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SMUMC - Plan
for Renewal
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This plan is based on the SMUMC
“18/36/300 Plan” presented to the Conference at an earlier date, but
it is broken out in different categories so that we may set benchmarks and
follow our progress.
These categories are as
follows:
1. Culture
2. Spiritual Formation
3. Mission
4. Stewardship
5. Advertising and Publicity
 1.
Culture:
- Moving from a culture of anonymity to a culture of
being known and loved.
- Background: In our times it is easy to be
anonymous and unknown. In our context this appears to be a central
issue for us to address so that people can identify who is new and
respond, as well as pursue those who fall off in participation in the
life of the church. Our desire is for people to be known and
loved at SMUMC
- Action Plan, based on 18/36/300:
-
Hosting church
community events every 6-8 weeks on site.
-
Networking with
preschool families, coming to know the names of all children.
-
Giving focus to
welcoming newcomers by having a point person for each worship.
-
Working a welcoming
system which acquaints newcomers with the church, moving them from
being unknown to being known. This includes use of name
tags, communication, personal invitations, pairing newcomers with
regular families, visiting and taking photos. This includes youth
and children as well as adults.
-
Setting up a prayer
chain for the community so we may pray for one another.
-
Through weekly
attendance keeping, addressing those missing from worship (3
Sundays in a row) with a phone call or other appropriate contact.
-
Articulating the
identity of the congregation in weekly worship and various other
communication and advertising tools.
- Benchmarks:
-
Average 75 people in
attendance at family community events in Year 1. Grow 10% year
over year (equivalent events).
-
Average 50% of the
congregation wearing nametags by March 2008. Grow to 75% by May
2009. Welcoming team visual count at close of worship.
Tracked with attendance.
-
2 new preschool
families welcomed into the worshiping life of the congregation in
2008, 2009, 2010. Regular attendees.
-
First time visitors
returning 50% of the time (use of feedback letter to track why
people don’t return). Weekly registration and welcoming
team to track.
-
Average of 2 newcomer
families attending each family community events.
 2.
Spiritual Formation
(Worship and Small Groups)
- Moving from no plan for discipleship to a clear
process for spiritual growth, transformation and maturity.
-
Background: Small
groups have been part of the vision of the church (see our mission
statement) as we understand spiritual growth to occur in small groups
as well as worship (and mission). Leadership, quality of
materials, and getting new people involved are all issues to address.
In addition, growing consistent worship attendance would strengthen
both the people and the church. As we move towards a more
hands-on, less cultural version of Christianity, we seek to grow our
current members and attendees as well as disciple new people into the
way of Jesus.
- Action Plan, based on 18/36/300:
-
Offer 2-3 church-wide
small groups each year. These groups are 4-6 weeks, material
is of high quality and leadership is excited and ready.
-
Offering 2-5 additional
classes lead by our Pastor. These are shorter introductions
(Introduction to Prayer, the Bible, etc.), Boundaries classes
(parenting, etc.) or book studies. Many of these groups/classes
are part of the Confirmation process.
-
Publicizing our
discipleship process, especially through communication tools and
membership classes.
-
Train new leaders for
small groups and worship.
-
Offering opportunities
for spiritual formation through prayer (music, prayer stations,
prayer forms), through being shaped by the word (scripture and
message), through beauty (slides, environment), and through
community (discussion in worship, fellowship).
-
Mission participation
figures into our plan. (this is articulated later on)
- Benchmarks:
-
Participation of 60% of
church attendance in church-wide small groups in 2008.
-
Average of 2 newcomers
attending each Introduction/Boundaries/Book Study.
(Pastor leader to track)
-
Through various
communication tools, >75% of the Stewards can articulate our
discipleship structure by June 2008. Present at Steward
meeting as well as all-church informational events.
-
Increasing worship
attendance to 100 people in each worship by April 2009; after the
addition of a 3rd worship service increasing to 300 in worship by
April 2010.
-
Recruiting / Training 5
new small group leaders and 10 new people to serve in worship each
18 months. Led by education leadership team with support of
Stewards.
 3.
Mission
- Building on our strength by widening our church’s
involvement in mission as we focus on the spiritual needs for us to
serve and care for others.
- Background: One of our strengths is missions.
We desire to build greater participation by the congregation.
- Action Plan, based on 18/36/300:
-
Targeting newcomers for
mission participation by creating a flyer that goes out with our
welcoming information and with a personal invitation by Mission
Stewards.
-
Highlighting South
County Outreach, Orange County Rescue Mission, Blood Drive, Gift
Drive, Mission Trips in worship monthly.
-
Focus on the variety of
ways to be involved by high-lighting the spiritual need to
physically participate.
-
Mission projects often
include participation of Children and youth.
-
Increase awareness in
Apportionments and value to the church, the community and the
world. (linked with Stewardship)
- Benchmarks:
-
10 people who have yet
to participate in missions do so by December 2008, with an
additional ten new participants each year thereafter.
Tracked by Missions Stewards and reported in annual report (Charge
Conference).
-
Track special giving
(record lbs of food, number of children / families adopted at
Christmas, mission trips, etc..) and analyze year over year for
growth measurements.
 4.
Stewardship
- Moving from lack of knowledge about ministry needs
and why we need to give to a culture of generosity and strength.
- Action Plan, based on 18/36/300
-
High impact focus on
the spiritual reason for giving through engaging stewardship
campaigns.
-
Communication tools to
educate the congregation on current giving and ministry needs
(tools such as percentage giving and “take one step” tools)
-
Additional
opportunities for giving, offering in a meaningful way throughout
the year.
-
Children and youth are
included in this process.
-
Increase awareness in
Apportionments and value to the church, the community and the
world.
- Benchmarks:
-
Year-to-Year growth in
average pledge amounts (not including children and youth) of 8% in
2008, 8% in 2009 and 3% in 2010. (baseline 2006 -2007 was 4.6%).
Note: Conservative estimate must anticipate that a separate
capital campaign in 2010 may impact growth over 2009.
-
Increase number of
members / families who gave regularly in previous year(s) without
a pledge, to pledging in the following year by > 5% year over
year. (Culture change from multiple emergency campaigns of the
past)
-
Measure growth in
giving units vs. growth in membership, and validate that pledging
/ giving culture is truly changing.
-
Measure giving towards
Apportionments and ability to meet growing percentage of target
each year until a regular part of church culture.
 5.
Advertising and Publicity
- Moving from being perceived as “the annex for
Calvary Chapel,” to a strong United Methodist presence in RSM.
- Action Plan, based on 18/36/300
-
Advertising in the
Trabuco Canyon News, start in November 2007 for seven months.
(This will be monitored for effectiveness with any adjustments
made so that we use our advertising budget wisely.)
-
Advertising materials
sent to newcomers in community as part of Welcome Express, Chamber
Map.
-
Re-doing church
signage, starting in February and finishing spring 2008.
-
Freshening other
signage (monument sign on street), and updating “identity signs”
(Broken People Welcome, etc.).
-
Regular articles sent
in to local paper (6x year)
-
Congregation given
tools to invite friends and family.
- Benchmarks:
-
Increase in first time
visitors from 3 a month to 5 a month (units, either individuals or
families). Tracked by Visitor log.
-
Average of 1 visitor a
month (non-family member) attends based on invite of active
member.
-
Congregation funds new
signage in 3 months.
-
Growing sense of
identify for church based on antidotal information collected by
staff. Church is known by identity signs in community.
SMUMC 2007 Starting Statistics
- Membership
- Records are not correct. We are in the
process of correction and notifying members
who haven’t attended for years
- Membership Records: 347 End of Year 2007
- Past year increase / decrease : + 11
- Average weekly worship attendance 2006 - 2007
- Oct – Mar (2006) : 176
- Jan – Mar : 162
- Apr – Jun : 187
- Jul – Sep : 166
- Oct - Nov : 144
- Average attendance Small Groups
- Lenten : 75 Attendees
- Sex God : 21 Attendees
- Boundaries : 12 Attendees
- My Story, God’s Story : 81 Attendees
- Pre-school / Children events
- VBS : 58 Attendees and leaders
- Community Events
- Cinco de Mayo : 83 Attendees
- All Church Picnic : 50 Attendees
- Harry Potter Party : 65 Attendees
- Family Sunday : 127 Attendees
- Missions
- SHIP (Self-Help Interfaith Program)
2 weeks of meals and overnight supervision – Over
30 participants
- SCO (South County Out Reach)
Monthly Food drive and on-site participation each
month
- Mexico Mission
Support Children’s Home in Tijuana = XX members /
youth spent a week this
summer in Tijuana
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