Start Up! Start Over! Congregational Development seminar registration opens
[Episcopal News Service] Clergy and laity of congregations seeking rejuvenation and vision will gather in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a Start Up! Start Over! seminar November 14-18.
Start Up! Start Over! is a national training event for clergy and laity that provides basic congregational development theory and skills for congregations in decline and seeking a new direction, have hit a growth plateau and need new energy, or are thriving and ready for their next step.
The Rev. Charles N. Fulton III, director of Congregational Development and president of the Episcopal Church Building Fund will lead a seminar staff of experienced practitioners of church growth who have started new churches and led congregational turn-arounds.
Seminar participants will learn practical, goal oriented skills to help them rediscover the optimistic, mission oriented spirit that marks healthy thriving congregations.
Agenda topics include:
• The basic principles of congregational development and church life cycle
• Interpreting your congregational demographics to program towards growth
• Decision making and meeting management skills
• Marketing & conducting a campaign to invite new members
• Planning church space that is within your budget, appropriate for your future
• New member incorporation - how visitors become involved members of a congregation
• Leading in changing times
• The use of multi-media in congregation life and worship
• Making your site and buildings inviting to the visitor
• Understanding generational differences and reaching the un-churched members of the electronic culture
The cost which includes tuition, housing, and 10 meals is: $750 single, $625 double, $380 commuter. Call 800.334.7626 ext. 6003 or email buildchurch@ecbf.org to register. Registration materials can also be downloaded from http://www.episcopalchurch.org/congdev/
(Note: This seminar regularly fills to capacity months before the registration deadline. Call to verify availability.)
Start Up! Start Over! is sponsored by the Office of Congregational Development and coordinated in partnership with the Episcopal Church Building Fund.
From Barna Group Research: "Despite widespread efforts to increase church attendance across the nation, the annual survey of church attendance conducted by The Barna Group shows that one-third of all adults (34%) remain “unchurched.” That proportion has changed little during the past five years. However, because of the nation’s population continuing growth, the number of unchurched adults continues to grow by nearly a million people annually."
The research confirms that millions of unchurched people are spiritually active. For instance, one out of every five reads the Bible in a typical week; six out of ten pray to God each week; and during the past year 5% have shared their faith in Jesus Christ with people who are not professing Christians. In fact, nearly one million unchurched adults tithe their income – that is, donate at least 10% of their annual household revenue to non-profit entities. While these tithers are not giving their money to a church, they are giving to a variety of parachurch ministries that serve people throughout the world.
During a typical month, six out of ten unchurched adults worship God (but not via church services); three out of ten study the Bible; and one out of every seven has times of prayer and Bible reading with family members. The religious media play a part in their spiritual life, too, with four out of ten absorbing Christian content through television, radio, magazines or faith-based websites during a typical month. In addition, one-quarter of them have conversations with one or more friends who held them accountable for carrying out their faith principles.
One explanation for this significant degree of religious involvement is that only one-quarter of this group (24%) are atheists and agnostics. One-fifth (20%) are adults who are aligned with a non-Christian faith. The remaining 56% are people who consider themselves to be Christian. In fact, 15% of the unchurched are born again Christians: they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that they deem important in their life, and believe they will go to Heaven after death because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as their savior.
Religious Beliefs
The belief profile of unchurched Americans veers from mirroring the beliefs of most Americans to differing substantially. The unchurched are similar regarding their contention that Satan is a symbol of evil but not a living entity (67% believe this); that if people are good enough they can earn their way into Heaven (61%); and that Jesus committed sins during His time on earth (51%).
However, the unchurched adults significantly stray from the national norm on other questions. They are only half as likely to firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches (25% agree with that notion); are less likely to possess a biblical view of God (only 46% see Him as the “perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of the universe” who still rules His creation today); and are less likely to believe that the most important purpose of life is to “love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul” (63% agree).
When compared to past studies in which the unchurched were asked identical questions about their beliefs, the current research shows that there has been little change in the spiritual perspectives of the unchurched in the past decade.
Emerging Patterns
There have been some discernible shifts in the characteristics of the unchurched population over the past decade. The church dropout rate among people who define themselves as being somewhere middle-of-the-road on political issues is escalating faster than among those who are either conservative or liberal. And the Northeast continues to harbor the largest percentage of unchurched adults of any other region in the country. Currently, 42% of adults in the Northeast have no church involvement.
Another surprise is that Catholics, whose doctrine defines absence from weekly church services to be a sin, are more likely than Protestants to stray from church events. Some of that gap is attributable to the above average percentage of Hispanics who have dropped out of the local church (41% of them are unchurched).
Young adults are more resistant to church life than are people from older generations. In fact, an analysis of church attendance data covering the past two decades indicates that the two younger generations are more resistant to church life than the Baby Boomers were at a similar point in their development.
Surprisingly, “downscale” individuals (i.e., no college degree, below average household income) also are much more likely than their “upscale” counterparts (i.e., college graduates with above-average household income levels) to stay away from local churches."
Source: The Barna Group For more info: www.barna.org
Our friends in the Diocese of Northern California have called our attention to two upcoming condev events in their diocese.
For more info on either of the following, contact Canon Barry Beisner (Canonblb@dncweb.org):
1. On May 7, 2005 The Rev. Charles Fulton will be offering a program for
interested members of the diocese, on Evangelism, using the "Groundwork"
material. This workshop will take place at St. Mary's in Napa from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. Fr. Carpenter asks that you contact him for further information
or to register for this program. (707) 255-0991
2. Northern California Annual Continuing Clergy Ed Event MAY 9-10 at St. Dorothy's Rest.
Speaker will be Tex Sample, a regular presenter at the
"Start Up/Start Over" conferences the author of such books as
"Ministry in and Oral Culture" and "The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired
World" website: www.texsample.com
From the SF Chronicle: "Most residents of the San Francisco metropolitan area won't be surprised that the region is one of the most linguistically diverse in the country, yet a new report based on U.S. Census data tallies a dizzying 112 languages spoken in homes here, making it the fifth most linguistically varied metro area in the nation."
"In addition to the most frequently used languages -- English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese -- there are thousands of Bay Area residents who speak Persian, Portuguese and Punjabi, and hundreds more who feel most at home with Swahili, Yiddish and Navajo.
Under census classifications, the San Francisco metropolitan area includes the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo"
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