Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

Ah, my first church blog. It had to happen sooner or later, I guess.  And what better time than when launching a new thing. What new thing?  The Dunbar Heights United Hospitality Project!  This partnership initiative with Emerging Spirit is intended to provide guidelines for what to do and what not to do when launching or enhancing an already existing Ministry of Welcoming in a congregation. 

While I will be making use of the learning I have had with Emerging Spirit so far, I admit up front that I am making this up as I go along. Therefore, I welcome your feedback, suggestions, etc and hope this blog becomes where we can learn together the way of welcoming.

The first thing I did was to meet with Rev. Michelle Slater and get a sense of Dunbar Heights as a community. During this meeting, we agreed that it made sense for me to attend worship on Welcome Back Sunday and to have a table at their post-service open house.  We also agreed that an email address at Dunbar Heights for the project would be a good idea.  Michelle gave me an overview of various events over the next few months so that I could begin to plan where to be visible to members of the congregation.

Next came Welcome Back Sunday itself.  Michelle introduced to the congregation during the service (all I had to do was stand up and wave!)and at coffee time I had a table with a WonderCafe banner and sign-up book.  I noticed fairly quickly that simply standing at the table was not attracting sufficient attention, so I began to stand more in front of or off to the side of the table and greet people and smile as they went by. This worked better.  Imagine that - the power of smiling! I shared the Hospitality Project as something that is intended to build upon an existing strength at Dunbar Heights. They are already so friendly to newcomers.  I did not rely on a script nor did I have a sense of what to say. Mostly, I tried to get people to talk to me so I could simply listen as what I am most interested in right now is what might work at Dunbar Heights specifically.  At least 6 people expressed interest in hearing more and the next thing to do is contact them and begin to engage them in various ways.

Someone asked me for a business card.  I had not considered the need for business cards but on reflection this seems like a good idea.  It might make sense to have business cards to hand out at all the mini-meetings I envision holding over the next while.   I am also considering the need for some sort of regular office hours at DHU.  Any thoughts?