SouthEast Christian: Getting Connected

How does a church of 18,000 get people connected?  Great Question, they are still working on that as well! 

One thing I did learn in talking to the pastor of connections;  it is a process that needs to be decentralized.  There is no physical way one person, or one team could fit that bill.  This is a job for all leaders. 

SouthEast uses a process that begins with the first step room (similar to Graces welcome room).  People who are curious about the church, want to become a member, are renewing their faith or seeking can go there to talk to someone.  The purpose of the first step room is to point everyone to the next step for them.  The next step is a discovery group.  the discovery group is 5 weeks long and can be entered at any week.  One of the pastors stops in to welcome the new members each week.  There are two discovery groups each week; one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  There are coaches assigned to each discovery class, who help each participant take the next right step after each class; whether this is getting involved in volunteering, joining a weekend group or joining a community group.  The focus is making it easy for new people to get connected.  Once this happens, the next ministry leader takes over and helps each of the people they are working with stay connected or get connected to a new opportunity.

Sounds simple?  Well, at Grace we have around 800 volunteers and many ministry opportunities.  SouthEast wasn’t sure how many volunteers they have or how many opportunities.  Just keeping track of these numbers could be a full time job for someone!! 

I learned that getting connected is a process and it needs to be decentralized to all leaders as you grow.  I also learned that there are similar challenges in all churches and we can work together to continually improve on these.