Everybody is very welcome

To the “Welcome”

Day

This is a taster session

• To introduce you to the ideas and materials

• To see what we can learn from each other• To help you work out whether your church

could usefully use the course

What motivated us to prepare this course?

1. The theology – the hospitality & welcome of God and the natural growth of the church

2. The horror stories - and the experience of being ignored

3. The potential of better welcome & integration to grow the church. B2CS.

Ephesians ch 2v11-22

• In Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ

• You are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow-citizens with God’s people & members of God’s household

• You are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit

There are lots of ways of being unfriendly and insensitive…………

How easy is it to join your church?

‘Oh..nobody wears a hat in this church’‘For the first two years only the clergy spoke

to us’‘We only serve refreshments to the regulars

– the others shake hands with the vicar on the way out’

‘Not another bloody newcomer’‘Oh my God it’s the Bishop’

The worst sort of church is…

The friendly church!

A Mystery Worshipper

• The service was not guided and I was unsure what to do and when. The churchmanship was rigid and the atmosphere was formal with little enthusiasm. The singing was quiet, dull and restrained. The sermon was easy to understand and a comfortable length (5 minutes) but the relevance of it was not

A Mystery Worshipper

• made clear. After the service a group of people appeared to dominate conversation with the vicar and even though I remained nearby for several minutes no one spoke to me. Members of the congregation sat together but did not appear to engage with one another. I felt excluded and uncomfortable.

Some significant findings

• 90% of people who try out a church in this country fail to join it

• 3m people say they might well like to go to church if only somebody would invite them

• 4m people say they would quite like to do an Alpha course if they were invited

• God is stirring and sending the people• Our job is to welcome & integrate them

The Course

• For every church member – it only takes one to spoil a welcome

• Four sessions – Discover – Experience the plant – Experience the people – Belong

• Plus an extra session to start training the Welcome Team

• Welcome is a long term business over months and years

Course Content

• There is a members’ manual and some pre-reading for each session

• Some course material is delivered by DVD• There are also exercises to do, such as

mystery-worshipping• And a series of checklists to fill out and put

together to identify strengths, weaknesses, and priorities for action

Three outcomes from the course

• Everybody becomes a better Welcomer

• The checklists identify priorities for change

• A ‘Welcome Team’ is set up

Discovering a church

• How many contacts do you have? • A church at the heart of its community

How welcoming are the building?

• Seeing our buildings through a stranger’s eyes

• Scoring your own church

The Checklist System

• You have a checklist on which to record your own view of how well your church scores on each aspect of the welcome business

• When your sheet is combined with the others from your church you get an overall score and can see where you differ from each other

The Checklist System

• When you have been through all 17 checklists you can identify the particular strengths and weaknesses of your church

• This will enable you to develop your strengths and pay attention to your weaknesses

• But it will only work if you are brutally honest about your church!!!!!!