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

Issue 5

February 2006

WELCOME

Q. What is your music preference?

A. "I want the new stuff. I want Matt Redman, Delirious?, Casting Crowns. (If you don't know who these people are, then you shouldn't be on the Emerging Spirit team!)"

We all may not be as familiar with these references as this anonymous respondent to the Emerging Spirit questionnaire hopes we would be, but we do know that people's experience of pop culture plays a big role in shaping their expectations of church. Fill out the "interactive" poll in the column on the right to let us know what pop culture references have influenced you.

Making Impact

by Lesley Harrison

It has become the pattern to start the meetings of the Emerging Spirit Impact Teams with a game or quiz that draws on team members' knowledge of pop culture and the church:

• Name the first Star Wars movie in the complete series.
• Name one necessary change for the church of the 21st century.
• What is the fastest selling book of all time?
• Name one reason people don't come to church.
• What year did Mikhail Gorbachev resign as leader of the Soviet Union?

The generous laughter and passionate debate during this opening has been setting the tone for each of the Impact Team meetings.

Using a praxis model of experience, reflection, and action, Impact Teams have explored the connections between church and culture and the relationship of their experiences to the research coming in from Environics, TerraNova Marketing Strategies, and the qualitative data gathered from the Emerging Spirit online questionnaires.

[read the full article]

Best Practices And Other Good Ideas

by Amy Crawford

Editor's note: Emerging Spirit's research initiatives are confirming what we thought would be true: congregations that welcome children are crucial to the work of welcoming people between the ages of 30 and 45 to The United Church of Canada. In this article, Amy Crawford, the United Church's program coordinator for children and young teens, offers some background on the work the church has done to welcome children and gives some pointers on what a welcoming congregation looks like from the perspective of its youngest participants (and their parents).

For more than 20 years The United Church of Canada has sought to fully include children into the life and work of the church... Today, efforts continue in all areas of church life and structure to include people of every age to witness to and live in response to the God who reaches out, names us "Beloved," and calls us to service and discipleship.

A congregation that welcomes children is one that...

[read the full article]

THE BUZZ

by Aaron McCarroll Gallegos

Emerging Spirit Questionnaire

Emerging Spirit launched its online questionnaire by asking the question "Where are the 30- to 45-year-olds?" on the back cover of the October 2005 Observer. A second ad, asking "Will it be like talking about sex?" appeared in the November 2005 issue of The Observer, again requesting people to respond to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was also promoted through the Emerging Spirit homepage on the United Church website.

The Emerging Spirit questionnaire is designed to spark conversation, discussion, and debate in the United Church about the relationship between the church and 30- to 45-year-olds. The questionnaire was very well received by those in United Church congregations, and, in all, nearly 300 people responding to the multi-question survey, many of whom offered substantial and even moving answers to the questions.

Go to the Emerging Spirit website to see an initial report on the findings of the questionnaire.

[read the full article]

WELCOMING MINISTRIES TOOL BOX

The following tools may be helpful as you consider the current context of the church and how your congregation can be more welcoming to people in their 30s and early 40s.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown and Company, 2000)

Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian of Jamaican descent who lives and works in New York. After a successful career as a journalist, writing for The New Yorker and other publications, Gladwell has had two smash hit non-fiction releases, The Tipping Point in 2000 followed by Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Little, Brown and Company, 2005).

Tipping Point gives an integrated study of how change can happen. He engages everything from a 5,000 percent increase in sales of Hush Puppies a few years ago to the successful preaching of John Wesley.

Gladwell integrates vast swaths of social scientific literature and uses everyday language to help us understand exactly what his title promises: how little things can make a big difference. This is not a "how-to" book for church promotion and welcoming but the categories he offers and the engaging illustrations he uses provide a fresh way of thinking about our challenges.

—Rev. Glenn Morison
Grey Street United Church, Winnipeg Impact Team

Resources from The United Church of Canada

Living Waters: Daily Reflections for Lent
by Ian Macdonald

This Lent, explore the "river of Christ" flowing through us and for us. Short, insightful meditations—based on the Christian lectionary as well as texts from other faith traditions—combine with prayers, stories, poems, and songs for daily Lenten reflections. Includes a CD of water-related songs by Common Cup Company. For individuals and groups.

Living Covenant: Water As Metaphor in Lenten Worship
by Sandra Severs

Detailed background on the Lenten readings, along with worship resources, aid in exploring water as a vehicle of divine grace and a companion on the journey of faith. For worship leaders.

All book titles are available from UCRD.

Pulsetaking

Below are samples of some of the e-mails Emerging Spirit has received. Go to the PulseTaking section of our website to see the complete versions of these letters and more.

from Anna Christie, Gilmore Park United Church, Richmond, BC
Hi ES folks,

I serve a congregation of 300 in Richmond, BC, and we have a large proportion of 30- to 45-year-olds. We also offer an evening service aimed at 20 to 30s. We have one of those letter signs outside our church, on a prominent corner in the city, and I'm always trying to think up witty little sayings to put on it. This one attracted a lot of attention: INCLUSIVE, INTELLIGENT, INVOLVED. WE ARE THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA.

You wouldn't believe how many people came in to visit after seeing that one and remarked on it. It's now our "default" sign when we can't think of anything else, and we use it again and again. It works so well I want to leave it up there permanently.

from Meg Grieve, Munn's United Church, Oakville, ON
First let me thank you for the work that you are doing. It is the most positive and hopeful work that our United Church has done in a long time. The church as a whole, and the United Church in particular, is travelling a trajectory of change. I'm not so interested in our survival as the ultimate goal. I am passionate about our mission and the deepening of faith that comes when we live our gospel values. I have received significant and relevant help from Emerging Spirit on this journey.

My congregation is Munn's United Church, located in north Oakville, Ontario. At our recent annual meeting, instead of a sermon we had a time to reflect on what Munn's church is. We sang, read scripture, and other things, and talked about what is our mission as a growing congregation and how much diversity can a group embrace, and still be a group. One member, Joan Graham, suggested that our unity is our willingness to be transformed by the gifts of those who find/are finding a home with us. I could tell by the deep silence after she spoke that her words rang true. I think that is a way of being church we will explore more fully.

from Barry Rolston, First Metropolitan, Victoria, BC
"Evangelism" is a word and topic that I think needs revisiting. As a "liberal" church, we have allowed the more conservative churches to claim ownership of this crucial word in our vocabulary. It is a powerful word for an outgoing, welcoming, and inclusive people of God. I often think that the word's absence has allowed congregations to remove the concept from their thoughts, leaving "ships of faith" with no reason for moving, for leaving the dock.

It is understandable that congregations (as with many institutions/organizations) tend to focus on internal maintenance and the status quo. For many though, I think that is all they really focus on. Pity.

I think the Emerging Spirit initiative is doing evangelism. Good on you.