Life After Invite Welcome Connect The Rev. Lisa Mason

Life After Invite Welcome Connect Mary Parmer brought Invite Welcome Connect into the life of St. David’s in January of She met with the vestry and rector for dinner and an introduction on Friday evening. We opened the Saturday event to the whole parish, but also specifically encouraged those who would be key leaders in this ministry going forward to attend. Mary gave us the courage to speak the truth in love in regards to celebrating the good and name and lift up those areas of hospitality and connection that were in great need of transformation!

Immediate Blessings and Grace As the day unfolded, honesty and mutual respect for one another along with a deep love of God and the church led us to dream and wonder and hope and vision of what God had in store for us in regards to making St. David’s a stickier people and place. The very next morning the transformation in the congregation was tangible and palpable. Those who had attended the Saturday IWC were “ultra ministers of hospitality.” Relationships deepened Became a more welcoming and unintimidating place to walk to worship and be in community Community groups began wanting to live and move and have their being on our campus!

It is all about telling the story We redesigned our website and our e-news to make them more “attention grabbing” and user friendly. As a result of more growth in the church coming from the school, we also established a shared home page which can then direct user to church or school. We have all improved our communications through social media with several staff members intentionally committing to these methods of telling our story. Advent 2015, we developed an Instructed Eucharist pamphlet which walked people through “why we do what we do” in liturgy. It was so popular with both long time Episcopalians as well as those new to the church that we update it seasonally and keep it available at all worship services. New Member Covenant Ash Wednesday!

Connecting People to the Community Rector invites people to welcome notebook in pew and to put on a nametag and fill out info card if new or visiting After worship, rector and/or business manager separates cards from the offering and records information and disburses info to rector and communications person, and into Church Windows (our software system) Rector contacts either that afternoon or next day and then passes onto to a member of the Invite Welcome Connect team depending on service attended and other info provided. Staff ensures they get into the system to receive e-news, newsletters, etc. Rector invites them to meet with her to get to know each other better and passes on appropriate info to Invite Welcome Connect team Invite Welcome Connect team, along with rector, reaches out to them to connect them to ministries and community life Challenge: System gets delayed or waylaid because life happens! Always working on process!

Building Relationships As more families come into the life of the church from the school and vice versa, both communities are on fire to deepen and grow the connections being made by this growth. A group of young adults began meeting as a small group mainly for fellowship with church as the common connector of the group, but this ministry has grown and morphed into several small groups now meeting for fellowship and study in homes, restaurants, on campus, and at the diocesan center. A growing number of community organizations are meeting on our campus along with a house church in our parish hall on Sunday afternoons Our many outreach programs are also connecting people of all ages from the church, school, and community. Be the church wherever you are! Tell people they are loved and that they matter and that they can make a difference in the world!

Questions for Reflection What do you need to celebrate in the Invite Welcome Connect process as a congregation? What people, conversations, and processes would help your congregation invite, welcome, and connect more effectively? Which step in the Invite Welcome Connect journey needs your attention, gifts, and commitment? How can you more intentionally be the church to those walking through your doors?

Going Forward by the Power of the Spirit Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.