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BE A YES! CHURCH

“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is
no commandment greater than these.'” Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Our Calling

To love God with all of our heart and love others as we love ourselves. On these two commandments all else rests.

The Effect

We embrace the holy mystery that we are loved unconditionally as we imperfectly journey through life. This love is so stirring that we are compelled to, likewise, unconditionally love others.

The Experience

There is a timeless yearning for what is good and binds the people who today call themselves United Methodists. We wonder together:

• What should we believe?
• For what should we hope?
• What is expected of us?
• How should we act?

As we engage in those questions, often unanswered, we do not judge but remain steadfast in a call to exude Christ’s love.
What does that look like in the local church?

The Purpose

The purpose of this document is to help local churches, using the Wesleyan tradition of discernment, listen to the Holy Spirit’s call to engagement with the community. You are encouraged to begin and end each of these 90-minute sessions in prayer.

Session 1: What Do We Know About Those in Our Group?

• Begin the session with prayer.
• Give self-introductions.

NOTE: Be sensitive to each other’s sharing because every person comes with different life experiences.

• Age ranges
• Occupations
• Schools attended
• Personal heritage
  

• Share the reasons you go to church and how long you’ve attended.

NOTE: On a flip chart, write the reasons for going to church understanding that doing so will provide information that can be displayed in later sessions.

• Share a story in the Bible – not a quote – that inspires you and tell the reason(s) that it does. When finished, discuss themes and differences that the group sees in the reasons the stories are important.

NOTE: Write the stories on a flip chart emphasizing the reason that each is important.

• Explain the reasons for these questions when we’re done: To provide a benchmark for how the people of our church are or are not like people in our community.
• What do we need to know about our community to best understand the reasons why they do not come to church?

NOTE: This question is important because it helps create anticipation for the conversations in Session 2.

• Ask group members to volunteer for the topics to be addressed in the next session’s conversation.
• Provide these and other resources for gathering data:

• Census Quick Facts
• Ohio investigative reporters’ Ohio county by county demographics database

• End the session with prayer.

Session 2: Reality Check

• Begin the session with prayer.
• Ask for reports on the following topics:
• a humorous fact about where you live.
• demographics of the region and community in which you live/go to church compared with data from the U.S. and Ohio, and, preferably, with data from the 2000 census data:
• incomes, such as median household income.
• educational attainment.
• homeownership.
• poverty.
• how the community voted for leaders and on issues in the 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2020 elections.

NOTE: Discuss what may have influenced the community vote.

• studies on who attends church and what we know about them.
• studies on people who don’t attend church and what they say about church.
• polling for American opinions about top issues and attitudes towards religious institutions.

• Brainstorm about what all the above may say about the people in our communities. Did we have any aha moments?

NOTE: Put observations about people in our community onto a flip chart to be used at a later time.

• Assignment for next session:
  • Write down attributes/adjectives describing a church that, if anyone were to be invited to any service or event there, they would without hesitation say “Yes!” to the invitation to attend.

Session 3: The YES! Church

NOTE: Display the flip charts from the previous sessions.

• What do you think would be the attributes, or adjectives, describing a church that, if anyone were to be invited to any service or event there, they would without hesitation say “Yes!” to the invitation to attend.
• What would make them see that place as a good place to be?

NOTE: Write the attributes on a flip chart. What motivates people and congregations to exude these attributes?

• What are some scriptural stories that speak to these attributes? Are any of them the same stories we identified in our first session as our favorites?
• Compare these attributes with what we learned in the previous session about the reasons people don’t attend church.
• Closing learning moment:
• Compare these attributes with the list we created the first week showing reasons we joined the church. How are they different? How are they the same?
• Assignment for next session:
• Call someone who serves the community (ie social worker, school employee, librarian, justice system employee, food bank, mental health employee, etc.) and listen to the needs they see in the community, focusing on community challenges that a small group could help to address.

Session 4: What Do We Need to Change to be a YES! Church?

• Ask a few participants to tell a story about a time they were moved, educated, and/or inspired by someone who they were helping. In other words, what did the person they were helping teach them in return?
• What did you learn from the community phone call you placed in preparation for this week’s session and how could a small organization help fill that need?
• How do the attributes of our YES! Church compare with the needs described by the community worker you called this week?
• Make a list of the assets of our church.
• Closing learning moment:
  • What must we change about our church so that our assets and resources and attributes of our YES! Church are in harmony with the needs of the community and the people in it?
• Assignment for next session:
• Bring ideas that help us embrace conflict.
• Identify topics or issues that easily ignite conflict locally.

Session 5: Embracing Conflict

• Share the topics or issues that easily ignite conflict locally.
• Arrange for someone to recall a conflict that today seems humorous, but nonetheless was tense at the time.
• Where in the history of the church have we seen conflict?
• What is the outgrowth of conflict? Where in history and in scripture can we find examples of learning from conflict?
• Can you give examples of working alongside others with whom you were diametrically opposed on some issues? What brought you together? What did you learn from that?
• Is there anything in our previous four conversations on which we think we can find agreement? For example, can we identify a common need in our community that may be inherently controversial but there remains something that Christ might dive in to show mercy and love?
• Assignment for next session: What visions do you have for how our church can put into action the ideas we have discussed? What do we need to change about ourselves to be a YES! Church?

Session 6: The Day of Pentecost

• Based on what we have learned in past sessions, list ideas for how our community can move from thought to action.
• Vote on these ideas to identify which ones have the greatest potential for serving and loving all people in our communities as Christ would do, and thus becoming the YES! Church we defined in our previous sessions.

NOTE: It’s imperative that we not reverse those two ideas. Being a YES! Church happens because we are doing as Christ asks us to do.

• Small group solutions-oriented conversations on the ideas that receive the most votes. How do the solutions invoke Christ’s call to care for the people around us, to love everyone, show grace, be humble, receive as well as give. What assets can we use? Who should take responsibility? How do we make this sustainable so that “making disciples” is a natural outgrowth?
• Talk about your visions for a world in which each United Methodist congregation is equally intent on worshipping, praying, loving, growing, serving, listening, and connecting with the people in its community.