thank God for an amazing year at Liberty Crossings! Our laity truly lives out the great commission and a Matthew 25 lifestyle, and their passion for Christ has been amazing.
We are so humbled to serve God with such a wonderful group of disciples. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or feedback on the ideas I have shared.
God bless you and your ministry!
