The Unlikely Evangelist - the_united_reformed_church

Evangelism for everyone!

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:21:12 +0000

The first meeting of the new United Reformed Church Mission Committee met for 24 hours (Mon-Tues) to begin the huge task of setting priorities and finishing off outstanding work from previous committees, as well as formulating mission strategy and long term goals.

At the moment it's Tuesday morning and the first session of the day is about to begin, so I'll be quick. From the point of view of this Blog, the most notable point of yesterdays session was that in different ways all participants, from a wide variety of theological positions, seemed to be saying the most urgent/important issue was to equip and encourage all local churches in the task of evangelism, with a menu of simple, practical ideas so that all churches can find something to try which suits them.

Next session, how do we do it ...

BFN
Mike

Re-forming the United Reformed Church

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:00:00 +0100

Towards a marketing campaign for the United Reformed Church. Learning from Catch the Vision and God is Still Speaking.

catch the vision

The Catch the Vision 2006 report to General Assembly stated that:

‘We are not persuaded that our particular offering to the future great church and indeed to the future of Christian witness in our three nations will be best served by dilution’. CtheV 2006, 2.9

Let’s not be ashamed about being here. Let’s be ourselves. Let’s be glad to be ourselves. Let’s not apologise for being the United Reformed Church. Let’s celebrate God’s gifts, and think about possibilities and mission and growth. Let’s get confident, secure in the gospel. Our ultimate unity lies there after all, CtheV 2006, 2.12

still speaking

God is Still Speaking is the national advertising campaign of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in the United States. It is from here that my inspiration and motivation for a United Reformed Church campaign comes.

Principles transferable to the URC and our campaign:

•Help thousands of people overcome alienation from God and communities of faith
•Empower URC congregations to be bold witnesses to the power of God - transforming lives, communities, and the world. Catch the Vision!
•Share God's welcome with all whose spiritual journey leads them to or through a URC
•Increase United Reformed Church name recognition in the general public
•Strengthen member pride in "who we are"
•Celebrate the URC’s unique identity and call to be a united & uniting, reformed & reforming
•Progressive mainline churches are virtually absent from public perceptions about church. Many people reject church, not knowing about churches like the URC.

I have been aware for some time that our church is lacking in identity, purpose and spirituality. The next stage of Catch the Vision, Vision4Life is looking to address the two latter points, but I believe we need to work alongside this process to redefine our identity as the United Reformed Church.

The Still Speaking campaign offers much we can learn from, maybe we could even simply copy the UCC campaign. Please visit their website, watch the TV ads and explore other resourses to get a feel for the kind of thing I'm talking about. I'd really apreciate your comments.

So below is an outline of what a URC campaign could look like, concentrating on our name, image identity and core values.

our name: church, reformed, united ‘ed’ or ‘ing’

First and foremost we are about being effective, contextual local churches, seeking to make a difference for Christ’s sake. So our name should say we are a church!

Secondly, although local is the primary point of mission, I do not believe we are a loose collection of independent churches, but a group of churches that recognise the equal importance of our interdependence, that we can achieve more together than apart. Also, we share our Reformed history, and need to learn together how to highlight our Reformed principles for our new age. And in our consumerist, media age we need a robust national identity and brand. Our identity/brand, (in part), is being the Reformed Church.

Thirdly, our identity/brand is still Unit(ed)(ing)! Our ecumenical ideals have not changed, but the landscape has. As a distinct, reformed, progressive mainline church, we are committed to working with others whenever possible, locally, nationally, or internationally.

So we are a Church, Reformed and United. Any ideas for a cracking good name?

advertising campaign

So agreed on our name, and our identity as a theologically broad, but progressive mainline (Reformed) church, with a mission agenda, then how do we brand and promote ourselves?

This will be no easy task, how do we come up with a message and shared identity which is both theologically broad, (without being theologically bland) and yet appealing to the un-churched?

Below are some ideas and comments from a church member who works in graphics and advertising. I began with describing the situation and what I hope an advertising campaign would achieve. In bullet point form, here are his comments and recommendations.

•if the budget is small, billboards are the most cost effective
•if it’s a people organisation, don’t use pictures of people, however careful you are, someone will feel excluded by the type of people you use
•also, a picture of a group of mixed age and background would not be very representative of many URC’s, this could become counter productive
•a simple word or phrase (like ‘God is still speaking’) is the most effective
•most striking colours to get noticed are good old black and white and red, (this also has the benefit of sometimes being cheaper to print)
•include an easily recognisable logo, thinking about brand image and audience
•include a web address where people can get more information

An idea

So what would a national billboard campaign for the United Reformed Church look like?

Well, obviously the branding needs to use out name, the United Reformed Church, but also give some clue as to who we are/what that means, our identity, purpose and principles.

I began playing around with the word Reformed, both in graphics terms and playing with the word itself, swapping ‘ed’ for ‘ing’. I then realised that there are many other similar, positive words which start with ‘Re’ and end with ‘ing’. So I drew up a list.

Reforming - Resurrection - Restoring - Reviving - Reclaiming - Reimagining - Recreating - Reliving - Relaxing - Rejoicing - Reconnecting - Revisioning - Responding - Revolution - Renewing - Revamping - Re-educating - Recalling - Recycle - Retelling - Rebuilding - Remaking - Remodelling - Reconciling - Receiving - Re-evaluating - Relearning - Refreshing - Revitalising - Returning - Retracing - Remembering - Reuniting - Remarrying - Rethinking - Reconditioning - Resurfacing - Reincarnating - Recurring - Researching - Reigniting - Replanting - Refuelling - Rereading - Reacting - Rearranging - Reweaving - Retraining - Receiving - Reworking - Replenishing - Reword - Reappraising - Renew - Regeneration - Reaction - Reconvening - Rekindling - Reborn - Rebirthing - Repicturing - Redressing - Rebalancing - Reopening - Relocating - Recondition - Relating - Relationship - Reawakening - Restoration - Recreation - Rediscovering

Maybe let me know some of your favourites, which you feel are appropriate to describe/promote the URC.

All the words I have selected are positive, all are active, and all are intended to be theologically acceptable by the whole church. So what next?

So how about a campaign which looked like this? We launch nationwide a black and white board with the letters Re in red on the left hand side.

This type of campaign gets people talking about it. ‘Have you seen those posters with Re on them do you know what they are for’?

Once everybody’s talking, we add the rest of the word in white on the black section!

The posters also then have [a revised version of] the United Reformed Church logo in black in the bottom right corner and a web site address in black at the bottom of the white section on the left.

Also, the benefit of the campaign being a series of similar posters, should keep people interested and looking for them, trying to find new words.

Finally, the campaign ends with a third poster, offering a simple welcome.

It’s best if you see the results, simply click on the Re-campaign to open a PowerPoint presentation. For best results, as the slide show stars, right click with your mouse and selece 'Full Screen'. At the end of the presentation press 'Escape' to exit full screen, then click the 'back' button on your browser to return here, and read on!

So, what do you think? I'd really, really apreciate your comments on this. Not just on this particular idea, but in the general primciple of a national church advertising campaign.

Like the UCC campaign, the posters themselves are not the substance and the church certainly will need the same level of preparation and engagement before we launch a campaign.

For now, this is ‘just’ an advertising suggestion, but I believe it has great potential to fulfil the same objectives as Still Speaking for our church, a positive, progressive, fresh, memorable, and inspiring campaign for our existing members as well as attracting other people to faith and The United Reformed Church.

catch the vision prayer

May the spirit of the Lord rest upon us,
may the call of God sustain us,
as we seek to be God’s people,
transformed by the Gospel,
announcing good news to the poor,
proclaiming freedom for those in prisons
of wealth, poverty, disease and disorder,
committed to making a difference
to the world’s kingdoms
for the sake of Christ’s kingdom.

May we deploy our resources as the Spirit guides,
not shirk difficult decisions about the priority of mission,
pledge ourselves anew to work with all our fellow Christians
and use the gifts of all God’s people
so that all may be filled
with the Spirit of healing, justice and peace,

Amen.

I look forward to your comments
The Unlikely Evangelist

Vision4Life - a first reflection

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:20:00 +0100

I'm very excited about Vision4Life! (apart from hating the current trend of replacing 'for' with '4' in almost all logo's these days).

Focusing on our core tasks of Bible Study, Prayer and Evangelism is vital to bring life back to our churches.

As I hope my post on 'Bible Study for Every Church?' begins to demonstrate, regular Bible Study can transform a local church. If you haven't read our story, then please do follow the link.

However, this does not mean we have completed the first stage of Vision4Life, the challenge for us at Heald Green United Reformed Church will be, how do we help those who our format of weekly Bible Study hasn't reached, re-connect with the scriptures? How do we help our busy churches, full of tired Martha's, waste a little time with God, learning Mary's better way.

So we're looking forward to the Vision4Life material being produced, hoping it contains lots of varied suggestions and stories from other churches, of how to re-engage people with the Bible. If you have any helpful stories or suggestions, please add your comment to this post.

Also, I need to reflect that Vision4Life is not all about Bible Study, but Prayer and Evangelism too. In these areas I'm by no means as comfortable or confident, (I am an 'unlikely' evangelist after all!) However, I wasn't too confident or convinced about Bible Study not so long ago, and if a better prayer life for our church has a similar effect as regular Bible Study, then try stopping us sharing our/God's story with others after that!

For now, I have two questions.

How do we break the practice in many of our churches of Prayer Meetings/Circles being little more than a sharing of pastoral news/gossip/list of ill people?

How do we encourage the sharing of our faith story with others within the church, let alone beyond?

On this latter question I am grateful to John Campbell of the Vision4Life group for recommending a helpful publication from the Methodist Church, 'Time to Talk of God - Recovering Christian conversation as a way of nurturing discipleship'

I also draw your attention to David Peel's helpful comments in 'Encountering Church' particularly his analysis of the use of the word 'Fellowship' in our churches, which once was used to mean those occasions when Christians met together with the intention of talking about God, not simply for company, friendship and small-talk, or 'Tea and Chat' as David calls it. Once again any comments or stories about successful discussion groups would be most appreciated.

A word of warning!

There is a real danger of all this being very inward looking and church centric, undoing work on the idea of the church equipping disciples to become apostles and go out into the world. After four years if internal restructuring in Catch the Vision, Vison4Life cannot be four years if internal spiritualizing. The Vison4Life process cannot loose steam before the final year concentrating on Evangelism and MUST connect with ongoing work on a national advertising/evangelism stratergy.

For now, local reflection on the scriptures MUST lead to praxis, the 'So What?' question from Heald Green's Bible Study.

So as we approach year one of Vision4Life together, concentrating on the Bible, I'll continue to post here from time to time any wisdom from our Bible Study groups, encourage you again to visit Lawrence Moore's excellent weekly lectionary reflections, 'Disclosing New Worlds', and to post any of your reflections here, or on your own blogs.

Here, I'll simply close with this.

Knowing our Bibles will not suddenly save the URC, but not knowing them is probably what's slowly killing us!

So let's all Catch the Vision4Life!
Mike

Din't feel like it were round are way!

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:45:00 +0100

This might be nothing but ...

... having just returned from four days at the United Reformed Church General Assembly in Manchester I find myself feeling ... well, that's the thing, I'm not quite sure, but it's something to do with being a Mancunian and feeling an alien in my own city. As the title of this post says, it just didn't feel like we were in Manchester and to me, that didn’t feel quite right. It’s true Assembly is a national church event. It's true General Assembly always feels like its in a bit of a vacuum as all these large conference facilities all look and feel the same and there is little opportunity to venture out of the complex each year. It’s also true that I’ve been to many Assemblies now, and this has never bothered me before, but I've never been to an Assembly so close to home before, so it struck me for the first time how 'South East' it all felt. Not that I wish to imply there is anything wrong with the South East, just we were in the GREAT city of Manchester. Having Assembly in my home city meant a lot to me, but now I just feel sad and even a little angry about how I feel. When Assembly is in Wales or Scotland there is always special effort to ensure the assembly has a Welsh or Scottish feel, and rightly so, but unless I missed it I don't even recall a single person with a Manchester accent being involved in the Assembly, which I found particularly noticeable during the worship.

Wherever Assembly is in the future, maybe the chaplain and the host Synod could work together to include some local voices?

What does anyone else think? Have people from other regions felt the same when you have hosted an Assembly?

Finally, at the end of an Assembly where inclusion became a big issue, this is perhaps just a minor point, but it's helped me at least just to voice it somewhere.

Core Values

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:40:00 +0000

At a recent conference at The Windermere Centre concerning the future of the United Reformed Church, we were posed the question by a group of professionals from an advertising agencey, 'What are the Core Values' of the United Reformed Church'? In other words, what is our identity and purpose?

The discussions which followed, you may be surprised to learn, were very focused and harmonious! There were no theological splits or arguments, lots of ideas, but through which I feel four clear themes emerged as our Core Values.

This list of values is not to say that they are unique to the URC, nor that we do them better than other traditions, but that they are precious to us and we feel, at our best, we do them well and with greater emphasis than most.

The Core Values identified are:

A Radical Welcome
- welcome, fellowship, no one turned away from our churches.
A Place to Think
- questions, doubts, fears and a safe place to exoplore
A Place of Change
- Reformed and Always Reforming is still our distinct driving force
A Passion for Justice
- Fairtrade, Drop the Debt, Make Poverty History - define who we are!

Implied within the four is our unique committment to work with other churches and partner organisations whenever possible, but we were also clear that ecumenical partnerships would no longer hold us back when our way forward was clear.

The United Reformed Church - Re-invented? No! Just Re-defined!

Come as you are!

Which way now?

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:15:00 +0000

As I have said in previous posts, two key questions the United Reformed Church must address are, what is our identity and what is our purpose? Or to put it another way, in the form that others may ask us, 'Who are you?' and 'What do you do?'

The United Reformed Church has a severe loss of identity and purpose, which though disabling, may be by design. Those within the church who still believe our short term goals should be further organic union, particularly at local level, envisage a church which fades away as a distinct denomination and simply joins with whoever is most appropriate locally.

However, another option is to re-invent ourselves as a distinct 'brand'. A small, reformed church, mainline AND progressive. Comfortable being itself, yet still wholly committed to ecumenical working wherever appropriate.

There seems to be two clear directions before us, I know which one I favour and believe will bear the more fruit.

Which do you favour? I'd really appreciate your comments and posts before I do more work/thinking in this area.

Finally, to aid your deliberations, below are excerpts from this years Catch the Vision report. Enjoy!

Catch the Vision Report 2006

There are no unity schemes on the far or near horizon. For thirty years the driving dynamic of the United Reformed Church has been unity. It has made us a movement, a pilgrimage, a people of no abiding city. But is God now asking something extra of us? Are we now being asked to balance our willingness to ‘die’ with a passion for ‘life’ and mission? CtheV 2006, 2.6

In a world where calls for unity receive no positive response, we could opt for the ‘homeopathic’ form of ecumenism. This is the ‘dilute until no one knows you’re there’ option, and it has a certain validity. Well, it says, pull down the shutters. That was an interesting experiment. Let’s sell off the silver and throw in our lot with the parish church or the Baptist meeting and strengthen the Christian presence. CtheV 2006, 2.7

Or we could opt for the ‘passion fruit concentrate’ version of ecumenism. That says, we might be a peculiar flavour, but the drinks cabinet would be much worse off without it. CtheV 2006, 2.8

‘We are not persuaded that our particular offering to the future great church and indeed to the future of Christian witness in our three nations will be best served by dilution’. CtheV 2006, 2.9

Historically we know about living a radical witness, … we know about reconciling diversity. We know what it is to be captivated by Scripture and have our lives turned upside down. It happens week by week and month by month. It’s electric and wonderful, and we don’t know why we don’t shout about it. We might be an odd flavour, but we’re a catchy one. People might get to like us. CtheV 2006, 2.10

Christ’s gift is not that we are either ‘united’ or ‘reformed’, but that we are ‘united and reformed’. CtheV 2006, 2.11

Let’s not be ashamed about being here. Let’s be ourselves. Let’s be glad to be ourselves. Let’s not apologise for being the United Reformed Church. Let’s celebrate God’s gifts, and think about possibilities and mission and growth. Let’s get confident, secure in the gospel. Our ultimate unity lies there after all, CtheV 2006, 2.12

[We see] both a God-given opportunity to leave behind the evangelical-liberal divide, and the possibility of a process of renewal which could gather the church into a community of difference makers for Christ’s sake. We have seen a vision. We intend to follow it, and make it the key feature of ‘Catch the Vision’ 2007. CtheV 2006, 4.5

Bags for Life!

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:20:00 +0000

On a blog about evangelism you may be surprised at a post about bags! But these are not just any bags, they can help you tell the story of the FIVE Marks of Mission!

I'll explain. It's the current big thing in supermarkets as they get all environmentally friendly to encourage us to stop using so many plastic carrier bags. First, all the big chains offered sturdier plastic bags that could be kept and reused, but now many stores are selling Jute or Canvas bags, which will last much longer and don't involve that nasty plastic stuff at all.

Great, but what's this to do with evangelism or the FIVE Marks of Mission?

Our local church had the idea of producing a Jute or Canvas bag with our church Logo on it. Not that this alone would ensure revival broke out, but would be just one small part of a strategy of raising awareness of the existence of the United Reformed Church. (see 'Logo's and Logos') However, as the planning for the project developed, several other ideas and considerations came into play. Could the material the bag is made of not only be something other than plastic, but could it be Fairtrade? If yes, should we put the Fairtrade logo on the bag as a witness to our support of that initiative? After all our church is very concerned and in involved with justice issues.

So, our simple bag idea had grown into something much more significant. A bag which tells the story, or rather is an aid to us sharing the story of the FIVE Marks of Mission.

So, here it is!

Imagine yourself shopping with this bag and someone asks you either about The United Reformed Church or Fairtrade. What can you share with them? You could share something about our church, what it is to be United, what it is to be Reformed and how Church is a group of people committed to God and each other, concerned with issues of Justice, Peace and Love.

If people want an example, flip the bag over and share something about the Fairtrade Movement, a real tangible way of explaining our faith.

Then point out how the bag itself represents the churches commitment to caring for the environment, the world that we believe God made and entrusted to us to be its stewards.

Finally, you could let people know that the bags are made by a company based in London and India, who help get people off the streets and into work making these bags in good conditions and for a fair wage.

In just a couple of minutes you will have shared with someone the FIVE Marks of Mission and what your faith means to you.

TREASURE - God's world, by using less plastic bags
TRANSFORM - a little part of the world through Fairtrade
TEND - for a small number of people in India who needed help
TELL - of what it is to be the United Reformed Church
and in doing all this
TEACH - a little bit of what it means to follow Jesus

You won't have a conversation like this every time you shop, but even if it just happens a couple of times, as TESCO says, Every Little Helps!

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If you would like to buy a small quantity of these United Reformed Church - Fairtrade bags just drop me an e-mail at the address on this blog. Alternatively, if you think your church (of whatever denomination) would like to do something similar, just e-mail me and I'll send further details of Canby and Freeset, the companies used.

Logo's and Logos

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 13:30:00 +0000

Do you recognise this 'logo'? Yes, I know it's a cross, but do you know which denomination it represents?

Well unless you are a member of this church or a close ecumenical partner I suspect not. And even if you do I'm sure you'll agree it's not as widely recognised in society as say the 'Golden Arches' of McDonald's or the or the Nike 'Swoosh'!

In my new role as 'Evangelism Advocate' for the South Manchester District Council I've been pondering the lack of identity of the United Reformed Church. Not that for one minute I'm suggesting that my take on evangelism is all about promoting church and swelling numbers of Sunday morning attendees. Sharing the Good News is the prime concern of an evangelist. However, I do think identity is an essential aspect of promoting any message in our media savvy world. We need to have concern for logo's as well as Logos!

It's something we're not too good at, and as such it sometimes feels like The United Reformed Church is one of the best kept secrets of church life in this country, but as David Cornick put's it in this years 'Catch the Vision' report. 'We might be a peculiar flavour, but the drinks cabinet would be much worse off without it'! The United Reformed Church still has much to offer, and could well be (or become) the church that some people are clearly searching for.

Now I also hope it's obvious that I am not saying all we in The United Reformed Church have to do is give our notice boards a lick of paint and stick our logo everywhere. But I am strongly advocating that a recognisable brand image will help us in our evangelistic task and is a relatively easy thing for our churches to do. I am convinced that part of our 'Catch the Vision' strategy needs to be ensuring The United Reformed Church becomes something like a household name, with an instantly recognisable brand image.

However, along side a rebranding exercise needs to be considerable work on our identity and purpose as a church, both as a denomination and in each local setting.

The United Church of Christ in the USA have begun work in this area with their 'God is Still Speaking' campaign, which manages to proclaim, not primarily the UCC but the Good News of the Gospel of belief in a God who welcomes everyone. They achieve this primarily with just a simple and easily recognised logo, and an amusing tag line, which are both firmly based on a radical engagement with the Word (or Logos) of God. Do visit their website and let me know what you think.

All this talk of logo's and Logos is by way of introduction of what I hope will be one of the central themes of this blog, the need for our churches to rediscover their Identity and Purpose. Everyone from Rick Warren to David Peel are clearly pointing out that this is the first task of reviving a church for its evangelistic task. This is obviously an area a hope to do a lot of blogging about in the future, so visit again and share your thoughts and stories! But for now, go and take a look at your church notice board and see if it says what you would like to be said about your church!

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For further ideas on how to improve your local churches image and help get the United Reformed Church noticed, click on this link. Get Noticed!

To download the URC logo, click here

Or for a lighter look at this issue, follow these links from CartoonChurch.com
'Church Marketing' and 'The problem with the church'