12 MARKS
of a disciple forming community
How easy are we to find?
There are many reasons that people choose to walk through the door of a local church, but recent trends seem to indicate that a significant number are doing so
without any previous connection, or any form of planned invitation. Arrivals speak of experiencing God in an unexpected moment, or simply developing a deep desire
to become a follower of Jesus or a member of a local church community. As a consequence, they turn up at whatever church they can find and want to know more. Many local
congregations are reporting such realities.
But this raises some serious questions for us - how ready are we for such occurrences? What kind of atmosphere will people discover when they arrive? How can we
make them welcome? But one question
that must surely precede even these is how likely are they to find us in the first place? If someone is looking for a local church, do we have a good website that will attract them
and offer a clear outline of who we are and how to get in touch? Is the signage outside our building up to date, and designed in a style that feels relevant and inviting
to the people around us? Can people easily find out when our service times are, and if they do contact us, are we geared up to make a fast and friendly response.
Being a Disciple Forming Community is all about creating an atmosphere that cultivates faith-sharing habits. So the answers we offer to the questions above have two distinct functions. Firstly they will offer a measure of whether or not such instincts exist in our church community. Do we think and act as those who expect and anticipate people wanting to come along to be part of us, and if we don't, what needs to happen for things to change. But if we are overtly and clearly making sure that we are visible, contactable and ready to respond when people find us, then we are likely to also be cultivating a culture of expectancy, reinforcing the message to those who already attend that this is a church that expects and welcomes newcomers, that its normal to encourage others to come along, that we expect God to be at work prompting complete strangers to want to be part of us.
There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to find a local pharmacist or plumber when we need one. It can be really annoying if we turn up to find a local shop closed because they forgot to update their opening time information when they changed. But if we take our faith seriously, then surely it must be nothing short of a tragedy if people can't find a local church when they need one. And if that is the case - let's make sure it's not ours that they can't find or get in touch with.
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A habit of Invitation
Recent research in the UK indicated that around one third of young adults would seriously consider attending a local church if a friend invited them. In one region of the UK, from across the general population, around half of those who would not identify as practicing Christians, described themselves as open to joining a local congregation.
