Corps of Discovery
Our twelve-person committee was commissioned by the church in April of 2005 and charged with the task to "discover God's compelling, clear, transforming vision for Mulberry Street United Methodist Church's mission." The results of their long spiritual journey were presented in a report to the Administrative Board this October. The report is available here.
Please use this space to post your reactions, suggestions, frustrations, inspirations, and anything else that comes to mind!
-Steve Allen
15 Comments:
Thanks to Steve Allen for creating this blog for current, past, and prospective members of Mulberry Street UMC and, in particular, for opening up the conversation about the work of our church's Discovery Corps. We are deeply indebted to the members of this small group, and we likewise owe it to them to continue discussing the points raised in their report to the Administrative Board within our Sunday School classes, our small group ministries, and our church at large. Most importantly, however, we need to pray for our church, our members, our ministries and programs, and our staff members and volunteers. Prayer was an underlying theme of the report from the Discovery Corps, and it is something we can do individually and corporally to support Mulberry. Thanks again to the Discovery Corps for their work!
I look forward to interacting with people on this blog...this might be my first blog message ever! My hope is that the conversation about the Discovery Corps report will stay focused on where God wants us to go and who God wants us to be. I'm looking forward to the conversation, in all the many ways it will take place.
Why do you think worship attendance is so low? What needs changing to increase attendance?
Mulberry Street has a nice web page. I came to the web page to see what courses Mulberry Street has. The titles of the courses sound interesting, but I do not see a description of the courses, and a note that invites me to attend. To an outsider, the question about the alternative service is a "no brainer". Hopefully, the church membership will move past this issue shortly and move on to a much more interesting question, "What format do we want for our alternative service?"
It is my personal hope that Mulberry will not discard its long heritage of tradional worship at the 11:00 Sunday service in trying to attract a new type worshiper at church. And I personally am concerned that in the possible changes if this will wind up "dividing" the congregation on Sundays - - those who prefer a more tradional service, then those prefer a more entertainment type service. Our church has gained new members who left their previous churches because they felt a "contemporary" service was not worship - just entertainment - were raised with a tradional service and felt out of place in the new comtemporary movement that so many churches are now having.
I hope the Discovery Corps report makes it clear that the corps members are not recommending specific changes to the existing worshipship services at Mulberry Street. We are only saying that the church membership should discuss whether it wants additional forms of worship and/or additional worship services. The corps made this recommendation based in part on feedback it recieved from Mulberry Street members.
To the person who posted on November 15: Mulberry Street Methodist would love to have you. Join us for Wednesday Night Supper, worship, a small group, or Sunday School (or for all of the above).
Prayers, Presence, Gifts, and Service: the Meaning of Membership lesson series
The lesson outlines below are meant to help Sunday school classes and small groups engage in discussion of what church memberships means both for new members just joining the church and for lifelong Mulberry Street Christians. The outlines are spare and suggestive rather than sweeping and specific, and they are meant to spark conversation and Bible study among believers who are already fairly comfortable talking to each other.
Lesson 1: Defining Membership.
As focal verses, read Romans 12:5 and Ephesians 4:25 and compare the class members’ opinions of what each verse means. What does each mean as it applies to membership of a Sunday school class? (When and how have you been “members of each other”?) What does each mean as it applies to church membership?
You might want to read the context in which these verses are found as well.
Here is a question to keep coming back to at the end of each lesson in this series: How do all the things we promise when we join the church—prayers, presence, gifts, service—work together to make us one body? Why are they in this order? In what sense is each a promise?
Lesson 2: Defining Prayer
As focal verses, read Matthew 6: 7-15 and discuss it as a model prayer. Compare class members’ ideas on what the most important words or phrases in the prayer are. Why are all the pronouns in the prayer plural? Why is there no “laundry list” in it? Are there differences between this prayer and the ones you often hear or speak at church or in your own times of meditation?
In what ways should prayer hold a body of believers together? Are there ways in which prayer can lead to divisions in a church or Sunday school class?
Why is prayer the first thing you promise to do when you join our church?
Lesson 3: Defining Presence
Our first association with presence is the act of being present—attending. Being here is naturally important for members. Are there different degrees of “being there” at church? What are they? In your life in church (this church or other ones), who are the people who have been most present? Think of some specific people from God’s family who have “been there” for you.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and discuss what it implies about presence. What are the most important verses? Which of these standards are we living up to and which are we failing? What are the challenges of being one body composed of many members?
What are the other connotations of the word presence? When we say someone has presence, what do we mean? What does such presence have to do with church membership? What is the source of such presence?
To what extent is promising your presence a matter of perfect attendance? To what degree is this presence a matter of perfect attendance? To what extent is it a matter of attention perfected?
Lesson 4: Defining Gifts
Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (keeping in mind the rest of the chapter, which was covered in the lesson on presence) and 14: 1-25. According to these verses, what are gifts? What are spiritual gifts intended to bring to a church; what is their purpose? What do they bring to the individual who is the vehicle of the gift? Are gifts simply talents or abilities? Is this list complete or are there other gifts to consider? List some people that you think have been gifts or brought gifts to the church, both this local body of believers and the worldwide church.
When are gifts not gifts? What is the best motivation for giving? What is the worst? What keeps people from giving?
Lesson 5: Defining Service
For this lesson, ask class members to say how they define service and what passages of scripture or what models they base their definition on. In what ways is service to a church different from service to one’s job or discipline? Is a minister’s service any different than an individual member’s? Why or why not? What motivates people to serve? Are some motivations better than others? Which ones? How widespread is the commitment to service in the churches you have attended? Try to explain why.
The church is the body of Christ. What was His standard of service? Who did he serve and how? When we promise service as we join the church, who and what are we promising to serve? In what ways are we living up to or failing to live up to the promise?
Why is service the last thing a new member promises the church? In any other organization, service to the group would be the first thing you committed to, wouldn’t it?
Where are the 20-30 year olds? If other churches are attracting this demographic group, what are they doing that we don't do?
Susan Middleton
I think that Mulberry's discovery core has had a hard task in addressing certain issues- I was fortunate to sit in on some of the sessions. However, this business about Traditional vs. Contemporary service will get you no where. as a college student attending the "large methodist downtown church" where I am at school, the church has been hurt in several ways by the decision to do include a contemporary service with its traditional ones. The question is not the style of music in worship, but the focus on the liturgy. I sense that the church needs to focus more on its doctrine and teachings of wesley more than anything else. That is afterall who we are- united methodists.
At the town meeting, one overriding theme was the need for communication and inclusiveness. I feel that it is very important for the church to use a survey to identify the feelings of the church as a whole regarding the alternative worship issue. The original Discovery Corps report indicated that even designing a survey would be difficult, but it is possible. I want every individual to feel that he has at least had an opportunity to have his voice heard. Some would not be comfortable speaking at a town meeting (or writing on a blog) and they should not be overlooked. I feel that divisiveness can be avoided by doing this. If there were a huge majority opposed to alternative worship, any other actions taken would be wasted effort. If there were very little opposition, perhaps those issues could be addressed individually and result in getting everyone on the same track. One last point, I think it is important to distinguish between (1) those who would not attend an alternative worship service, but would not be opposed to one being offered by MUMC and (2) those who would oppose MUMC even offering an alternative worship service.
I think the leaders of the church need to rethink the renovation project we had a few years ago and determine whether the Church missed its mark and failed to address the issue of renovating the church to gain members. For instance, the fellowship hall used to be used for basketball, but now, we just have a nice looking dining hall. While other churches (Ingleside Baptist, Martha Bowman, Vineville Methodist) renovated their churches with youth services in mind in order to retain and attract new members, Mulberry decided to make the church prettier and fancier, mainly for the existing membership. In the town hall meeting, a question was asked how the members would react if a client of Macon Outreach were to attend one of our services. Does anyone realize how uncomfortable and uneasy and intimidating it would be for a person with probably dirty and used clothing (maybe one outfit total)to walk in our church and see most of the attendees dressed in a coat and tie and expensive dresses? Our church parlor with all of its lavish decorations would easily make one feel unwelcomed and unworthy.
Another person reminded everyone that Mulberry used to be the place to go in the sixties with its bowling alley. How does getting rid of the basketball goals in the fellowship hall and adding decorative and expensive chandeliers promote attracting people to our church for recreation?
Let's face it, when people are looking for a church, they are looking for recreational facilities for themselves as well as for their kids. People want to encourage their own families to "hang around" the church more than they did in the past. In today's world, the church has to be more than Sunday school and beautiful church sanctuaries and nice fellowship halls.
As we continue to communicate about our church, what about young adult ministry generally? I agree with the posted comment above that encourages us to think about the use of our new space. What do young adults need? It's not just about the form of worship.
Susan Middleton
When we talk about young adults, let's also consider activities available for singles. Unfortunately, I have found that churches too often segregate based on marital status. Not everyone who is single is 22 and just out of college.
I would like to reiterate the comments of a previous blogger about the web site - the web site does not seem to be designed to recuit new members only for current members. There is no description of the sunday school classes - why would anyone want to go to any of these? Also, some larger churches post audio files of sermons. this would be useful for people who can't come on sundays always.
I am the webmaster for the site, and this is something I do as a contribution to the church in my spare time. In the past, I made changes only when somebody requested it and I mostly make sure the bulletin is posted every Monday (three days before the congregation receives it in the mail). This means some sections, such as the Sunday School page, haven't been touched for several years. The good news is that the church will be addressing the Web site this month and you can expect major improvements this Spring. Expect audio and perhaps video on the updated site!
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