Last night we had a great time together as the core team of Harbor Life. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was exciting, the fellowship was great, and the business of the evening progressed smoothly. Who said that annual business meetings have to be dry and boring? It was a memorable evening, at least for me. We added 13 new members and celebrated some of the great victories of the past year. Debbie had a great idea to blog to see if we could get some feedback on the event. Let us know your thoughts…
Here is what Debbie had to say:
What a fantastic annual meeting!
I felt some very encouraging news from the reports. A few inspiring thoughts:
1
Because of your ministry, we as a church have been better able to align the old members to connect with the visitors who walk in the door. PT, you are doing an awesome job in leading us in this capacity. Thirteen new members is a huge reason for celebration! We are creating opportunities to connect with at least 2/3rds of our new members and visitors.
One step we have taken here at my company is the following, because our membership retention is down a bit. Where I work at, the more things change the more they stay the same. When we launched the membership initiative on April 1, 2004 we promoted – Know their names, small groups, one more time and volunteer. Know their names is still the ripest low hanging fruit for us. One of the branches leads the way at 35%…leading the way with 1 in 3. The low is only about 1 in 4. Could we achieve and celebrate 1 in 2 at the company I work for? I believe we could. Everyone wants to be known, loved and acknowledged. I think I will take this first step again in church, as I have not been as intentional in this as I have in the past, how wonderful it would be if everyone knew personally the names of all new members and visitors at church?
What we do with members and each other really matters. A sense of meaning and belonging. And I am so glad to have you and Amy here to help our church with that. We can transform lives in our community. Thank you for your leadership and commitment!
Debbie Ash