Words of Welcome before worship
Let's share what we say before worship to welcome newcomers. I heard it's best to say they are worshipping with you for the first time, not "visiting". That was helpful. Here's what I say - which is based on having "friendship sheets" that circulate around.
Good morning! I want to wish you a warm welcome this [third Sunday of Advent/18th Sunday after Pentecost in the church year], and especially welcome you if you are worshipping with us for the first time. If you're new to us, please sign in on the top of the pink friendship sheets that are circulating around. N_____ is holding one up right now so you can see what they look like. If you fill in the top with some information about yourself, we won't phone you or come to your house - we'll only send you a nice letter, unless you indicate that there is some other way you'd like help in meeting your spiritual needs. Please join us for coffee following the service in the Activity Room down the hall. And now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves for worship as the Christ candle is lit.
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Welcoming
My church just recently amalgamated with another church in town and I volunteered to be on the governance committee to study how to organize our new church stucture. I'm in charge of the Welcoming Committee study so I'm trying to find something new. Any ideas?
Marg McCurdy
Faith United Church
Woodstock Ontario
Welcoming Committee
That sounds like a big job! The first thing you need to determine is what is your committee’s mandate or goal. This will flow directly from your new church’s vision, which will likely be short term, and not written down, this early in the game.
You mentioned two committees and I’ll deal with each separately. You’re brave to tackle both.
Governance:
A new church means a chance to build something new, and escape from the burden of years of accumulated complexity of committee structure.
If you have a few years to prepare, a dedicated group of leaders, and a superb minister check out the governance information on Gilmore Park UC’s website. That is Anna Christie’s church in BC. They’ve done it the proper way.
A much simpler model (which in its simplicity leaves itself open problems) is the leadership team model my church follows. We have only 2 standing committees, the leadership team and M&P. Everything else is a small group. Small groups are responsible for their own formation and regulation. There is no requirement to fill 6 spots on Stewardship and have them meet and report all year. When the campaign is to start a group is formed, works and dissolves. If your church is passionate about refugee work, you’ll find a refugee group forming, and if not, you won’t.
Welcoming
Who are you welcoming? My suggestion is for at least 1 year just concentrates on those people involved in the amalgamating congregations. The Welcoming committee should be very intentional to include dealing with grief and loss, and honoring the past. Search the Blogs here for general welcoming tips. Make sure your interior signs are good!
If your amalgamation was based on a vision of creating a space to welcome people outside the current congregants (ours was), then that should be tackled right away. You can use the chaos of the amalgamation to stretch yourselves. If the amalgamation was done to allow the status quo to continue, in a bigger group, you might not want to push that envelope right now as people will be looking for re-assurance of stability. They may feel betrayed that they gave up their building, and now are having to give up their traditions too.
(Other blogs say, and my opinion is, that if you amalgamate two dying congregations, with no significant vision of change, you will end up with one dying congregation. If that is what has happened, you’re kind of stuck. If that is not what has happened, then the vision should already be in place, you just need to follow the plan. If you give us more details of what that plan is, we can help make it happen.)
You can contact me directly on the Wondercafe site using Wondermail. There, and here, I’m known as
Bassic