Vision

All Saints will value

• inviting more than welcoming and
• speaking the faith as much as relationship-building and listening

Starting Point

A small group of individuals committed to changing their own habits by inviting and speaking their faith.

Food for Action and Change

“We Will No Longer Be A Welcoming Church” – a series of articles (seven pages total) about one congregation’s commitment to invite, including a five-month plan for a group to go from zero to inviting someone to worship.

“Jews on Judaism–Unfiltered” – a 35-minute conversation with young Jews and a young rabbi about why young Jews do or do not attend synagogue–even on high holy days! Even the differences in dynamics between Christian and Jewish communities are illuminating.

Everyday Evangelism – a 40-page Amazon Kindle e-book by Ryan Pelton, available for $0.99, that describes a really simple method of evangelism that does not require knocking on the doors of strangers. It’s called, “One Meal at a Time.”

Advice from a “Church Building Consultant” – the lower the chair the higher the time-commitment if you sit down. Tall standing tables with high stools or no chairs at all are the most inviting to guests, because they feel free to mingle and to leave whenever they want. They’re not “trapped.” Also, round tables surrounded by low chairs are the least inviting, because all the energy focuses inward. Those groups are the hardest to break into, and guests will not even try.

“Testimony Brought Outsiders Inside” – a quotation from the book, Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony by Lillian Daniel. Daniel calls testimony “your spoken story about how you had experienced God, offered in the context of our community worship” (page 12).

“Looking back, that initial decision to invite both members and nonmembers to give testimony was made without much reflection, but it proved to be important. … [I] saw how useful it is to hear newcomers describe the church that others of us are familiar with. We are reminded of how we appear to others, and can either celebrate or correct as a result. And also, in allowing the newcomer to testify, or the outsider to testify, we begin to break down the walls that separate us and to learn that in our stories, we connect to God’s larger story, and then connect even more to one another. While we human beings struggle with the divisions within the church, and wonder whether or not to join one tradition or another, we might remember that in God’s story, we have already been joined, one to another” (pages 41-42).