SHAPING A BETTER COMMUNITY SURVEY
TRAINING AND LAUNCH DATE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Dear Friends in Christ,
For months now, I have been working with the session on the community survey we hope to take out into the neighborhoods around the church. I communicated with the congregation in September with a letter about a congregational meeting to discuss the survey, and one of our adult education classes has even been talking about it as part of our discussions. I have refined it according to your suggestions, attained a Spanish-language translation of it, and developed a new color postcard about our church to accompany it. Now it is time to put all of this work into action and begin the journey of faith as we walk the streets of our neighborhoods.
On Sunday, November 16, after worship, we will have a training time and start our contacts with neighbors. Thus far, 20 people have signed up to be in visitation teams. I hope to recruit at least four more people by the 16th, so we will have a total of 24, distributed in two person teams, so that 12 routes will be covered on this first venture. I expect that each team will have somewhere between 40 and 60 houses to canvass, depending on how far they have to drive to reach all their destinations. It is very hard to offer an accurate estimate on how long each team must work to visit all the houses assigned. But if we find maybe half the houses with someone at home and willing to talk to us, and each of those takes 10-15 minutes in dialogue, plus we add a few minutes to ring doorbells and leave literature at places with no one home, and then add time to walk from house to house and drive to the site, you could expect that each team is looking at 6-8 hours of work. This would be done at the convenience of team members and at times when most neighbors would be at home and not rushed. I recommend Sunday afternoons, Saturday mornings after 10, and, if you have many retired folk in your area, weekday afternoons also.
Some congregation members have hesitated to sign up for canvassing because they are concerned that they will be put on the spot and asked to proclaim why they believe in God or offer testimony on why they go to church. Some who have signed up have voiced the same concern. I want to reassure you about this concern in two ways. First, at the training time, we will go over some ways you may briefly handle that kind of question. Secondly, the real focus of the visit is to ask people questions about the survey, about what our church can do to make their community a better place to live. It is certainly possible that you will be drawn into a more lengthy discussion, but that will be rare, I think, and is actually best handled by a follow-up visit where I accompany you if you have reservations about what you would say.
I do, however, believe that this exercise of canvassing our neighbors will nudge us into thinking differently about our Christian faith. We will realize that it is a public thing, with the ability to make a public impact on a community. We will think harder about why we do believe in Christ, about why we feel this faith of ours is worth offering to others. Therefore, although I do expect some very good ideas to arise from the survey, even if that were not to happen, our venture would have accomplished one very good purpose already. I hope you will add your name to the list of those willing to venture forth in faith. The more volunteers, the more homes we can visit! I do feel this is a very good investment of time and energy for our church. Please see me personally if you would like to volunteer, or sign the list in the fellowship hall.
Shalom, Duane