Anatomy of Engagement

Several months ago, our Deacons’ Hospitality Committee was in need of more people to help with our church’s Sunday morning coffee crew.  They had made an announcement in worship and, over two weeks’ time, they only had three people sign up to help.

Then, we added the need to our EquipConnectServe Minstries Prayer Team email.  It went something like this:

Dear EquipConnectServe Prayer Team,

Pray for the Deacons who are inviting many people to consider filling open serving positions on the Coffee/Hospitality Crew.  Pray that those with gifts of Hospitality and Helps say "yes" to this great way to make our church a more welcoming place on Sundays.

We then searched our gifts/skills/talents/experience database--thanks to our years of chipping away at gathering information from spiritual gifts class participants, new members, and others. Just in seeking those with the Gift of Hospitality, we provided the Deacon team with 327 names.

We also made the following suggestions to the team:

--inviting people by individual email works best.

--present the need, the expectations/time commitment, training provided, benefits to them of serving and to the church when they help (a job description of sorts--a paragraph or a page)

--ask them to prayerfully consider it.

--promise to follow up with them by email or by phone in a week or so.

--follow up.

--consider inviting couples to serve together--or families to do it as a group.

 The Deacon team worked together and with the ECS Administrative Assistant to cull the list to the most promising 140 names—and divided those between three people.  They also crafted an email to send to each person individually.

Hi ­­­­___________________:

My name is (Deacon name).  I am a Deacon here at First Pres and my committee assignment is Hospitality.

I received your name from Shirley Giles Davis from the gifts assessment you completed, showing you have the Gift of Hospitality. 

Our committee is in charge of the coffee time after the Sunday services.  We are looking for those who feel called to offer hospitality to help once a month in the following areas:

            Coffee Preparation

            Coffee Service

            Coffee Clean Up.

We are particularly looking for help for the first and third Sundays of the month.

Helping with the coffee crew is a great way to meet people and extend a warm First Pres welcome to both members and visitors.  First Peter 4:9 urges us to “offer hospitality to one another”.

Would you please prayerfully consider using your gift of hospitality in this area of service?

Thank you.  I will check back with you within a week.

Blessings,

(Deacon name)

The team spent a couple of months sending individual invitations, following up with each person, and circling back with those who wanted more information.

Within three months, the Deacon Hospitality team reported that they had filled all of the open Coffee Crew positions and all of the substitute ones as well, engaging over 10 new members.

When you make a blanket announcement from the pulpit, inviting everyone, you are basically inviting no one—and certainly not targeting your invitation to those most likely to enjoy and be energized by the serving you are asking them to do.

When you take the time to pray first, craft your appeal, do your due diligence in creating a list of likely folks based on their passion/s, gift/s, talent/s, experience/s, and personally invite and follow up with each one, you are much more likely to get yeses from the right people for the right reasons.

You don’t simply need to “fill slots,” you want people to serve in ways that God is calling them to and has purposed them to do—who will contribute to the team and grow by stepping into serving.

Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and leaders in a diversity of fields for over 30 years. She has also been EquipConnectServe Director at her church since 1999.

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis, all rights reserved.