Small Membership Church

1. Ideas for Using This Guideline

by Julia Kuhn Wallace

Welcome to the first in a series of articles designed to enhance the use of the Small Membership Church Guideline. Ideally this Guideline will be shared among your church leaders, read, discussed together, and utilized to strengthen ministry.

Here are some added suggestions to get the most out of this resource in your small membership church.

Individuals

Read the guideline in its entirety. What rings true for you? What questions do you still have and with whom might you discuss them?
Actively participate in the life of your church through the means of grace (prayer, Bible study, Christian conferencing, observing the sacraments, and so on). Discern God's call to ministry in your life. How will you respond to this call?
Begin with a significant small step. What is one thing that you can do right now that will make a significant difference in the ministry of your church? Who can you enlist to work with you?

Mentoring Settings (for the pastor's use with a small leadership group or an individual)

Give a copy of this Guideline to one or two other persons in your church (or cluster) who have key leadership positions. Recognize them for a significant gift or skill that they bring to ministry, and ask them to read the Guideline prayerfully.
Arrange a time to meet with them and discuss the content of the Guideline (over one or more settings).
Agree to pray regularly for one another and the ministry you share.
Discuss how this Guideline could impact the ministry of making disciples where you live. Evaluate which activities you are currently involved in that focus on this mission. How effective are you?
Decide on one or two new aspects of the material to explore further and implement. Are there specific skills or further learning you need? Develop a plan to do this together.
Agree to check back with one another over the next six months for support. Arrange your calendar.

Church Leadership Retreat

Advance Planning
Invite four leaders in the congregation (or multi-congregation cluster) to join you in planning a ministry retreat. Together, select the day, time, and place. The suggested plan below will take about four hours. Feel free to choose the theme that works in your setting.

Explain the purpose. The purpose of the suggested retreat below is to explore the NOW(rm) model and what ministries might emerge in your setting. If you decide on a different theme, plan together what you will do.

Next, involve as many people as possible in participating in the event (lead singing, time of centering/devotion, be a small group leader, teach a specific topic, gather information in advance for evaluation and planning, offer hospitality/refreshment, serve as recorder, etc.). Schedule a planning session with these leaders to organize the details.

Contact people to remind them of the retreat a few days before it is scheduled. Remind them of any tasks they have agreed to do during the event. Thank them for being part of the leadership team and attending the planning session.

Invite three people outside the leadership group to pray for the success of this retreat. These people may be past leaders, new members, or honored individuals in the congregation who may be homebound by age or illness.

Distribute copies of the Small Membership Church Guideline to each participant in advance of the retreat and ask them to read it. (To make this more engaging, place a question on an index card relating to a specific page in the text and tape it to the cover of the booklet. Have the person come prepared to share this information with others. In addition [or instead], ask each person to identify one new insight and one surprise from their reading. Provide a place in the retreat to talk about these discoveries.)

Plan the retreat prayerfully. Remember to include times for spiritual nurture, total group involvement, small group and pair sharing, interactive learning, reflection, evaluation, fellowship, and celebration. Utilize a variety of skills and talents by involving others in the planning and leading of this session.

Gather all the materials necessary in advance. Obtain videos or other media that are useful.

At the Retreat
Begin with a welcome, a centering activity or other devotional time, and a brief orientation to your location if it is unfamiliar to the participants. Take some time to get acquainted (or better acquainted) by using a simple icebreaker. Mention when you expect to take breaks.

State the purpose. (The remaining instructions refer to the NOW(rm) model. If you choose a different theme and purpose, you will need different instructions.)

Teach the specific ministry foci (nurture; outreach; witness; and resource ministries: Trustees, Finance, Lay Leadership, and Pastor-Parish). Define what each is, provide a biblical basis, share at least three examples, and explore questions listed in the Guideline to consider developing ministry in that area. Enlist other leaders in the church to help do this!

Break into four groups and assign each group a different ministry focus. Ask them to record on separate pieces of paper:

What one thing is being done in this area that is vital in the church/community that they celebrate?
What one new thing could the church do that would make a significant difference to others in the congregation and community?

Bring the entire group back together to discuss the two questions. First, have each small group share their celebration (what is being done). Next, respond to the second question. Explore why that new thing is important to consider. Be sure to take time to answer questions and clarify issues raised.

Place each of the four ministry idea lists on a tabletop. Gain a sense of the total group priorities and support by giving each participant ten tiny pieces of bright colored paper. Explain that they are to show their support for the ministries listed by "spending" their pieces of paper carefully. They can spend their votes in any amount they wish as long they support one item in each ministry area. Tabulate the totals of paper chits on each piece of paper describing a ministry idea. Mark the top item in each category that had the most support.

Break into groups by naming the top item in each area and inviting volunteers to meet together briefly to plan the item described. Be sure that each small group has an adequate number of people working on developing a ministry. If necessary, ask if anyone would switch groups to achieve that balance. Each group should also include at least one person who will be working directly on that ministry focus during the year. (This allows for support and continuity of the idea development later after the session).

Provide time for each group to plan: Ministry Title/Activity, Goal (why), When, Where, Who: Leader(s), and Group served. If there are resources needed such as funds, list them. Provide a basic worksheet with these questions on it.

Allow time for each group leader to report where they are in their planning and what next steps they anticipate. (These questions could be related to added information/commitments necessary, budget developments, etc.)

Summarize the planning that has been done for the group — state your understanding of where things are and who will do what.

Review the calendar during an immediate period (2-6 months.) Ask for any additions. Resolve any conflicts over times or locations.

Conclude with a time of prayer. Invite the sharing of joys and concerns, especially those related to leadership in the church. Thank participants for their hard work. End with a brief evaluation on what went well and what could be improved.

Organize a time of fellowship if there was not a meal offered earlier.

After the Retreat
Thank everyone who attended and recognize their contributions within the week.

Record information learned or decisions made and distribute this through the newsletter or other methods to keep it before the congregation.

Mention the session at appropriate times later that involve leadership. Make the connection between why something is currently being done and the discussion/learning at the planning event.

For the District Superintendent or Conference Staffperson
District and conference training events can be especially vital for leadership in smaller congregations when the content is specifically tailored for their context in ministry. Consider the following training plan.

Advance Planning
Develop a Small Church Leadership Task Force to plan the training. Choose time(s) and location(s) to maximize attendance. Where possible, hold the training in a small church.

Offer adequate publicity to ensure participation. Use at least four or five communication avenues to get the word out. State the purpose and the anticipated benefits to persons who participate in the event.

Utilize this Guideline in a district-wide setting to encourage ministry in smaller churches, offer helpful insights for ministry, and foster leadership sharing among churches. Obtain a copy of the Guideline for each participant. (If possible, distribute the Guideline in advance and ask participants to read it before attending the training session. If this is not possible, distribute the Guideline at the session and make use of it.)

Plan the content for the session. Carefully review the topics covered in the Guideline and arrange an agenda that respects the timeframe available for the session and the possible needs of people attending the session. The workshop for local church use (above) looks at employing the NOW(rm) model in the local church. (Remember, it is better to cover one or two things well and provide information on how to learn more later than it is to try to cover too much inadequately.)

Gather the materials you need for the session in advance. Obtain any video or audio-visuals you need and review them in advance.

At the Event
Begin the session by welcoming people as they enter the room. Open the session with a time of centering or devotion that includes prayer. Light a candle to remind people of the presence of God in their midst.

Allow a time for participants to introduce themselves to one another by saying their name, the church they attend, and one word that describes it. When everyone has done this, ask participants to get into groups of two or three and name a biblical story, character, or passage that they believe their church identifies with and why. After a set time, call the group together and ask for volunteers to mention the biblical references that had meaning for their group.

Give an overview of the topics to be covered in the session. Pay attention to the time and participation level as you led the session. Be sure to involve everyone present. Ask if there are additional questions people brought with them. (If they can not be easily assimilated into your overview, ask them to write the question on a card and sign it with their name and phone number. Call them with a response within the next week or ten days.)

Cover the topics while inviting appropriate participation. Respect different opinions or viewpoints. Say: "There is always more than one way to do something — the point is to do something well that works!"

End the session with a time of evaluation. Ask participants to mention what went well during the session (What did you learn?) and what could be improved (What would I like to learn more about?). An easy way to do this is to distribute index cards with a small smiley face in one corner (to record what went well); on the other side place a small question mark (to write additional questions or comments).

May this resource guide faithful ministry in your small congregation!

There is another workshop model for how to use all the Guidelines with each leadership position. The Guidelines are available from www.cokesbury.com.

Julia K. Wallace is former Director of Small Membership Church and Shared Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship.

Diana L. Hynson, editor of this series of articles, is Director of Learning and Teaching Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship.

Return to Additional Resources That Complement the Small Membership Church Guideline

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