wfn.org | Training events show churches hungry for welcoming skills

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 13, 2001	News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{125}

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's new media campaign
is igniting the passion of people across the denomination to learn how to
make their local congregations more welcoming.

The proof is in the numbers of people registering for the 33 regional
training events scheduled this year as part of "Igniting Ministry," the
church's first major ad campaign. Igniting Ministry officials had hoped that
at least 100 people would register for each training event. That goal has
been surpassed with the first three training sessions this month, which have
drawn 1,429 registrations. The events are aimed at preparing local
congregations to welcome visitors generated by the ads.

"People are hungry to understand how to welcome people into the faith and
have a radical attitude about hospitality," said the Rev. Steve
Horswill-Johnston, director of the Igniting Ministry effort and a staff
executive at United Methodist Communications (UMCom). 

"It matters not about who you are, the lifestyle you have and the baggage
you bring," he said. "You are welcome."

At two "train the trainers" events last month, 77 people learned skills for
guiding other trainers in making their congregations welcoming and inviting.

Last May, the 2000 General Conference approved funding for the Igniting
Ministry campaign, UMCom's $20 million effort to use television and other
media to evangelize the masses. The conference authorized UMCom to create
national commercials about the church for cable television, with the goal of
communicating with people that the denomination might not reach otherwise.

In the New York Annual Conference, 261 people from 59 congregations have
registered to attend a March 17 training event. The conference closed
registration because the meeting space at First United Methodist Church in
Shelton, Conn., could not accommodate any more people.

Virginia Annual Conference officials are seeking a new location for their
March 24 training event after 625 people registered - more than triple the
190 people initially expected.

"The numbers show how our churches are hungry for ways to reach out to
people in their communities, and they want ways to do it effectively," said
the Rev. Alvin Horton, editor of the Virginia Advocate and host of the
Virginia Conference's event. "Whoever created the term 'Igniting Ministry'
is on target because it is definitely igniting the church." 

The Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference expected 240 people at its March
31 event, but instead it has drawn registrations from 608 people,
representing 140 local churches. The training will be held at Montgomery
Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md.   

"I pray that this Igniting Ministry training session will ignite the fires
in the hearts of each attendee and that they (will) go back into their local
churches and open their hearts, minds and doors," said Larry Hygh Jr., host
of Baltimore-Washington's event and associate director of communications for
the conference.

Horton and Hygh provided their numbers during the March 8-10 meeting of the
Commission on Communications, UMCom's governing body. Both are members of
the commission. 

"What is exciting is that the people attending these training events are
ignited teams from local congregations who will return to their local
churches to train, teach or ignite others," said Shirley Struchen, director
of the Igniting Ministry training events. 

Local churches are encouraged to send at least three members, including
their pastor, to the daylong training events. For a $35 registration fee,
each attending congregation will receive help in increasing community
awareness of its presence. Participants will explore how people are made to
feel welcome and wanted. They also will examine the quality of life in their
communities and receive a planning kit filled with practical "how-to" guides
for local churches. The training will provide local churches with guidance
in conducting media campaigns.  

Each kit, which resembles a textbook, includes newspaper ads, radio spots
and artwork for supporting media. The resources also are available online at
http://www.ignitingministry.org. Local churches will be able to customize
each piece to fit their needs.

The training events give local churches "an opportunity to look within and
to also see where they might want to grow," Struchen said. The idea is to
ensure that the elements of a welcoming church as shown on television,
newspaper and radio advertisements are actually available in local
congregations. "We are asking a guest to come into our church, and we are
extending the hand of Christ and inviting them in."

The national television campaign will be kicked off with a September "United
Methodist Open House Month," in which local churches will be urged to hold a
monthlong open house to get ready for company. Churches will make a
concentrated effort to sharpen their hospitality and marketing skills, and
will encourage members to invite people personally to worship.

When the idea for the regional training events emerged, Igniting Ministry
officials realized that the denomination had few if any experts in welcoming
and hospitality, according to Horswill-Johnston. "We were just not good at
that," he said. The recourse, he said, was to train people not to be
experts, but to go and train others, who will go back and train people in
local churches throughout the denomination.   

The risk, Horswill-Johnston said, is that local churches will treat the
welcoming component as a committee, assigning a few people to welcome
visitors, instead of have the entire congregation work together as the body
of Christ to bring people into the faith.

"This is a little different from other standing committees in local church
structures," he said. "We are not asking for a welcoming committee because
welcoming is not a committee function." Instead, the entire congregation
must have a change of mindset in order to be welcoming and to make disciples
of Jesus Christ, he said.   

The Igniting Ministry campaign is an attempt to reach people who are seeking
to resolve real-life questions and invite them to local United Methodist
churches to continue their search, said the Rev. Larry Hollon, UMCom's top
staff executive. "I believe this campaign is an expression of faith in
language understandable to people who do not know us, or who may even been
skeptical of us." 

The campaign's theme - "Open hearts, open minds and open doors, the people
of the United Methodist Church" - "clearly and accurately reflects the
Wesleyan tenet of invitation, response and nurture in the community," Hollon
told the commission.

In other business, the commissioners:
·	Participated in a visioning process on issues and opportunities for
UMCom, including an examination of space needs.
·	Heard Daniel Church, top executive for the churchwide Council on
Ministries, talk about the five transformational directions charted by the
defunct Connectional Process Team and embraced by the 2000 General
Conference, and how they can transform the church.
·	Said goodbye to Wil Bane, who retired from the UMCom staff in
February, marking the end of a career spanning more than four decades; and
to the Rev. Arvin Luchs, who is leaving the staff to return to local church
ministry in the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference. 
# # #
*Green is news director for United Methodist News Service's Nashville,
Tenn., office.

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United Methodist News Service
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