Tag Archive | San Francisco
April 26, 2012  

CHURCH2GO WORKSHOP on 6.2.2012 from 12:30-2pm @ Grace Cathedral Ordination Day

CHURCH2GO

That is the nickname given to my presentation and talks about use of social media, mobile apps and other collaboration technology in the work of the church.  Often, I hear a familiar retort:

“We can’t use technologies like that because our [clients or congregation members--or fill in any constituency] don’t have access to it.”

The truth is—you might be very surprised to find out that they not only DO HAVE ACCESS but they are using it a lot more than you think to gain access to the information and services that are important in their lives.  The real truth is that it is the church and not those we minister to who are not making use of technology that better connect us with the faithful.

A case in point is a recent study by Neilsen.  Here are the headlines:

“In the U.S., Hispanic consumers’ usage rates of smartphones, television, online video, social networking and other forms of entertainment make this group one of today’s most engaged and dynamic populations in the digital space, according to Nielsen’s recent State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative report. Mobile presents a significant avenue of opportunity for marketers looking to reach Hispanic consumers – Hispanic mobile users send or receive 941 SMS (text) messages a month, more than any other ethnic group. They also make 13 phone calls per day, 40 percent more than the average U.S. mobile user.

Social is another platform where Latinos are especially active and rising in numbers. During February 2012, Hispanics increased their visits to Social Networks/Blogs by 14 percent compared to February 2011. Not only are Latinos the fastest growing U.S. ethnic group on Facebook and WordPress.com from a year ago, but also Hispanic adults are 25 percent more likely to follow a brand and 18 percent more likely to follow a celebrity than the general online population.”

So what?

So the long slow decline in church participation, membership and pledging might have more to do with making the church more accessible and relevant to those it seeks to serve and responding to their needs with information, connections and support when they need, how they need it, where they need it most.  Sometimes that is NOT Sunday morning at 10am.

A key finding of the Church Growth Program Action Planning Process was that the single most empowering action the church could take to stop the decline in participation was to throw open the doors to the church in a virtual as well as real sense to make the mission, ministry, programs and services of the church more accessible.

CHURCH2GO WORKSHOP

June 2nd, 2012 

Grace Cathedral Ordination Day

12:30pm to 2:00pm

We  will have another CHURCH2GO workshop presentation June 2nd 12:30pm to 2:00pm as part of the ordination day events at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.  ALL ARE WELCOME.

Guest presenters for the workshop will be:

  • Dr. Pascal Kaplan, President, iCohere, a social collaboration software solution widely used in business, educational and nonprofit settings.
  • Gary Hunt, Member of the Diocesan Executive Council and convener of the Membership Growth Team of the church Vitality and Growth Project.

We’re preparing a presentation on how such technology can be adapted and used to create a Social Network for the Episcopal Diocese of California that would throw open the doors of the church and create a virtual community accessible to all.  Bring your questions and come try out some CHURCH2GO technology you can use today.

November 20, 2011  

Growing the Church means Seeing Christ in Each Person

by Gary Hunt

It has been a week since our Church Growth Workshop at St. Alban’s Brentwood with its focus on the opportunities and challenges of East Contra Costa County.  We had a turnout of about a dozen, but the power of these workshops has never been in the numbers but in the testimony we’ve heard at each.  I needed a few days of ‘soak time’ to reflect on that testimony before I could put into words what I heard and experienced.

We set for ourselves two issues for discussion.

What are the needs of the people in East Contra Costa County and what are the opportunities for the Episcopal Church to be the Body of Christ in that portion of the Diocese?

We know the challenges.  While we look to the existing Episcopal congregations serving Clayton, Concord, Antioch and Brentwood to help us define the needs we recognize these congregations are too small to meet the needs on their own.  Another ring of Episcopal churches serve the next ring out with Grace Church Martinez, Resurrection Pleasant Hill, St. Paul’s Walnut Creek, and St. Timothy’s Danville further removed geographically but still in the Deanery circle of the diocese. We wondered out loud what could be done by collaboration across the Deanery to leverage the community strengths of the Church to meet the needs of the church.

The discussion in our workshop helped shine light on two fears that have been anxious undercurrent:

  1. The fear that the Diocese will give up on the congregations in East Contra Costa because they are too small, too insular and detached, too limited in their capacity to meet the broader needs of the church in the area.  This fear lives into the tradition of the church in which each congregation goes it alone for better or worse.  In East Contra Costa County where the road to St. Alban’s requires driving by mega-churches the feeling of being ‘alone in the wilderness’ is understandable.
  2. The fear the cost of being the Body of Christ in East CoCo is beyond the reach of the Church.  This fear lives into the traditional church planting model of ‘build a church and they will come’ mentality.  The self imposed impediments of size and resources have frozen us in the headlights of our conventional wisdom unable to see the vision God is calling us to live into to actually be the Body of Christ.

And then something happened in our conversation.  Something we had not expected but something quite remarkable. Our conversation in the circle shifted from traditions and limits to hopes and possibilities.

In the opening of the discussion to the concept of collaboration across congregations a need was expressed as an example.   What made it so powerful was the honest, healthy need from a parent searching for support for a child who had recently ‘come out’ and felt isolated in the small community.

As an aside I would tell you that one of my joys in these workshops has been the sense of honesty, safety and candor with which we have talked about both our fears and hopes.  This was one of those healthy, holy moments.  But what made it special was the testimony that came next from another parent in the circle who told the mother that he too had faced the same issue she described and that he was part of a parent support group and she was welcome to not only be part of their support group but the group would come visit with her and others to tell their stories and offer their prayers, experience and resources.

There is no way to tell this story without a sense of wonder and amazement at the power of having Christ in our midst when we needed Him most.  I believe Christ was with us that day. We learned that we are not alone. We learned we can be in community supported, loved and accepted as we are. We learned that working together made all things possible. And we learned that loving each other—seeing Christ the King in each person—did not cost a king’s ransom but was a pure and perfect gift of Grace from the One who died to save us.

I am writing this message on the last Sunday in Pentecost—Christ the King Sunday.  This is the last day in the church year, and as we wind down the 120 days action planning phase in the church growth program we are already shifting our focus forward.

2012: A Year Working in the Vineyard

For 2012 the work on church vitality and renewed growth shifts to working one-on-one with congregations that want help putting together an action plan of their own as Bishop Marc has asked.

To date 31 congregations have signed up for the Bishop’s webinar series and will be actively engaged in taking actions in their congregations.

The church growth program team members will be working in that vineyard two or three at  a time with individual congregations to help them as we are able to define an action plan that meets their commitments to the Bishop and serves the Body of Christ as they discern it.

  • November 29th St. Luke’s San Francisco, 6:30pm —Revenue Growth Strategies.  The Rev Dana Corsello is leading a reception and dinner event for expert fundraisers to gather insight and ideas on how the church can raise capital and contributions to create a more sustainable foundation for church growth. Contact Dana directly if this calls to you.
  • December 10th 9am to Noon, Holy Innocents, San Francisco —CHURCH2GO. The last workshop of the action planning phase is also the first workshop in the ‘working in the vineyard’ phase of the church growth program.  Our workshop focus is on technology and how the church can use social media, mobile apps, customer relationship services like Salesforce.com to support stewardship and other technology tools.  We hope you will bring us your ideas by comments on this church growth website or by coming to the workshop December 10th.
  • March 10th, 2012, All Saints San Leandro, Church Renewal. The Rev Rob Droste is leading a workshop on Church Renewal and Engaging the Creative.  Stay tuned for more information as this takes shape.

Do You Want your Congregation to Be Part of the Work in the Vineyard?  We are responding to requests from congregations for help in working on Bishop Marc’s action planning in 2012.  The Church Growth Program will be working in two or three person teams directly with congregations to support that effort. If you want help contact the DioHouse Staff or any member of the Church Growth Program team.

We still need volunteers.  Do you feel called to help with:

  • Lay leadership training programs
  • Mission effectiveness visit support for the Diocesan Staff
  • Technology, apps and other solutions for our Church2Go strategies
  • Building a social network platform for the Diocesan Community
  • Collaboration facilitators for church vitality projects
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October 24, 2011  

DioCal Convention Endorses Bishop Marc’s Call for Church Growth & Vitality

St. Timothy's Danville Stewardship Theme Graphic by Kathy Wills

The 162nd Convention of the Diocese of California held October 21-22 heard Bishop Marc Andrus call for a new spirit of renewal, hope and vitality for the church in a call to action to get the church growing again.

Church vitality has been front and center as as a major issue for the church.

For many years the long slow decline in average Sunday attendance, membership and pledging has reduced the size of the Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations.

Earlier this year at Bishop Marc’s request the Executive Council of the Diocese of California launched a church growth program to expand lay participation in the church and open its doors to new members.  This is a companion to the ongoing work of the Diocese staff on mission effectiveness and church vitality.

Over the past three months, the church growth program has held workshops, made presentations at each of the six deaneries, and created a website to gather resources to help congregations with growing ideas.

Next Step: Working in the Vineyard

With the convention endorsement, the next stage of this church growth and vitality initiative is beginning by inviting congregations eager to take a fresh look at new ideas to grow, new programs to meet the needs of the faithful, and help in assessing their needs to take action.

  • GROWING IDEAS.  The catalog of program ideas continues to grow as congregations offer them.  Check out the list in the Growing Ideas category on this website.  If you have a program that has worked well to help your congregation grow we’d love to hear about it.
  • CONGREGATION ACTION PLANNING.  The Church Growth Program team will gladly meet with any congregation to provide a presentation on our work, facilitate discussion of ideas appropriate to your congregation needs and help your Vestry develop a Growing Ideas action plan of your own.  Contact Gary Hunt at ghunt94526@gmail.com to set up a meeting.
  • CHURCH GROWTH PROGRAM WORKSHOPS. We will hold two more action planning workshops and you are welcome to participate.  No registration is required.
    • NOVEMBER 12th 9am to Noon. St. Alban’s Brentwood.  EAST CONTRA COSTA COUNTY CHURCH GROWTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT.  We will hear representatives from area congregations describe the issues they face and the needs they have to bring the Good News to the people of this fast growing and fast changing part of the Diocese of California.
    • DECEMBER 10TH 9am to Noon.  Holy Innocent’s San Francisco.  CHURCH2GO!  How New Technology can Help Your Congregation build Community and Flourish.  From new tools for online giving, using software to make stewardship easy, to social networking technology is helping the church connect with people and support their personal faith journey as well as their service to others.

 Join us!

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