Invite + Welcome + Connect after a few years...

St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park Kansas report on work of the Invite Welcome Connect initiative started in the fall of 2014.
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After about 6 months of discernment St. Thomas launched its IWC committee with the charge from the vestry and rector to rework our system of evangelism within the initial information that was gained from hosting an area wide Invite Welcome Connect workshop with Mary Parmer.
The team meets approximately 4 times a year to review any goals, check on progress, and set new vision for this work. The team includes the IWC warden, usher coordinator, greeter coordinator, bread baker coordinator, rector, vestry member, parish administrator, assistant rector, children’s minister and two or three other lay members.
Here are the various projects and goals sense that time that have been completed or on in process:
 
Invite
Started three “invitation weekends” per year with cards and other elements for members to invite their neighbors and friends to worship or an activity. We have had some small success with this. The weekends included added food for the reception time after services.
We have made several videos for Facebook and Instagram along with advertisements for various “high” holidays. Efforts have included invitation cards for members to give to others in the weeks before as well. We have had a noticeable increase in attendance by as much as 15% on Ash Wednesday, Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. Members are encouraged to “check-in” to St. Thomas for any and all activities they attend as a way advertising (no-cost to us!).
As a part of this as well as the “welcome” component we have rework all internal and external signage with memorial money. This includes signs on all doors, information display on all rooms, large signs over entrances, and directional signs throughout the building.

Welcome
Appointed a welcome coordinator that looks over our welcome materials and process.
Reworked our “red bags” that are for welcoming newcomers. Bags include freshly baked bread, information materials, custom pen (with light/ stylus), pencils, mint, and magnet for refrigerator with service times, address, phone, website address, etc.
Trained and recruited new ushers and greeters. We now have 26 ushers and 32 greeters that are stationed throughout the building for each service, including special services.

• Each greeter/ usher has an identification badge that is clear and noticeable
• Greeters are stationed at each entrance of the church
• Ushers welcome and guide people into worship. This includes “jr.” ushers who are children that are another part of this ministry.
• Greeters look for new people and offer them welcome bags both before and after the services.
• Greeters and Ushers encourage new people to fill out an information card, but don’t push to hard.

Welcome process. Once a new person is identified they go through the following steps if we have their information in the first three months of attending St. Thomas:

• A phone call from a lay member- during the phone call they are offered to have any questions answered, invited back to services, told how to reach clergy, etc.
• Note of welcome (hand written) from the rector. A phone call after the 2nd week of attendance to welcome them to St. Thomas
• If they continue to show interest by attendance, giving to the church or indicating on our card interest in joining we invite them to the next newcomer dinner. They are also sent a welcome kit prior to the dinner with deeper information and a membership registration form.
• Dinner is hosted by Rector and Committee as well as 3-5 vestry members, some staff as well as other leaders of ministries the new people may have indicated interest toward.
• Follow up is made by our IWC warden to make sure staff or ministry leaders have contacted newcomers with information on how to connect to their ministry etc.

Other Changes:

• We have added new signage throughout the building to help with orientation.
• Added welcome tables in two locations. Each table has name tags, basic information, new comer cards, and greeters are stationed to welcome ALL members and new people.
• Reworked Ministry Book that includes information on all aspects of St. Thomas- with contacts of the leaders. This is reviewed quarterly and updated as often as possible.
• In process of having a new “Welcome” Center built in the narthex as a more appealing center and also to handle the storage of materials and other needs.

Included in the process is an effort to make sure the new members are connect to our various communication tools. Those tools include::

• Parish Master email list and ministry email list if needed.
• Parish Phone Tree (announcements, prayer request, etc)
• Facebook Page invitation
• Database information

 
Connect
Over the last three years we have worked to look at all of our ministries in terms of how they connect with current members as well as new people joining St. Thomas. That work has included a ministry audit, some clarification of roles within the church, scheduling software (Ministry Scheduler Pro) and reworking of our website. Additional projects:

• Hosted a connection fair in the spring and fall of each year. One has included an all ministry fair others have been ministry specific. Meaning one Sunday a month we have hosted a “liturgical ministry” or “outreach” with a focus on one area of the church. Since we began this we have had about 20 of these events.
• Meet with ministry leaders and encouraged each group to consider periodic social events of those participating to build friendship. Examples: Adult Youth Group for parents of teens, Altar guild spring and fall brunches, Musician holiday party, etc.
• Launched some “family” friendly events for young children. This has meet mixed results.
• 2nd Saturday wine and food events for the Saturday Evening service.  This is a once a month gathering to help the congregation at that service feel more connected. The only problem- they are staying for HOURS!
• Intentional tracking of members and their connections to at least one ministry. During our audit and after the connection fairs we have 90% participation in at least one ministry. Within our new comers we have a 72% participation in at least one ministry.
• Reemphasized name tags. We shifted from the name tag wall we had with pre-printed name tags to name tags that are stickers. With some effort this has increased nametag usage- and also doesn’t’ exclude new members. Part of the challenge is that we don’t have room for a name tag wall with everyone’s names on it!
• Starting a new pictorial directory (home grown).
• Restarted and emphasized dinners for 9 groups. Each fall and spring we invite people to signup and attempt to connect as many new people as possible. This has been one of the better successes in terms of deepening connection.
• Starting 7 new small groups currently which will give us a total of 18 groups that are active once they are launched.
• Lenten Lunches, Advent classes and new offerings both during the day and evening.

 From Nov. 2015 (revived the newcomer dinner) - Nov. 2017 mailed 116 invitations to households (doesn't count each person individually) 5 events 74 Households attend a Newcomer dinner/lunch 54 households that have attended a NCD are connected (73% of those who attend NCD get connected). Worth noting that at the same time we have “lost” nearly 80 active members to death. 

Here are the stats from the since the year before we started: 
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