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New Ways to Serve
New Ways to Serve
This week we share stories from churches trying new ways to serve kids, adults, or the community. Is your church starting something new? E-mail us at buzz@standardpub.com!
Gr8 Idea
With social networking sites, instant messaging, e-mail, and cell phones, today’s kids use more tools to communicate than ever before. But youth ministers still find it difficult to relay scheduling details and stay connected, so Jonathan Kliewer, children’s and youth minister with Journey Christian Church (Greeley, Colorado), recently adopted text messaging as one way of keeping families informed.
Kliewer set up several text message subscriptions: for parents of children in each age group, for each volunteer team, and for students in fifth grade and older.
He plans to send one or two messages a month to parents and volunteers and several per week to students. The messages will include event reminders, updated information, and inspirational thoughts.
Kliewer made the new system as easy as possible; group members may unsubscribe at any time, and he uses “real words,” instead of popular texting acronyms, so adults can understand their messages!
www.journeychristian.org
Discussions Tabled
Last November, Maryland Community Church (Terre Haute, Indiana) asked members and regular attendees to complete short evaluations assessing their growth in six disciplines, including Bible study, tithing, service, and worship.
Associate pastor John Youngblood believed most members would indicate difficulty with “spiritual relationships” like small groups and outreach activities, but found most people who completed the survey struggled to read the Bible regularly.
To address the issue, MCC offered “Conversation Tables” each Sunday during the last three months.
“Our preaching series on Mark, running from January through Easter, seemed a great time to introduce this concept because of the whole-book focus,” Youngblood says.
On the first Sunday of the series the church distributed daily reading guides with short excerpts from Mark and reflection questions for each day. The following weekend, and each weekend for the next three months, six volunteers arrived 90 minutes before the first service to lead discussions about the material.
“It was very informal,” Youngblood says. “We didn’t require sign-up and we encouraged each group leader to facilitate based on the questions and needs of people at that table.”
Because each Friday reading corresponded to the Sunday message, some of the early morning discussions also led to more meaningful participation in that day’s worship.
“It’s a very low-impact volunteer activity,” he says. “Many of the table leaders prepared ahead of time, but we didn’t require that. And the people who participated have really appreciated the experience.”
www.mccth.org
Bowl of Soup
Many churches organize “Souper Bowl” food drives, but this year it was a first for Churchill Meadows Christian Church (Toronto, Canada). Senior pastor Jim Tune shares how the church added a unique touch to this outreach and partnered with other Toronto congregations:
We encouraged members to bring cans of soup on Super Bowl Sunday which would then be dropped off at a local food bank. Members were also asked to tape $1 or $2 coins to the top of each can so the recipients could purchase bread or crackers to eat with the soup. Other local churches participated in a cooperative community effort. The result? A total of 2,377 items plus coins totaling $1,826. Not only did this event bring in much-needed funds and food, it also helped to raise awareness about community food banks and their mission to alleviate hunger here at home.
www.churchillmeadows.org
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
PREVIOUS COLUMNS:
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