Assimilation

My first ordained call was as Associate Pastor for Outreach and Assimilation.  No one really knew what that meant, least of all me. 

I began by borrowing CD's of an evangelism seminar put on by Church Growth Inc..  It was entitled:  "How to Assimilate Newcomers Into Your Church." 

I picked up my own copy of the training when I began at Northside.  Thankfully, they renamed the seminar "Welcome to the Family" when they released it on DVD! 

Poor naming choices aside, the seminar contained such a wealth of useful thoughts on hospitality, follow up, differences between long-term members and new members, and what it takes to get someone involved beyond the 6th month mark (the time by which most people who drop out of church will disengage).  Backed up by solid research and statistics, this is an excellent teaching tool. 

Now, how do we expose more people to these radical concepts?  Better yet, how do we get our long-term members to engage both sides of the community?  We need rookies to feel and connect like our veterans, and our veterans need to help them do it while still retaining their deep connections in the church. 

That's right, I live on land and in the water. 'Cause I'm awesome!

It's a special gift to be able to do this.  We can't just ask someone to 'be more friendly.'  That's like the church growth plan that involves 'bring a friend to church.'  Great sentiment, tough to pull off.  The difficulty lies in finding someone who can live in both worlds -- the comfortable world of his/her circle of friends and the new world of those who haven't been here for years and who don't have established relationships.  What we need are exceptionally gifted amphibians! 

If you've belonged to a church for more than 2 years, you're reasons for being part of the community (friendships, Sunday School class, etc.) are very different from a person who has been there less than 2 years.  Holding both mindsets at once and helping people from each perspective come together is essential to growing and expanding our little slice of Christ's Kingdom.