‘5 for 2010’ rejuvenates First UMC Richardson
From the time the staff introduced it to the church council and worship committee to the launch of the congregation-wide initiative, more than a year of planning and preparation had gone into “5 for 2010,” a focus on Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations carried out at First United Methodist Church of Richardson, Texas.
At one point, they almost called it off because they worried that the concepts were too simple to create much enthusiasm.
“But there’s beauty in the basics,” said the Rev. Clayton Oliphint, the church’s senior pastor. He and the rest of the church staff decided to stick with the plan, and are amazed at the response.
Three years ago, the congregation relocated to its current facility on North Central Expressway, just outside Dallas. After substantial growth following that move, things had begun to level off. The Holy Spirit was still at work, but the congregation was showing signs of a spiritual slump.
After he attended a retreat where he received training to become a Five Practices Presenter, Dr. Oliphint returned to the office believing that the time was right to rally the congregation around a single focus. Members of the church council read the book, then met for a day-long retreat to discuss what impact the concepts might have on First UMC’s ministry.
“We seldom do anything together as a church where everyone is on the same page,” Dr. Oliphint said.
Getting a church the size of First UMC Richardson all on the same page is a challenge. With more than 2,000 households on the membership roll, and some adult Sunday school classes that plan their studies up to a year in advance, the message had to be pervasive and carefully timed.
When all 35 adult Sunday school classes agreed to block out the same five weeks for the study, the staff and lay groups began planning ways to drum up anticipation. They decided to use the number 5 as a hook for all communication relating to the initiative.
After Thanksgiving, they began with banners and buttons. Parking lot banners with the phrase “5 for 2010” got people wondering how the new year would start. Ushers, greeters and all staff wore buttons bearing the number 5 and one of the adjectives of the practices (“5 is radical,” “5 is passionate”).
On Christmas Eve, each worship bulletin included a “5 for 2010” card letting everyone know that the initiative would begin on Sunday, Jan. 10.
On Jan. 3 and 10, the church asked each household to pick up a Five Practices packet after worship. Packets included the Cultivating Fruitfulness devotional guide, a bookmark, a letter and a DVD of Dr. Oliphint explaining the initiative. Households who didn’t pick up their guides received them via first-class mail the week of January 10, which sparked the interest of inactive members; they noticed that sending out a church-wide devotional guide was a first for their congregation.
After the Jan. 3 packet distribution, lay groups and staff looked through the information cards that people turned in to receive their packets and realized that many of the participants were visitors. Pleasantly surprised, the church ordered 400 more devotional guides to ensure they would have enough the following Sunday.
“We had no idea so many visitors would pick them up,” said Dr. Oliphint. “It had really gotten people’s attention.”
And it did so at every age level. Children’s minister Allyson George wrote children’s sermons and Sunday school curriculum for the kids, tying it all together with an image designed by another church and shared as a free download on www.fivepractices.org. The youth leaders worked from the book Five Practices of Fruitful Youth Ministry.
Every adult Sunday school class participated, and the church also offered short-term classes at other times throughout the week for those who were not part of a class. Still, Sunday morning classes saw their attendance increase, with plenty of new people there to participate in the series. It gave them an immediate opportunity to practice Radical Hospitality.
“They quickly realized, ‘This isn’t talking about everyone else out there, this is talking about our class,’” said Gloria Scott, the church’s communications director. And it turned out not to just be about welcoming newcomers, either: Adult classes also began reaching out to members who hadn’t attended in a while, encouraging them to return.
First UMC Richardson has made it clear that Five Practices is more than just a sermon series. The work done during the Five Practices focus will feed into the church’s Strategic Plan Committee, which is currently forming to develop a five-year plan for the congregation’s ministry. Each Sunday school class returned feedback sheets with ideas the class generated during their discussions of the Five Practices, and that information will inform the Strategic Plan Committee’s work, too.
It’s too early to measure long-term effects, but in the short term, worship saw a 15 to 20 percent attendance increase, and people began to integrate the adjectives of the Five Practices (radical, passionate, intentional, risk-taking, extravagant) into their vocabulary and, hopefully, into their approaches to ministry.
Since relocating to the new campus, “Nothing has brought more energy to our church than the Five Practices initiative,” says Dr. Oliphint. “It helps you really focus on what it means to be the church.”
(For a free download of the "5" button designs FUMCR developed, visit our Resources page.)
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