IDEAS THAT WORK

Wanted: That Personal Touch

Donald Bubna is a co-pastor of the Salem Alliance Church, Salem, Oregon. That’s right, he’s a copastor! He and Forrest Schwalm split the responsibilities of senior pastor right down the middle. They minister to a congregation of 700 families and are assisted by a stag of four.

We first met Don through his book Building People (Tyndale, 1978) which describes many of his experiences at Salem Alliance. Excerpts from his book will be appearing in subsequent issues of LEADERSHIP. Don has served at Salem for 15 of his 25 years of ministry.

I hate being treated as a non-person. Recently I corresponded with a computer for almost three months trying to correct an error with a magazine subscription. It was utter frustration. Today’s electronic gadgetry makes us an ever-growing, impersonal society. Meanwhile, people are shouting for recognition, and “me-ism” flourishes. The larger church must face this issue or it too will be written off as just another impersonal institution.

Here are ten ideas that I have found helpful in trying to stay personal with more than 700 families at Salem Alliance Church:

1. Meet people at the door. Nothing feels quite as good as to be genuinely greeted by someone with a warm smile, a firm handshake, and a word of welcome. We have trained greeters at each door whose ministry of greeting not only sets the tone for what’s going to happen that day, but starts the important process of developing a continuing relationship.

These selected people are trained with certain phrases like, “My name is Jim Baldwin. Help me remember yours.” Or, “Have I met you folks before? Would you mind signing our guestbook? Our pastor would like to send you a personal letter.”

For our church, visitor ribbons or buttons seem to be impersonal and tend to make the individual selfconscious. Our goal is to make that individual feel a part of the family as quickly as possible.

Even for the people who attend our church on a regular basis, there is nothing like being met at the door by someone who cares.

2. Learn people’s names. It’s not a gift (at least not one of mine). It takes hard work and a lot of discipline.

In meeting new people I always ask them to repeat their names. Often I ask for the spelling. I try to write names down and make some association with their faces. While memory association techniques haven’t turned me into a Jerry Lucas, they do help.

Since I meet people in the foyer I ask them to sign the guestbook. This helps me register their names in my mind Still, I usually miss a third to a half of the names the next time I see them. So I simply ask for their forgiveness and try again until their names stick.

3 Visitor letters are sent each week to people who have signed the guestbook. It’s best to type these letters individually using volunteer help. If this isn’t possible, have a letter printed, and type in the name of the visitor with the same machine that typed the original.

More important, I sign each letter myself (or it is signed by the co-pastor) and try to include a personal P.S. for those people I have met or who may be visitors of family members in the church.

4. First-time visitors who signed the guestbook receive a personal visit from a group of carefully chosen volunteers who are open, friendly, and not threatening. The visit is brief and our offer of friendship is reiterated. These new friends are usually invited to the “Welcome Class.”

5. The Welcome Class meets each Sunday morning in my study during the Sunday school hour. I team teach it with a layman. The room accommodates as many as fifty people. We do our best to create a relaxed and informal atmosphere, and we casually explain that many of us are brand new and that our purpose is to get to know one another better. The leader asks each person to give his name and to tell a little about himself by finishing the sentence, “I am John Doe, and I like . . .” or, “I am Mary Smith, and something that might help you understand me better as a person is. … ” Usually this process takes twenty to thirty minutes. We then turn to the Scriptures and discuss the general theme “Things Christians Commonly Believe . “

6. All of our pastors make house-calls. Every new person who seems to be a true prospect for becoming a part of our church family is called upon by one of our staff. A portion of Saturday is reserved for this. We think it keeps our preaching and teaching life-related.

7. Encouragement cards are a part of every worship service. Following a period of intercessory prayer (we always pray specifically for the ill, our missionaries, and others with special needs) our people are invited to pray silently for someone they love or know to be in need. Then they are asked to take an encouragement card from the pew rack and write a note of love to that person. If they sign the card and place it in the offering plate, the church will mail it the following week. No address is necessary unless the family does not attend our church.

8. Our pastors and their wives stand at the door following the services. It is an important time for us to greet the people as a couple, to touch them, to learn their names, and to let them know that we want to be involved in their lives.

9. I send a handwritten birthday card to every church officer, senior citizen, missionary, and member of the missionary family. I set aside aspecific hour for this once a month. I write the card while my secretary sits alongside me and addresses the envelope.

10. Three years ago we divided our church into sixteen sub-parishes, each led by an elder, deacon or deaconess. This leadership team fosters a personalized ministry of caring by making every member a minister in these groups. Many of the groups have their own weekly Bible study. Twice a year we cancel the Sunday evening service and have sixteen separate services in homes. These are often an agape feast and communion service led by the elder. So, in a sense, we have many churches within the larger body.

Let me add one thing more. We’ve often heard the cliche, “More is caught than is taught.” This is true in our staff and elder meetings. Too often these groups meet only to conduct business. When this happens we tend to perpetuate a business-like/taskoriented attitude toward other groups in the church. A warm, caring staff meeting tends to produce the same kind of elders meeting, which tends to be perpetuated as the elders touch the lives of other people.

How well have the above ten ideas worked? Recently I received an encouragement card from a young friend named Danny. “Dear Pastor, Just today we won our baseball game 20 to 19. I think you are the best pastor I’ve ever known.”

I answered Danny’s card with a note of friendship and experienced one of the warmest, most satisfied feelings I’ve ever known. At the same time Danny and his parents were reassured that we are a church concerned about the individual.

Seven years ago Tim Lotta moved to Salem and visited our church with a friend. He announced that he and his family were of a different denominational background and were looking for a smaller church. However, they found our church so warm, friendly, and caring that they came back the following week. They’ve never looked elsewhere. They think that despite our size we really are a small church.

Shouldn’t everyone feel that way?