Evangelism Team
June 21, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Present were Jim Wolff (presiding), David Ashby, Dean Conklin, Dee Duncan, Ken Fong (taking notes), and Lynda Fickling.

We reviewed current projects:

Lynda will decide whether to invite Doug Harris to join the team. Dean will invite Bert Stull to join. Everyone was asked to bring one new member to the team.

We had the following feedback on the publicity given to UMM:

• It was a good step toward better exposure for that small group.

• We could have helped organize the event better. One problem with getting exposure for groups with attendance problems is that they also have problems getting members to help with events such as this one.

• We should create a sign ahead of time for the table that the small group staffs during the Sunday service.

• The “table tents” for the Fellowship Hall tables were a good idea. We should do them ahead of time next time. We may want someone from the Communications Team to take this on as a regular activity.

• There will be a push in mid-July to highlight the Golf Tournament; this will be another opportunity to provide exposure for UMM.

The sermons are now posted on the web site. They should be available in booklet form soon.

We like Lynda’s proposal for the new attendance pads. We were concerned that she would not order enough of them, so we agreed to increase the order to 100.

Jim Wolff led a discussion about how to institutionalize giving small groups more exposure. He handed out a possible schedule for small groups to be highlighted, the “Small Group Awareness Schedule;” some small group would get highlighted approximately one Sunday out of every three. Ken Fong will bring this to next week’s Ministry Council meeting for comment. The scope of the effort will not include ushers (unless more ushers are needed that Sunday). The most critical aspect of the exposure will be visibility in the Narthex area, such as by staffing a table with information about the small group and staffing the Guest Services Center. Other key elements include a Ministry Moment, the special Name Tags, and “table tents” in the Fellowship Hall. Other forms of hospitality, such as making coffee, will be helpful but are less important. Depending on the Sunday, small group members may also be involved with Communion.

We agreed that Cruisin’ For Cans was a good opportunity for evangelism.

Lynda showed the team the lanyards she wants to buy for greeters, and the feedback was positive.

We reviewed the list of SWOTs (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) that were generated last year; we updated the list to reflect what has happened and what we plan to do. Considerable progress has been made, and our current projects are addressing many of the list items.

Lynda reported on the home visit program, in which members go to the homes of those visitors who have attended several times. This program has been very successful in converting visitors to members. More home visitors are needed. Dee Duncan reported that he and Jean Ann have had good luck doing a home visit on their way to Disciple class. Dee will talk to Nita Dunn, who is on the Disciple Class organizing team, about asking Disciple class members to do an occasional home visit before attending class. Lynda and Dee will continue working on this program.

We brainstormed some ideas about doing more external evangelism. Ideas included:

• Getting involved in HRCA events

• Saturday Night services under the stars (informal, don’t need a pastor), possibly followed by a movie

• Car shows

• Parking lot concerts

We will be discussing this further at future meetings.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, August 9th, at 7 PM in the Conference Room.

Action Items

Dee Duncan: Will follow up on whether Disciple class members will do home visits.

Ken Fong: Will get feedback on the Small Group Awareness Schedule from the Ministry Council

Will get feedback from the staff about Saturday services.