We're Listening

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

“Listen to the neighborhood.”

You may recall that I wrote this to you last week in my column. And I repeated the message in Sunday’s sermon.

The sermon was about “interconnectedness,” and I was reminding us all that we are connected to our neighborhood as a Church. Our future must be tied to our neighborhood’s future, and as we vision our future together over this next year. It was Rev. Mitchell Boone who recently reminded our Church Council to “listen to the neighborhood.”

So, I preached that Sunday, and here’s what happened…

A neighbor was watching our livestream, and reached out to let us know how excited he is about our visioning process. And he volunteered to help!

This does not surprise me.

Before we listen to our longterm members, or even our newer members, we must listen to our neighborhood. Then, *our* visioning must be informed by their feedback. This is how we insure that Kessler Park UMC remains vitally interconnected to its mission field.

So, some questions for you…

How should we get neighborhood feedback?
Online surveys?
Mailers?
Face-to-face focus groups?

What groups should we reach out to?
Neighborhood associations?
Businesses?
Non-profits?
Social Media groups?

My hunch is…all of the above and more.

But I’d love to get your thoughts.
If you have ideas on who we need to listen to, whose voices need to be at the table, and heard, let me know. I’m posting this same column on our Facebook page today, and I invite you to leave comments there.

As you think about this, consider another thing Mitchell told us…

He said that early on White Rock UMC designated people from the Church to skip worship (gasp!) on a few Sundays and just drive around their neighborhood to learn what folks do during that time.

Not a bad idea.
If you’d like to be a volunteer with this (Yes, this would be a free pass to skip Church!), let me know.

Above all, let’s get ready to attune our ears to LISTEN.