Pride

It's been a while since I bragged on my church.  It's not that I don't love the people here, I'm just bad at stopping to praise them on my blog.

Before I brag, let me give you some background...

For the last eight weeks, we've been in a conversation about the "E-Word."  What's the E-Word you ask?  I'm glad you did. 

That's what we've been calling evangelism for the last eight weeks.  What are the first images that come to mind when you hear the world evangelism or evangelist?  For me, it's probably some blowhard, fire and brimstone preacher wearing a worn out suit  with white socks and pants that haven't been introduced to the tops of his shoes who doesn't make much sense, but makes a lot of noise anyway.  Or maybe a plastic woman with LARGE pink hair and makeup done by Sherwin Williams who asks you to send in $50 and she promises she will pray for you.

Evangelism is a word that has been taken over by some ridiculous people for some less-than-reasonable endeavors.  It's been abused and misused.  For many, it has taken on a wholly different meaning that it was originally intended to have.  For that reason, it has become something that we dare not to speak of in polite company, as well as the truly lost art form of sharing faith with others.

Evangelism is quite simple when you strip away all the false connotations.  It's about sharing our faith with others.  It's about being a source of God's good news to the rest of the world - painting a picture of hope in hopeless situations and becoming the answers to the prayers that we pray.

At the conclusion of this sermon series, the challenge was issued to each member in attendance: bring someone to church with you.  Sometimes that's the best start to sharing faith with someone else.

We set the date for July 18th.  We talked about it, we prepared for it.  I began to get discouraged when a handful of members told me that they just didn't have any unchurched or dechurched friends or that they just couldn't talk their friends into coming.  I honestly wasn't expecting much at that point.

Sunday at 10:55, I broke away from a conversation with a member to get settled into the sanctuary.  As I turned the corner I was overwhelmed.  The sanctuary was packed! 

We've grown slowly over the last three years as a church.  In terms of membership, we've just barely outpaced deaths in the church with new members.  Worship attendance has grown from 65 to close to 90 on average and each time we convert regular attending visitors to new members, new visitors take their place as regular attenders. People are finding faith for the first time and are growing, not only as disciples, but as disciple-makers.

Imagine seeing anywhere from 80 to 95 people on a normal Sunday.  Imagine that it's July and people are on vacation, so 80 is a solid attendance number.  Imagine walking into the sanctuary and seeing 120 people!  We had at least 33 guests on hand Sunday.  At least 17 of those had never seen the inside of the sanctuary before.  People brought their family members, their neighbors, their coworkers, and their friends.

I was blown away.  I immediately got anxious with excitement but couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  You see, I'd been praying for this day especially for months now.  Some of my leaders had been praying with me weekly about it for over a month. 

The most exciting part for me?  Probably the looks on the faces of our own members.  I've seen that look before.  It's the one that says, "Look what I did.  Aren't you proud of me?"  And I am proud of them.  I'm especially pumped because they've figured out how to do this and for many of them, this is only the beginning.

I always tell people that the math is simple.  Imagine if we all did our best to bring others to church.  Who have you invited lately?  Who will you invite next Sunday?

If you're reading this and you are the person who hasn't been invited, come hang out with us.  The preaching is ok, but you won't find better people anywhere.

Getting Noticed

I met with Phil Schroeder this week.  Phil is one of the most creative pastors I know, especially when it comes to bringing existing, "traditional" churches up to date and making them friendly and relevant.  Last year, he was appointed to our conference office as Associate Director of Connectional Ministries, which is good news for a church like mine - not only does he have the time to work with us, but he's being paid to.

Phil met with me for about an hour before heading to the district office for a training event and as we walked around the facility, he gave me his impressions and some suggestions for the church.  One of the things he mentioned that has stood out to me in the last few months is the traffic patterns of the area.

This hasn't been much of a concern for Mt. Bethel before now because I believe that we have had some more pressing things to deal with before we could become intentional about inviting in the masses.  I know that sounds bad for a church, but as a church leader, I feel strongly that you have to be able to put your best foot forward for guests and for Mt. Bethel, that meant sweeping leadership changes, building better communications, and improving our worship and spiritual formation.

Now that things are ramping up, the next step is to put the church out there as a place that people want to be.  A large part of that for Mt. Bethel is simply getting noticed. 

We have a tremendous facility which I have mentioned before - thousands of square feet that is getting minimal use.  All the visioning that we've done over the last few months is leading us to becoming a hub for our community.  We need to become a place that offers the things that no other church is offering and opening our doors 7-days to anyone in the community.

Here's our problem:  We are located just east of the easternmost major subdivision of Henry County.  Each day, people head west out of their neighborhoods whether to go to work, play, or shopping.  Very few people from our community pass by the church, which means many of those people don't even know we're here. 

So here's my question:  How do you get noticed?  Particularly, how do you get noticed by people that aren't involved in any church who are close, but might never drive by? 

Other churches have been successful by putting banners out at the edge of their property.  Obviously, this isn't a great option for us.  Direct mailings continue to be something that groups like Outreach.com push, but everyone in our area gets at least a dozen of these each week, so there is a legitimate fear that our message will be lost in the fray.  Additionally, there aren't many things in our area that draw people together - you have to drive 7 miles to get to anything that's not a house, school, church, or fire station (but there are 22,000 people living within 5 miles of Mt. Bethel) so partnering with existing organizations isn't an available option.  We want to BECOME that place that draws people together and a place that they can find purpose in worship and service.

Experts say that word of mouth is the greatest source of influence for newcomers.  I believe that and I know that if we can attract a few and get the wheel rolling, word of mouth will take over.  The challenge is getting to that point.

Here's where you come in.  Think of your route to work or shopping - the direction you turn out of your driveway every day.  Imagine there was a church (or even a business) in the opposite direction that has a lot to offer.  What would it take for that church/business to get your attention?  I really want to hear your ideas.  Email me at alexander.stroud (at) gmail.com.

The Feeding of 5,000

We experienced a multitude of people coming through the doors at Mt. Bethel on Saturday. Maybe it wasn't 5,000 and rather than fish and loaves, it was fish and hushpuppies, but a multitude was fed.

In April, one of our members, a 35 year old husband and father of two, was diagnosed with metastatic malignant melanoma. It starts out as skin cancer, and in his case, it spread into his endocrine system and quickly to some of his major organs. He's undergoing treatment that has a 5% chance of success, so the prospects seem pretty grim.

Mt. Bethel has rallied around this family, not just because they are part of the church family, but because they are a family in need and we can do something to make a difference for them.

Saturday, several of our men and women showed up at the church around lunchtime, heated up some peanut oil, and fried almost 200 lbs. of catfish. By the time I got home Saturday night, I was greasy and tired. Together, we raised $6,000 for Jason and his family. I enjoyed listening to the buzz around the church that afternoon, which carried over to Sunday morning. People who estimated they would raise $2,000 to $2,500 were clearly blown away by the difference that was made.

475 people came through the door on Saturday. Some drove from an hour or more away. Many live in the community and have no church home, but saw a flyer. Not bad for a 230 member church!

I think more has happened than feeding a multitude and helping a family through hard times. I think some eyes were opened and God is laying the foundation for the vision and getting people where they need to be to help the church pursue that vision. Saturday was a teaching moment.

Two years ago - almost one month after I arrived here - some of our leadership hosted a fish fry. The 2007 fish fry was to raise money for our building debt. Not because we weren't able to make payments, but because we wanted to pay as much as possible on the principle of the loan. When the dust settled, we raised about $1,800 for the building.

Everybody being blown away by Saturday's turnout blessed me with numerous teaching moments. I've had frank conversations where I didn't have the opportunity before. Many people didn't see the difference in the fish fries until the tally was made and it became clear that there is a difference between fundraising for "selfish" purposes - money we spend on ourselves - and fundraising for "selfless" purposes - money we spend on others.

God blessed the generosity of a few and multiplied their sacrifices to bless someone else. In so doing, the Kingdom of God became visible to dozens of people. Eyes were opened to what the mission of the church really is and the fact that God blesses our efforts when we pursue his ends.

People are buzzing at Mt. Bethel. The community is buzzing around us. God is up to something...

As you read this, say a prayer for Jason and his family. Today (July 28th) he is undergoing a PET scan to determine if his treatments are working or not. Hopefully tomorrow he'll get his results.