wfn.org | Churches face challenge of initiating seekers into faith

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 9, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{309} 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Congregations that welcome seekers and inquirers
often need "porches" to give newcomers a hospitable entry point into the
church.

However, many of the same congregations lack a process for initiating
seekers into Christian life once new people are in the church.

People from congregations that are implementing an "ancient-future"
Christian approach to welcoming and initiating seekers met in a June 28-29
consultation to listen to and learn from one another. Participating churches
represented various ministry settings, such as campus ministries and
churches, rural county-seat towns, and large urban and suburban
congregations. The United Methodist Board of Discipleship sponsored the
event.

Congregations that welcome seekers and inquirers are like porches, said the
Rev. Dan Benedict, board staff member. The porch is where people slowly find
out about and get comfortable with one another before making life-changing
commitments. He compared the welcoming process to a porch experience because
people may inquire about God and the life of faith without having to enter
the church quickly.

"A porch is a gracious structure between the interior of the house and the
street, a place where people can swap 'howdies,' get to know each other,
tell stories and listen, and develop relationships without having to rush to
some kind of commitment," he said. "Many churches may have a 'porch
attitude' but don't have an intentional process in place for inquiring
people."

In the third to fifth centuries, the church used a model called
"catechumenate" as a way of making disciples of seekers and inquirers. The
model was a process of initiation using stages and rituals to make the Word
of God echo in the hearts and lives of the disciples.

Participating in powerful rituals, reflecting on Scripture, learning to
pray, and serving God and neighbor daily are the components of becoming
Christian disciples within the ancient-future approach, Benedict said. New
disciples are immersed in the church community, he said.

"This approach does not apologize for or compromise for being the church
with deep and full traditions of worship, Scripture, sacraments, and service
to the poor and marginalized," he said. "It takes seriously the needs of
seekers without 'marketing' the church. It trusts that being disciples and
making disciples are part of the same process."

The ancient model of making disciples would be beneficial today, many people
at the consultation said. Churches that live up to the theme of the upcoming
"Igniting Ministry" advertising campaign will need such a structure for
making disciples, especially among those who have little background in the
Christian faith and practice.

Igniting Ministry, which will be launched in September, is a four-year
advertising effort to reach "unchurched" people and seekers. The campaign
will be centered on a series of national cable network commercials designed
to raise awareness about the United Methodist Church and offer messages
about God's love. The ads are centered on the theme: "Our hearts, our minds
and our doors are always open. The people of the United Methodist Church." 

During the campaign's first month, United Methodists will throw open the
doors of their churches and get ready for the visitors that the ads are
expected to attract. 
 
Throughout the consultation, the congregational leaders made observations on
how they added a "porch" to their ministries and the impact it has made on
church life. They also described how they struggled to be faithful to the
process while dealing with such stresses as closely timed services that make
it difficult to present people on the journey; student schedules that
conflict with the Christian year; and the need to get lay members involved
in leadership so that the process isn't driven by the pastor.

The ancient-future way of making disciples is marked by four dimensions: a
way of being church; belonging before believing; public time and space for
conversion; and a "better caught than taught" approach, according to Lester
Ruth, professor of worship at Asbury Theological Seminary. By "caught," Ruth
referred to discovering what it means to be a disciple in caring
relationships and lived experience rather than classroom environments.

Participants at the consultation described their efforts to structure enough
time and build relationships with inquirers so that trust develops between
the seeker and the church.

As the porch helps people build relationships, so to must the welcoming
process, said Mort Kothmann, a professor at Texas A&M University in College
Station and lay leader at nearby A&M United Methodist Church. The heart and
soul of the disciple-making process is not the content but the relationships
with mentors, he said. "Confidence and trust built in the small groups and
living toward baptismal questions give shape and directions to what
inquirers experience."

Guy Pry, a retired clergyman, said his search for a different way of
initiating people into church life occurred after a Sunday morning
invitation to membership. A respondent asked him, "Is that all there is?"
Pry, a former staff member at A&M Church, said he began to look for ways to
move beyond making members to making disciples. As a result, the church
implemented a process called "Journey to Christ," and it works primarily
with student inquirers.

As the participants talked and listened to one another, they discovered that
their process of moving an inquirer to discipleship usually takes six
months. The churches tie the inquirer's process and progress to the church
year, baptizing or confirming at the Lord's baptism or at Easter.  

The participants noted that imagery and things that make initiation into
Christian discipleship more sensory and tactile during worship are necessary
for seekers, especially younger people.

The audience watched a video of the Easter vigil service at Evanston (Ill.)
First United Methodist Church, in which two people were baptized by
immersion and others were baptized by pouring. Benedict observed the
"visceral response" to the uses of water, oil, bread and people moving to
receive others into the life of the church community.

The consultation concluded with participants urging the Board of
Discipleship to continue developing video resources on the ancient-future
way of making disciples and how it works. They urged the board to offer more
introductory consultations and to encourage bishops and their cabinets to
become knowledgeable about the process.

# # #

The Rev. Dan Benedict, staff member at the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship, provided the information for this story.

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United Methodist News Service
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