Comment 1: Leadership?

I'm not sure what it would look like for people to take a greater leadership role in the church (perhaps that's the vision).

I think we need to know what ways in particular we can help to grow the church membership.

Dear SRCer,

Thanks for your comments. I'd like to respond to them, but my hope is that it will give us something to think about until the we meet again in January. These questions will be at the heart of where we're moving.

In terms of what it would look like for you to have a greater leadership role think about the following:

• Ownership. We are working on building a broader ownership base in the church. Not just looking at SRC as a place to come and see the ministry of the church, rather seeing it as your place to offer the ministry of the church to those that are coming behind you on the journey of Christian spirituality.
• Responsibility. We become people that understand that we have a part to play. We are people that exercise the leadership gifts that God gives his church. (Recommended reading Ephesians 4)
• Accountability. We share the common vision of what God has designed our church to do. We make commitments to that and then hold the church and each other accountable as to whether we're making progress.

One more thought on leadership. I have learned in these two years that our church seems to be primarily attractive to younger people. In working with people my age and younger I have come to realize that we have not been given leadership anywhere else in the world. Our jobs are typically as technicians not managers. Most of us don't have any experience in leading anyone or any organization. I think the church can really become a leading edge of training in the leadership examples of Christ. I'm not surprised that we would wonder how it will look, we've probably never done it.

As far as helping to grow the church membership? Remember that the church is people, and people come to church based on information and invitation. Some people will come simply by being informed (think doorhangers, mailers, etc.). We had a guest just a couple weeks ago who said that he had decided to look for a church, he got a doorhanger, and he came to SRC. Others need only invitation. You have a relationship with a person who will come to church simply because they know you and you invited them (think Friend Day). The direction I'd like to see this go is that we are a church that regularly informs and invites, and I'd like to see that coupled with community-need oriented outreaches (think SRC 5k on the B&A Trail, and seminars on managing home finances). These types of outreaches give us a place to connect with community members and then inform and invite.

This kind of leads us to our next comment that I'll respond to tomorrow related to CONTACT.

--Ben