wfn.org | UMNS# 04471-Congregations reach beyond church for new disciples

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Congregations reach beyond church for new disciples 

Oct. 12, 2004	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470* 
Nashville {04471}

NOTE: A related report, UMNS story #472, is available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMC.org Feature
By Marta W. Aldrich*

There's nothing "churchy" about The Garden in Indianapolis.

The satellite congregation of St. Luke's United Methodist Church uses a
vacant dinner theater for a sanctuary. People mill around during worship or
sit at small tables enjoying bagels and coffee. Instead of singing hymns or
even contemporary praise songs, the genre is secular pop music of artists
such as Billy Joel, Eric Clapton or Sarah McLachlan. Clips from movies and TV
shows complement the message. And a watering can at the door is the closest
thing to an offering plate.

By lowering the threshold between the sacred and secular, this alternative
worship experience appears to be winning souls among the "unchurched,"
survivors of bad church experiences and those who find traditional organized
religion boring and irrelevant.

Since launching in 1995, The Garden has expanded to four services at two
sites, another in an old mansion, and it averages 700 people every Sunday.
Founding pastor Linda McCoy estimates two-thirds previously were unchurched,
and that more than half of the Indianapolis population is unchurched. That's
why, she says, the church must reach out in new ways and new places to engage
people.
 
"One of our mottoes is 'no prior experience required,'" McCoy says. "People
who come here don't have to know the lingo, the secret handshake or the
password, when to stand, when to sit. ... We're an alternative to traditional
church. It's not for everybody, but it's not intended to be."
 
Having watched United Methodist membership in the United States drop since
1968, leaders increasingly are planting new churches with unique settings and
approaches. The church must do so, says the Rev. Craig Miller, director of
new congregational development for the denomination's Board of Discipleship.

"We're finding that existing churches may attract people born into the
church," Miller says. "But new faith communities are most effective for
attracting people not already part of a local congregation."

The United Methodist Church historically has put its resources into existing
churches and "hasn't necessarily seen value in resourcing new church
development," Miller says. It also has catered generally to rural areas at
the expense of urban settings where more people could be reached.

However, new congregational development is getting increased attention from
local, regional and denominational leaders. For example, at the annual School
of Congregational Development, a six-day training event for pastors and laity
exploring growth strategies, only 60 attended in 1996. In 2004, some 500
participated.

"The School of Congregational Development is still the best kept secret of
the United Methodist Church. I've seen it change lives," says the Rev. Doug
Ruffle, congregational development director for the church's Greater New
Jersey Annual (regional) Conference.

While conference support and leadership are important, Ruffle cites local
church awareness as even more critical to developing new churches and
ministries that are effective and timely. "Grassroots works best - when
people in local churches keep their eyes and ears open to people living in
their midst and then take the initiative," says Ruffle, a former missionary
to Argentina.

In New Jersey, for instance, Ruffle cites a Korean-American pastor who, while
serving an Anglo population church in Belmar, recognized an influx of Latinos
to the community. "He mobilized his church to find resources to hire
part-time lay persons to reach out to the Spanish-speaking people," Ruffle
says.

So how can the church grow again? Congregational development leaders say the
church must look beyond itself and its comfort zones to opportunities and
needs of the marginalized - whether they are immigrants in Florida,
impoverished residents of Appalachia, the homeless in Kansas City, residents
of high-crime areas in Baltimore and Washington or even in the primarily
Muslim nation of Senegal. In recent years, the United Methodist Church has
reached out to all of these areas. 

"Some churches have caught the vision and are establishing new churches in
unlikely areas," says the Rev. Keith D. Rae, executive secretary for church
development for the Board of Global Ministries, the denomination's missions
agency. "It's still not as much as we would like to see, but it is
happening." 

Marion, Ohio, is an example. With three prisons and a jail on the north side
of town, a 3-year-old ministry is reaching out to inmates, ex-inmates and
their families - and finding struggling churches invigorated in the process.
The Rev. R.J. Davis oversees Grace Place Ministries and is also part-time
pastor of Community United Methodist Church, a primarily older congregation
with 41 members. Two former inmates recently joined the church, and one
serves on the pastor-parish committee.

"Our church has now heard his testimony; they've heard his transformation,"
Davis says of the ex-convict. "They believe this is the kind of person who
will help their church turn around because he has had a life-changing
experience with Jesus Christ. That's the kind of real and exciting
relationship with Jesus Christ that will draw people into the church."

Davis believes too many churches stay in their comfort zones and subsequently
lose touch with God. He believes the church needs marginalized people like
prisoners, addicts, the poor and the homeless - perhaps even more than the
marginalized need the church - to remind us of God's relevance for our lives.

"I think that's why the church has lost members," he says. "We've lost touch
with our story because nobody has asked us to tell it for so long. And if we
haven't got a story to tell that makes sense and offers something different
from the rest of the world, why would anybody join us? But when we interject
these kinds of people into our community, it stirs within us the remembrance
of the day-to-day, life-changing reality of God in our lives. It reminds us
of our story."

*Aldrich is a freelance journalist based in Franklin, Tenn.

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org