• 25 Questions for people who want to make churches grow

    1. Do you have a decent church website?
    2. Is it up to date?
    3. Is it responsive – ie does it work on mobile phones?
    4. Does your own online profile feature your ideas and hopes and dreams other than a desire for people to turn up to church?
    5. Do you know what you are doing with twitter and facebook?
    6. Who could you learn more about social media from?
    7. Do you have a compelling reason why people should come to your church other than where it is or what denomination it belongs to?
    8. Can everyone in the church tell you in one sentence what that compelling reason is?
    9. What is your beginners’ course like?
    10. What comes after the beginners’ course?
    11. Do people like the preaching?
    12. Do people enjoy the music?
    13. Have you dealt with conflicts from the past?
    14. Are the people friendly?
    15. Do you have any new groups starting soon?
    16. Do you talk about making the world a better place?
    17. How will people experience joy if they come to your congregation?
    18. If someone from your past turned up unexpectedly at worship how would it make you feel?
    19. How do you identify newcomers and what do you offer them?
    20. What problems will arise if you do grow and how will you deal with them?
    21. Do claims that you welcome everyone stop you working at welcoming those who traditionally find it hard to find a home in church?
    22. Do you use language that is inclusive of everyone?
    23. How do you know?
    24. Is there any identifiable group of people that you can’t explicitly say are welcome because of how an individual or group in the congregation will react?
    25. Do you want to grow or not?

8 responses to “Glasgow Rain”

  1. Stewart Avatar

    This is only a passing shower – the real rain is still to come 🙂

    Great for filling my water butts though!!

  2. Ruth Avatar

    No, according to the papers today it is to be scorchio on Thursday – 82 degrees or something similar. Oh no, sorry, that would be everywhere else in Britain apart from the West Coast. sorry!

  3. Elizabeth Avatar
    Elizabeth

    Yup.

  4. Pamela Murphy Avatar
    Pamela Murphy

    It was even worse down in Greenock last night. The nights really are fair drawing in now!!

  5. mysterious stranger Avatar
    mysterious stranger

    I really like the new look ,especially the pictures on the page headers very arty.Unfortunately I am one of the rare breed that use Macs.OOOPS!I can see the title of your daily blogs but no text appears.I can even post a comment.

    I am able to access the site by PC as well so I can catch up but I thought I’d better let you know.

    Rain has reached us fueled by a vicious South Easterly gale.

  6. Stewart Avatar

    Left Glasgow Airport at 9am this morning in torrential rain. The sun is currently shining in Gloucester (@4:45pm) – now was there not a nursery rhyme about a Doctor going to Gloucester in a shower of rain?

  7. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    (Very) Reverend rainmaker.
    The rain seems to have coincided with an upsurge in the number of native American musicians in the city centre, although I think last year some of them were playing ‘The Flight of the Condor’ and claiming to be from Peru.

  8. Howard Avatar
    Howard

    You’ve seen nothing like the weather in the Isle of Man in the last 48 hours. Storm force and severe storm force gales and torrential rain have forced ferries to be cancelled, and there is more severe weather forecast for tonight. It prevented us from visiting the adjacent island (England) today.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • The Anglican News in Brief

    Wakefield Diocese (the first to vote about it in the Church of England) rejects the Anglican Covenant. The excitement causes Kirstin to use a naughty word.

  • Japan – the smaller pictures

    I’m finding it difficult to hold in my head all the details coming through about Japan. Sometimes its easier to grasp the smaller pictures than to get a grip of the bigger one. A long time ago I was at college with someone who has ended up in Japan – Vicky. She married a Japanese…

  • Forgetting to press the button

    By the way, the reason that last Sunday’s sermon has not appeared on the Cathedral website is that though I carefully rigged up the camera, I forgot to press the button to start the recording. All of which makes me think that the time is coming for me to let go of the responsibility of…

  • To the Tower

    Off to the Tower yesterday afternoon – my annual trip up the tower at St Mary’s to the ringing chamber for the Bell Ringers’ AGM. It was great to see the ringers and to be able to congratulate them in person for their achievement during the year. There are one or two new members of…