I wanted to say Thank-you to Wendy and Steven Koster for their presentations at Symposium. They had some great material! I presented a report to our Worship committee, and we are looking to hold our own Media workshop soon. Thanks!
We certainly seem to have a healthy amount of material on this topic! As the former Clerk of Records for our congregation I am very familiar with the challenges of membership tracking. (See also my forum comments about Membership Software under the Administration section.)
We have discussed membership a number of times over the past few years at our Elder meetings. Based on these conversations and ones we have had with other churches, the priority of membership in the formal sense seems to have somewhat diminished within the denomination. If someone has found your congregation to be a place where they can meet God, as well as enjoy the communion of the saints, you may well have provided all that that person or family is looking for, at least for now.
Our Council decided a few years ago that regularly attending individuals may be a part of the various committees, but they may not chair that committee. In this way folks may develop a deeper sense of belonging, and have more time reviewing what ever is holding them back from becoming a member.
The idea of membership for myself is that it creates a stronger sense of commitment or belonging. I think this same theme goes along with the current "Form of Subscription" discussion. While we believe we are part of the true universal church as discussed in the Belgic Confession (art 27-32.) We also hold we are Reformed. Membership helps define who we are, and how we understand God's will for us, and what our congregation is called to do.
We have also discussed members who we don't see as often as we would like. As Elders, our job includes making a phone call to find out how things are going, and/or a letter or two to find out how that person or family is. We do keep track of members whose status could be considered "inactive" versus "lapsed." Some times you can't get an answer, and sometimes the answer is that they want their membership held at your church even though they don't worship there anymore. For some folks, they will always be a member of a certain congregation no matter where they are or how infrequently they attend.
Membership is the responsibility of the individual, but it also serves as a marker or guidepost for the elders as they try to minister to the needs of their congregation.
Musicians who are professionals should be paid. At the least they should be offered to be paid. If a musician wants his or her time and talent offered as a gift that is their decision. 1 Tim 5:18 comes to mind on this topic, although I don't think many musicians want to be compared to an ox!
The Mission/Vision concept is a good place to start. We first formed a "Cornerstone" committee to review our structures to see how we were organized. From there we formed areas of focus such as Fellowship, Education, Evangelism and Worship, and created Vision statements for each of these. This gave of the committee's as well as the elders a way of looking at our congregational life to further enhance to areas that were lacking.
We also used the "Natural Church Development" program to help determine our strengths and weakness's.
http://www.sussexcrc.org/Mission_and_Vision.html
http://www.sussexcrc.org/Cornerstone.html
http://www.ncd-international.org/public/index.html
Our church doesn't currently have a Facebook page, but the Senior High Youth Group does (https://www.facebook.com/groups/crcssrhighyouthgroup/) I'd like to know what folks would like to see their church Facebook page do. Is this for internal chat's with associated friends just dropping in, or is it more an external meeting place?
Our church web site has been up for a few years, and gone through a few changes. Most of the site was written and still maintained with a text editor (Notetab Light.) There are not too many folks within the congregation that have done much web work which means to pass along the upkeep means we need to do some training or consider outsourcing.
It has only been in the past year or two that guests have mentioned that that they found the church and decided to visit because they had found us on the web. Our idea is to provide information to the congregation about what is going on through postings of the bulletin and calendar, and information for the visitor such as our history, activities, and Mission and Vision.
One suggestion for anyone who wants to post calendar events is that you may want to consider Google calendars. We're able to create and post information fairly quickly, and integrate it into the web site easily.
http://www.sussexcrc.org/
Posted in: Media Workshop
I wanted to say Thank-you to Wendy and Steven Koster for their presentations at Symposium. They had some great material! I presented a report to our Worship committee, and we are looking to hold our own Media workshop soon. Thanks!
Posted in: Membership Transfers in a Modern Age
We certainly seem to have a healthy amount of material on this topic! As the former Clerk of Records for our congregation I am very familiar with the challenges of membership tracking. (See also my forum comments about Membership Software under the Administration section.)
We have discussed membership a number of times over the past few years at our Elder meetings. Based on these conversations and ones we have had with other churches, the priority of membership in the formal sense seems to have somewhat diminished within the denomination. If someone has found your congregation to be a place where they can meet God, as well as enjoy the communion of the saints, you may well have provided all that that person or family is looking for, at least for now.
Our Council decided a few years ago that regularly attending individuals may be a part of the various committees, but they may not chair that committee. In this way folks may develop a deeper sense of belonging, and have more time reviewing what ever is holding them back from becoming a member.
The idea of membership for myself is that it creates a stronger sense of commitment or belonging. I think this same theme goes along with the current "Form of Subscription" discussion. While we believe we are part of the true universal church as discussed in the Belgic Confession (art 27-32.) We also hold we are Reformed. Membership helps define who we are, and how we understand God's will for us, and what our congregation is called to do.
We have also discussed members who we don't see as often as we would like. As Elders, our job includes making a phone call to find out how things are going, and/or a letter or two to find out how that person or family is. We do keep track of members whose status could be considered "inactive" versus "lapsed." Some times you can't get an answer, and sometimes the answer is that they want their membership held at your church even though they don't worship there anymore. For some folks, they will always be a member of a certain congregation no matter where they are or how infrequently they attend.
Membership is the responsibility of the individual, but it also serves as a marker or guidepost for the elders as they try to minister to the needs of their congregation.
Posted in: What Issues Do You Face in Modernizing Your Worship?
Musicians who are professionals should be paid. At the least they should be offered to be paid. If a musician wants his or her time and talent offered as a gift that is their decision. 1 Tim 5:18 comes to mind on this topic, although I don't think many musicians want to be compared to an ox!
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
The Mission/Vision concept is a good place to start. We first formed a "Cornerstone" committee to review our structures to see how we were organized. From there we formed areas of focus such as Fellowship, Education, Evangelism and Worship, and created Vision statements for each of these. This gave of the committee's as well as the elders a way of looking at our congregational life to further enhance to areas that were lacking.
We also used the "Natural Church Development" program to help determine our strengths and weakness's.
http://www.sussexcrc.org/Mission_and_Vision.html
http://www.sussexcrc.org/Cornerstone.html
http://www.ncd-international.org/public/index.html
Posted in: Does Your Church Have an Active Facebook Page?
We have a fairly active Facebook page, and can be found at; https://www.facebook.com/SussexChristianReformedChurch
Posted in: Does Your Church Have an Active Facebook Page?
Our church doesn't currently have a Facebook page, but the Senior High Youth Group does (https://www.facebook.com/groups/crcssrhighyouthgroup/) I'd like to know what folks would like to see their church Facebook page do. Is this for internal chat's with associated friends just dropping in, or is it more an external meeting place?
Posted in: Feedback on Your Church Website
Our church web site has been up for a few years, and gone through a few changes. Most of the site was written and still maintained with a text editor (Notetab Light.) There are not too many folks within the congregation that have done much web work which means to pass along the upkeep means we need to do some training or consider outsourcing.
It has only been in the past year or two that guests have mentioned that that they found the church and decided to visit because they had found us on the web. Our idea is to provide information to the congregation about what is going on through postings of the bulletin and calendar, and information for the visitor such as our history, activities, and Mission and Vision.
One suggestion for anyone who wants to post calendar events is that you may want to consider Google calendars. We're able to create and post information fairly quickly, and integrate it into the web site easily.
http://www.sussexcrc.org/
Posted in: Feedback on Your Church Website
Someone's been looking at my code!
Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look.