Wow, what a busy weekend! As I stated last week, I have transitioned out of my elementary Sunday School class and I am now the teacher of the preschoolers! Anybody who knows me knows this is a stretch for me. I love preschoolers. I’m just not as good with them. But, there was a need. We had no preschool teacher and no one wanted to do it, so the best scenario we could accomplish was to have another leader lead the elementary ages and I would take the younger ones. All in all, it was a good first week. I was told that we need to do some more engaging things with them, so in two weeks I will be starting to do something that scares me even more than preschoolers, CRAFTS!
Looking at the larger picture, our church welcomed five new members on Sunday morning, all of whom have kids elementary aged or younger. Our church has been very intentional about reaching young families these last couple of years, and we are seeing the fruit of that. We are also seeing these members bring their friends and families, so before they became members they were already contributing to the growth of the church. This thrills me to no end.
I think, above all, this should be the takeaway this week. Building the Kingdom of God is a matter of relationships. People come, they are discipled, they invite their friends and family, rinse and repeat. Any advertiser knows that word of mouth is the single greatest form of advertising. We have seen that come into play in our church. Once they get to our church, we have ministries in place that are designed to build relationships. Now, when they come they have a whole group of friends, not just the person that invited them. Multiple times, people have said that they come to our church because it feels like they belong, like a family. This is something that a small church can offer that is much harder to achieve in the megachurch. Knowing this, we have invested a large part of our resources into those types of ministries.
I cannot express to you how important relationships are in any size church. If we are serious about growth, we will be serious about relationships.
Most important: Listen to and “hear” your membership for what they want from yor church. Like our politicos of today if you don’t listen but do only what you think is right, then you will eat it later. If your people think of it as a family, then treat it that way – family members deserve input and consideration for their interests. If this is something you already do well then please forgive the intervention. http://grandpasdiary.wordpress.com
Good point, but yes, this is something I feel we do very well. It didn’t make it into the recap for space reasons, but we also had our annual business meeting Sunday night. During that time, everyone had the opportunity to speak their mind. We also encouraged them to talk with the pastoral staff if issues ever arise. Fortunately, our people are currently satisfied with the level of input they have and with the direction the church is heading. It is for this reason that they are so eager to invite others to visit or even to join. Fortunately, our pastor is a huge proponent of what you are saying.
Preschool is my favorite! If you ever need any ideas let me know. I love working with that age group. Just remember with anytime you do with them, “It is the process not the product.” Don’t expect their work to look like your example…because it won’t. So it might be helpful if you wrote what the item was supposed to represent for the parents. That way they can see what you are teaching the children.
Ha! I just read that you’ve transitioned to pre-school. I did that at the beginning of the school year. I switched places with my apprentice. I had her take over the elementary-aged programming, and I’ve taken charge of ECM, so I lead the pre-K and K classes. It’s been fun!