Grow relationships with children, community and contacts
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A session to help churches thinking about church as a family or a community, rather than just a building or a place.
Establishing a family atmosphere
Is your church more like a refrigerator or a radiator?
i) How warm is your church family for you personally?
ii) How warm is your church family for new people?
Hospitality
In the Gospel stories Jesus seems to spend quite a bit of time eating and drinking, either welcoming or being welcomed.
What place does welcome and hospitality have in your church?
For more information see the Everybody Welcome Course
Maintaining effective pastoral care
How is your church helping people with the ups and downs of life, including marriage breakdown, poverty and bereavement?
How is your church helping people with the ups and downs of faith, including depression, illness and doubt?
How good are we at going after the lost sheep?
Children and teenagers
How central to the whole church are your children and young people?
How often are they discussed at a PCC/Church leadership meeting?
What part of the whole church budget goes to children and young people?
How much do they contribute to the life of the church?
Beware the Pied Piper Phenomenon! Many churches have a lot of children involved in activities on Sunday, and in the week offer parent and toddler groups, after-school clubs etc. As the children get older, they frequently seem to 'disappear', to the point where many now think it is normal for teenagers to leave the church and their Christian beginnings.
Who can we invite to things that we are doing as a church?
Perhaps we have more contacts than we realise. Mapping our Galilee is a LyCiG exercise helping us to identify who we can reach out to as we start to extend our faith circle.