http://blogs.christianpost.com/smallpreacher-biggod/how-to-find-a-good-church-9728/

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

I continue to reflect on what made our 50^th anniversary celebration so successful.   Our district superintendent gave us a great compliment saying that he could not think of another church that had used an anniversary celebration so well to move the church forward.   So I want to write down for the sake of others what I believe helped us to make it happen. 

Intercede for the celebration

Looking back, I believe that one reason our celebration was blessed was that we have been praying for it for all these 30 months that it has been in process.   It has been a frequent topic on the Wednesday intercessors list.  It has been a subject for prayer by the pastors in their weekly meetings.  It had been a topic for LBA (Local Board of Administration) prayer times too.   Our focus has been that we might lift up Jesus in this celebration, that we might celebrate his faithfulness and grow in faith and expectancy for the future.  Our prayer was that the 50^th celebration would help to launch the church into its next decade well.

Advertise and Invite

This should go without saying but it doesn’t.  So many times in the church we have planned and executed excellent programs but failed to advertise them and generate invitations to them.  We seem to assume that if we plan a good service, people will hear about it and decide to come.    But that is so not true.  Research shows that invitation is what helps people attend, and the more personal the better.     For our 50^th celebration weekend, we used multiple ways to advertise and invite; our lighted highway sign, bulletin, letter from the pastor, mass mailing to 4000 households, website, blog and Facebook.  We also created an invitation specifically for people to give their friends.  As pastor, I personally contacted all the previous pastors by phone as well.  I encouraged the congregation to invite others too.   Did the strategy work?  Absolutely, the celebration service had the highest attendance we have seen in many years, probably the second highest in the church’s history.

Don’t put all the eggs in one basket

While we put a great deal of emphasis upon the celebration service and made it the center of our 50^th Anniversary Celebration, it was not the only event that people looked forward to.  The build-up of events on Saturday included a parsonage open house, a fancy Meet-and-Greet reception at church, and a concert and testimony program in the evening.  This program worked well for us since music is such a large part of our church services and many people are very gifted in it.    Then after church we had a catered dinner downstairs with a light-hearted short program.  We invited people to contribute toward the dinner but made it clear that we wanted everyone there no matter what they could contribute.

Make it personal

There were many ways that we tried to make the 50^th celebration very personal.  One was a slide show with many pictures from the history of the church.  There was the usual collection of photo albums.  A third was an anecdotal history written Facebook style.  This latter was a great idea but it was surprisingly hard to persuade people to write short memories for it.  But the result was effective and interesting reading.   At every event of the three weekend emphasis, we recruited individuals to give planned testimonies of what our church meant to them.   We also asked for testimonies online. At the dinner we recognized people who came to the church in each decade.  We also identified surviving charter members and relatives of charter members.   In addition, the many people who volunteered all had a personal part in our big weekend.   Over the three weeks, lots of different people shared the pulpit, the platform or the microphone.   There was a big bulletin board with baby pictures for people to identify.   All this helped make the weekend very personal for everyone.  

http://blogs.christianpost.com/the-pastors-eye/ten-good-reasons-to-go-to-church-9676/

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

After our fun celebration, I began thinking, “Why is it important to celebrate?  Are there good reasons besides the fun?”   I remembered immediately that God must have thought it was important as he taught the OT people to set aside time for feasting and rejoicing.   Now, in the glow of our big weekend, I can see some of the reasons.

Celebration motivates people to volunteer and identify with the cause.

The energy of the occasion is catching.  People like to be a part of a good purpose in a way that is immediate and tangible.  Helping out at a celebration provides a positive emotional feedback to the volunteer, especially when coupled with appropriate appreciation from those being helped.   Volunteering in turn helps the volunteer to feel more a part of the organization that they helped.  

Celebration generates creativity.

We found that the combination of workers thinking together and the challenge of a focused task that they strongly believed in generated much creativity.   All kinds of new ideas were spawned in the past few months and many of them were used.   One of the biggest examples was the sanctuary makeover.  The idea of preparing for the future helped set a climate for change.   The creative idea of dividing the front wall between paint and paneling instead of all paneling was accepted by a huge majority.  The new design’s decorative flexibility became evident at the 50^th as the background of the cross became purple to complement the purple and gold color scheme of the celebration.  Enlarging the vestibule and moving the doors to the center created an entrance so natural that it seems like it always should have been like that.   For another example, we had done slide shows before on the big screen but never with the music embedded and narration overlaid.   Anne Kipping and JoAnne Jones went as far as they could and then called in Josh Basile to put it all together.  A third example was the spontaneous recreation of the church sign landscaping by Cindy Centner and Vicki Hilliges.   All these examples made it obvious that creativity just happens as we celebrate.

Celebration calls forth profound praise to God.

Sometimes our praises seem rather ordinary, habitual and dutiful.   That’s certainly much superior to a lack of praise, but there is more.    In times of celebration our praise seems to well up from deeper with in us; it involves more of us;  it arises from a more conscious recounting of so many of the blessings of God.   It is more heartfelt; more intense, more profound.   God reads hearts and I know He was pleased with the intensity of praise that welled up in our hearts this past Sunday morning.  I believe even angels praised God with us.

Celebration unites the Body of Christ.

People work together gladly and cooperate easily to make a celebration happen.   Oh, friction can happen as ideas conflict or people get tired in the work, but even these glitches are more easily overcome because of the driving energy provided by reaching the goal together.   It’s not a celebration if we don’t get there together.    It addition, the natural recollection of history, reminiscing upon anecdotes we  have in common, and recounting of landmark events all serve to ground our unity in common history.  

Celebrations serve as an occasion for fellowship.

At our anniversary event, many people we had not seen each other in decades were brought together again.  Those who had seen each other were given another opportunity to rub shoulders chat and enjoy good food and conversations.    Being friends in the family of God working together through a celebration deepens ties of fellowship too.

Church celebrations serve as a time to honor those who have served well.

The Bible instructs us to honor those who are over us in the Lord and to take note of those who have served well (1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim. 3:12).    But there are not many occasions that lend themselves as easily to doing this like an anniversary celebration does.   Taking note of persons who deserve honor on special occasions can take many forms; having them take part in events, taking pictures of them, giving gifts, and recognizing them before the group are just a few of them. 

Celebration creates momentum for moving forward.

One of the unseen things leaders work for is to create positive momentum that propels the organization forward.   Celebrations such as our 50^th anniversary do just that.   The positive good will engendered the sense of unity, the strengthened sense of organizational identity all help to create a sense of forward movement that drives us into the future.   This is doubly important when you consider that the alternative is to slowly die away, to allow energy and organization to attenuate over time.   Periodic celebration works against this and injects positive new life instead. 

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

What a great weekend we have enjoyed here at Community Wesleyan.   There was a tremendous joy evident in all the events.   Beginning with the hugs of surprise reunions at the parsonage open house, continuing amid the happy chatter of the delightfully fancy Meet N’ Greet reception, and throughout the service of thanksgiving on Saturday evening, joy abounded.   Looking back, I’m so glad we added the Saturday events.   I estimate at least 120 enjoyed the praise and thanksgiving time.   It gave much more time to peruse the meticulously collected photo albums and bulletin boards telling our church’s story.  It also gave time to try to guess who went with which baby pictures.  I wonder if anyone guessed that early grade school picture was me.  I also think it added greatly to the anticipation of Sunday.  

Sunday’s Celebration events were climactic in every way.   The coffee and cookie time was grander than ever and enjoyed by many.      In service, who can forget the heart for winning others to Jesus of our aging founding pastor, Rev. Tom Boghosian as he urged us on.  The music was stirring especially the rousing chorus of “Look What the Lord Has Done,”   the grand piano, organ and reunion choir rendition of “To God Be the Glory,”  the Sign Choir’s moving “Yesterday, Today, Forever,” the bell choir’s fresh reminder, “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands”, and Dave Schwarz’s challenge with “Find Us Faithful.”   Like our two services, the celebration was a mix of traditional and contemporary elements.   At the suggestion of Dick Rugar, we used this day to also receive new members, of whom he was one.  Another one, Nancy Collins, gave her testimony.  A very well put together slide show summarized our church’s history and ministry very well.  District Superintendent Wayne Wager Sr.’s message on Jubilee, a Time to Realign was both a warning and an encouragement to us to take advantage of this crucial time in our history to seek the kind of renewal that will return us to our original passion for souls. 

What a blessing also to hear Pastor Eric’s official announcement that our goal of 50 ministries in the past 30 months had been exceeded.   We praise God for enabling this.   And since we want that spirit to continue, we hope many will send out one of the special postcards we made.  That is our next outreach and service ministry.   

In hindsight, one of the wisest decisions we made was to use a caterer and have the dinner at church.  The turnout was tremendous. The downstairs was arranged to seat about 220 and some seats were used twice.   The program was fun yet helped us reflect on the history of our church.   The reminisces from former pastors Wolfe and Crandall and testimonies from Fran Filmer and Steven Sgroi gave us good perspectives too.  JoAnne’s song, “Keep the Flame Burning” that we sang at the close of both the service and the dinner program seemed to sum it all up so well.  

There are so many to thank for making it all possible.   Pastor Wager was impressed with the planning we had done.  I was personally blessed by all those who pitched in the last few days to put on finishing touches.   There were set-up volunteers swarming the place for days ahead.   Volunteers worked on at least 4 picture related projects constantly during that last week.   Gardeners totally redid the church sign garden.  People were practicing music and sign and bells whenever they could find a spot to do so.   Then after it was all over, volunteers were cleaning up for hours.   I say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped bring it all together.

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

As our celebration continues, I continue to reflect on the planning that has led up to our celebration.  I was thinking about things that we could have done better.   That is part of evaluating any major effort.  

Budget specifically for the celebration.

Somehow we thought when we did the yearly budget a year ago that the cost of our celebration would get absorbed here and there in the budget.  But as the year progressed and the celebration got closer, the committee could see that it was a big mistake not to ask for a specific budget line for the celebration itself.   Fortunately for the celebration, this was one of those years where we needed to do a mid-year budget revision; so even though we were cutting the budget total, the finance committee carved out a line item for the celebration in the revised budget.   Sooner or later, and especially in a tight budget year, subcommittees for promotion or dinner or remembrances, etc. are going to need money.  

Appoint not only sub-committee or area leaders, but recruit assistants too. 

We discovered as the celebration neared that our leadership cadre was too thin.   We were like a basketball team with only 5 players and no one to substitute when someone was injured or needed a rest.   One team leader couple was doing double duty in two areas.   While it was barely tolerable because the time frames of major involvement were staggered, it was definitely not ideal.   Another leader had family circumstances arise that required more attention.  Since that area had no assistant leader and very few team members, some work inevitably fell upon other sub-groups.   When leaders are overloaded, the whole project suffers and workers can get a sour taste from overwork.  Hindsight says we should have recruited assistant leaders so that each team had some back-up in case of emergency.     I think I could have been more helpful in recruiting additional sub-team members.  I left that to committee heads. 

Use social media to advertise

We decided as part of the build-up to the 50^th anniversary to put the pastor on Facebook and create a Facebook page for the church.  We did not realize when we did it that this medium would quickly become one of our best means of getting the word out about activities.   If we had started sooner, we would have had more time to build up our Facebook following for the church’s page.   Of course, we also created website pages for the 50^th and the pastor blogged about it as well.  However, we did not assign enough writers.  We created the internet vehicles but had trouble getting sufficient new content online to maximize our exposure.  Ideally we needed at least two volunteers specifically writing for the web and Facebook.  Then, I think we needed additional means to link Facebook, the webpages, and the pastor’s blog.  We were on the right track, but in hindsight, we could have been much more effective with a few changes.      

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

The preparations have been exhausting, but the result is clearly worth it.   Many people have pitched in to accomplish a prodigious amount of work in the last week in preparation for this weekend at Community Wesleyan.  

Makeover fever hits the sign garden

Cindy Center took on some of the outside gardening and asked Vicki Hilleges to help.  Vicki in turn recruited her daughter Nicole and husband Doug to finish the complete redo of the landscaping surrounding our church sign.  It looks awesome.   Cindy and Vicki also resurrected the old planter between the pines, the first time it has been plated since I have been pastor here.   Mike and Pat had lots of help in setting up for the dinner and it looks gorgeous with everything in purple and gold.   Fran recruited help too and the Meet and Greet reception  tables were a visual treat as well as being loaded with goodies.   Here at the parsonage,  JoAnne had help in  preparing for the open house from Mikayla, Kim O. and Kathy Dunn.   

Picture mother lode discovered

A picture treasure trove was discovered just this past Sunday.   Suddenly the history drawer had more pictures and notebooks in it than it had in years.  This required a huge amount of hustle to resort pictures for the slideshow, fill more photo albums, and prepare the rest for appropriate filing.    JoAnne headed up this effort with help from many.  To Amy LaForte fell the task of actually putting the mounds of pictures into photo albums.     Judy Pazdzierski and JoAnne created the photo record for 50 4 50 Ministries.  JoAnne supplied the pictures and write-ups and Judy did the scrap-booking.     The third photo project has been the slide show.   Anne Kipping and JoAnne were working hard on it but discovered they needed a PowerPoint expert to help bring their whole vision together.  Josh Basile joined their effort and supplied the expertise and the finishing touches.

First evening of celebration is a big success

Nothing like hugs from friends — Many hugs at the parsonage open house this afternoon and at the meet and greet time at church afterward.   Saw many I have not seen in years.  Many are returning tomorrow.   Founding pastor, Rev. Tom Boghosian and his wife and former pastor Rev. Ed Crandall and Lois were here.   In addition to these, tomorrow we expect to see Rev and Mrs. Wolfe and our D.S., Rev. Wayne Wager and his wife.   After the conversation time the concert/praise and testimony time was attended by more than one hundred people.   It was a joyful time.  

Download (PDF, 197.83KB)

Our Celebration Theme and Logo

It is hard to believe that the time has arrived for Community Wesleyan Church’s 50^th Anniversary Celebration to begin.    It seems we have been thinking about it for a long time since we started planning and working toward this time about 30 months ago.  We have accomplished much leading up to it too.   We have worked hard together to complete 50 outreach and service ministries.    During the celebration we will hear the report of our progress in reaching this goal.   We have also worked shoulder to shoulder and sacrificed financially to achieve the 50^th Anniversary Makeover goals that we set to help prepare our church for the future.  Our plan was to make a generational difference by preparing our facility for God to use over the next two decades, if Jesus tarries.   The results of the first two stages­ – the kitchen makeover and the sanctuary makeover – will be on display.  In addition, folks can see the JAM’N Kids area and the new relaxed-look library both of which also caught the makeover fever.  We are praising God that all of these projects have been completely paid for.   The third stage – replacing the sanctuary floodlights with modern fixtures – is nearly funded as of the last LBA meeting.   With much of the work behind us, now it is time to focus on the celebration.  I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for that, spiritually, relationally, and emotionally.   The events of the next three weeks are about celebrating God’s faithfulness over the past 50 years and looking forward in faith to the future.  Here’s a complete chart of what’s happening.