For the last few years, and at different congregations, I've given a special focus to membership between Easter and Pentecost, culminating in a public welcome to all who've joined the congregation over the last 12 months. We have a pamphlet that introduces the idea of membership, and a tear-off panel for an application to Church Council. For those who are not baptised, we then talk about baptism & do an adult preparation course, using confirmation material. We suggest that anyone can be part of the confirmation program - even those who have been confirmed before - and we then celebrate a renewal in faith using the UC liturgy. For those who are already members - UC or other denominations - we run an orientation program - part of which is an invitation to evenings or afternoon sessions where we talk about membership and the Church. I ask Church Council and other representatives to come and present using the following agenda. It seems to work well. The only comment is that at some places the Church Council thought it should run more often than annually.
********************************** Information Session Welcome & Introduction Membership - what does it mean? Part of the Body of Christ - Community Life: * Worship - 9.30am, Prayer service, Special Days, * Sacraments - Baptism & Communion * Pastoral/Adherent, Baptised (Communion), Confirmed (Involvement) * Leadership - Program/study involvement, Choir, Stewards, Teachers, Preachers, Elders, Church Council, Congregation, Presbytery, Synod, Assembly * Insights, Presbytery Bulletin, Living is Giving book * Involvement in meetings - decisions in Council * Hearing the Holy Spirit in & with each other - no proxy voting * What does the UCA believe? - Basis of Union * One with the Worldwide Church * Unity in Diversity Growing in the Faith * Personal disciplines - Prayer, Study (WLTW, Lectionary), Service - Christmas Bowl (Pastoral Care Team, Kairos/Emmaus) - begin your own - prisoners, Africa, TEAR Fund. * Small groups - Lent Studies, Quiet Days, Study Groups, Young adults etc * Children's, Youth and Family Work - Sunday Club, Faith Friends, KUCA, Playgroup, Pastoral Care * Everyone called to care! - using the Pastoral Directory * Elders, Ministers, Pastoral Co-ordinator * Crisis care - please let us know! * Special support - Spiritual Direction, etc * Intercessory Service, Prayer Chain * Small Groups as the focus - start with Lent Studies, etc Stewardship * Spiritual Discipline * Responsible budget * Memory Chris Udy ----- Original Message ----- From: "David and Olivia Neilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "insights" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 3:50 PM Subject: Fw: Church Membership - Course Any good for the confirmation classes our church will begin in 2 months time? Or is there something better we could use for our 16-22 year olds and 6 weeks? David ----- Original Message ----- From: aleggett To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; Lindsay Brash Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 12:03 PM Subject: Re: Church Membership - Course Greetings all. I would like to put in a plug for Bill Loader's book: "Dear Kim; This is what I believe" as an excellent resource/discussion book for talking with interested people about faith and membership of the church. It is the best and simplest book explaining Christian faith in a sensible way I have read and it is available free from Bill's website. http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/home.html Hope this helps. Allan ----- Original Message ----- From: Lindsay Brash To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 9:57 AM Subject: RE: Church Membership - Course G'day All, Anne Ryan (forget her UC title but she is based in Newcastle) ran a course in this part of the world (New England-North West) last year that might be compatible with what Terence suggests. 'A Place to Start' deals with basic issues of Christian history, theology and doctrine. I think Anne put it together herself. Unfortunately I was unable to attend any of the sessions (5 or 6 I think) but got good reports. Kind regards, Lindsay Brash. At 08:05 AM 4/03/04 +1100, Terence wrote: Hi Tom, There is provision for the receiving of members on transfer - it is regulation 1.1.21 It will be necessary to satisfy oneself locally that a person has been a member of another denomination. However there is no hard and fast rule on this although some sort of certificate is usually available. Now to the important part. I believe that it is vitally inportant that some sort of orientation / induction process take place prior to making a decision about accepting the person into membership. In fact I think it would be better to do it even before a formal request is considered ie for people who are thinking about transfering to the UCA. This process can be used to encourage disciplines of the faith but (given the current times) to also work on their understanding of the privileges and limitations of the congregation. Yes I am talking about polity / ethos lessons. Perhaps what we need at this time are opportunities all over the country for people to meet and be led in thinking about what kind of the church the UCA is. Why is it that the Assembly believes we can / should have room for individual conscience on important matters? What does that say about the kind of open / respectful / humble community of faith we seek to be? This can provide a great opportunity to bring people together across the congregation to talk about what they value about the UCA. It can be a time of creating / naming images that can sustain people in the fellowship of the Uniting Church. Something like a short series for people being received on transfer could be a marvellous vehicle through which we articulate the vision of what it means to be the UCA. That is certainly what we need at this time - an identity that is not defined by doctrinal purity but more by the quality of our relationship with Jesus Christ and how much we show that character in our relationships with others. Just a thought. Terence ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
