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| This "Rethink Church" ad will run in an upcoming issue of Newsweek magazine. |
Opening the Conversation:
A Discussion Guide
By Ken Sloane
Rethink Church. You've read about it and maybe watched the video or visited the Web site. Is it time for your United Methodist congregation to join the crucial discussion around two questions: "How does this impact my church?" and "How can my church impact the world?"
Once you begin to talk, encourage ongoing conversation rethinking church with your leaders and as many other people as possible. We must continually Rethink Church, rethink open and rethink doors if the church is going to be relevant.
Get ready to begin the conversation in your church by downloading or ordering the Rethink video and other resources from United Methodist Communications [www.rethinkchurch.org, (888) 346-3862, csc@umcom.org]. Then use them with the questions that follow to start the conversation with your leaders.
Rethinking 'Church'
The Rethink Church ads ask "What if..." questions to stimulate the imaginations of 18- to 34-year-old seekers, the target audience for the media campaign."What if church was a verb, and not a noun?"
"What if church was less about Sundays, and more about the other days of the week?"
Ask your leaders to answer those questions. Then, watch the Rethink video. Note other questions that you hear. Add some of your own, such as:
What if our church budget served the people outside our church more than those inside? What would it look like?
What if our church closed tomorrow? Who would feel the impact?
Your conversation is underway.
Rethinking 'Open'
On the evening of the day in 1963 that President Kennedy was assassinated, my family went to the church to pray. The church door was open. The organist was playing softly. We came and left without saying a word.In the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, a United Methodist pastor in Manhattan spent the time out on the sidewalk, talking to people about their fear, shock and grief, and offering words of hope.
These are examples of opening the church.
Christ commissioned His followers, "Go, and make disciples." In many places we've lost touch with the Great Commission. We unlock the doors and wait for people to come. Think about your church being open to the world. How often do you hear Jesus' command to "Go?"
In what ways are we opening doors for people outside the building?
How does our church go to where people are rather than waiting for them to come to us?
Look at your building, location, budget and culture. What are the major obstacles to being more open?
Rethinking 'Doors'
"Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors." is the promise we make as The people of The United Methodist Church in response to God's love.Doors provide entry. You can lock or prop open literal doors. Figuratively doors represent the places where the church encounters the world. Someone coming to your building for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting has found a door to the caring of your congregation. So has the blood donor or the basketball player or someone coming to join a reading group. Open doors invite others to join people from your church at a community feeding program or Habitat for Humanity site.
Sunday morning worship is one door. Weekly worship is vital, but, for some, worship will not be where they first enter.
What are some of the doors, besides worship, that our church offers to the world? How can we open those doors more widely?
Looking at our community and the world, what are some other doors we could offer? How can we make some of those a reality? With whom could we partner?
--The Rev. Ken Sloane, director, Communications Ministry Team,
United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn.
