Insights and ideas that stimulate action This document summarizes the input and insights that were shared during the dialogue day with the board and councils of Immanuel Church on the 10th of November 2018. The content is a shared resource, and a starting point for continued discussion, decisions and action within the Board, the Councils and other parts of the church where the insights are relevant. It is our possibility and responsibility, together, to use these insights and continue building the church that we want to be! Summarizing the insights It is clear that a lot of the trends, challenges and opportunities between the language groups are similar. The differences are rather linked to the ways we organize ourselves. All groups see the trend of fewer, often young, people going to church, the impact of social media on our lives, and the increased polarization in society where we as a diverse community have an important role to play. Within this material is a large number of insights and ideas, linked to the four areas in our ministry action plan, that could be discussed, prioritized and put into action through our councils and the board. It is hard to identify any general area or need mentioned a larger number of times. The material rather paints a full picture - with many components - of what we are doing, need to do and want do do in the future. However - the different comments and ideas are clearly linked together - and they support us moving in the same direction going forward. It is interesting to note that we are in some cases challenging ourselves to prioritize, understand, learn and talk more to each other! 1
Background The purpose of the day Meet and continue to work together through dialogue Increase knowledge about the current state and ongoing work within the different language groups in our church Based on our common ministry action plan - gather ideas, identify needs and plan while taking development, possibilities and challenges into account 2
Who was there? We were a total of 32 participants, with all three councils and the Board represented with a quite equal number of participants. Thank you all for coming and sharing your thoughts, ideas and enthusiasm! What we did... 20 min State of the Union - where we are today, our vision and ministry action plan 40 min Each council gets 10 minutes to present their homework Short break 30 min Discussion around the tables: What similarities and differences do you see between the homework insights that have been presented by each council? 30 min Discussion around the tables: What do we need to put more time and resources into over the coming years in order to realize what we have described in the ministry action plan? Part 1 Lunch (approx. 12.30-13.30 ) 40 min Discussion around the tables: What do we need to put more time and resources into over the coming years in order to realize what we have described in the ministry action plan? Part 2 35 min Discussion around the tables: What do we need to do more of, less of, stop doing and start doing in order to make the ambitions and needs described in the ministry action plan come true? Coffee break 50 min Brainstorming of ideas for how to make it all happen 20 min Gather input for the next ministry action plan 20 min Summarizing the day and next steps 3
Background for discussions - summary of the ministry action plan Diaconal work Serving our neighbourhood, our sister churches and other international organizations Diaconal work as a joint effort within the whole church Welcome ministry/being a good host Children and youth, young adults and families Offer activities and meeting places that help these groups seek, find, express and grow faith Support for young people to impact the future of Immanuelskyrkan Mentorship for teenagers and young adults Volunteers and leadership More volunteers in all ages and areas Knowledge about where we need more volunteers Develop as leaders and develop leaders The foundation to make it happen: Increased participation - decision-making and development of our church Improved Communication - internally and externally Receive in order to pass on - Giving of time and resources Increased fellowship between worship groups Strengthen fellowship in the whole congregation Clearly invite new people to join us Make it possible/easy to enjoy fellowship in smaller groups Serve alongside one another in practical ways Summary of output 4
Homework from councils - summary What trends do you see in society affecting our church? What are the main challenges and possibilities within your language group for the coming years? What are you most proud of within Immanuel Church today? Welcoming Diversity Openness Fika Family feeling Social work Large international community 5
What similarities do you see between the homework insights that have been presented by each council? Challenges related to how to reach out and inspire people to come to church Generation gap How to use/relate to social media Younger generation leaving the community Challenge to involve a larger group of volunteers A need to organize ourselves Challenge around how to work with communication in a broad sense What differences do you see between the homework insights that have been presented by each council? Efforts and strategies for how to welcome newcomers Organisation of the councils Organisational differences to engage members - there seems to be an unbalance in how the resources are divided between the church groups? Level of reliance on staff Whether the middle aged group is missing Focus on Bible study Number of newcomers None 6
What do we need to put more time and resources into in order to realize what we have described about diaconal work in the ministry action plan? Themes: cooperation - prioritization - hospitality - communication Work more together with both professionals and across language groups Review which groups to reach out to and increase knowledge about how to reach new groups. Many children today live in families with poverty. Can they be reached? Structure and training to organise volunteers who want to serve Communication of opportunities to serve Expand it to combat polarization Being a good host to the greater community in Stockholm Discuss where our actions are best put to use. Where the government already does something vs where no one does anything Work towards more integration. Create forums where people can discuss Housing for ensamkommande barn Hospitality through congregation Outreach to young families in the area Spread news about good work, help all worship groups connect Invite other organisations to work with us Be more proactive in welcoming people Work more together from all groups in projects like Lunch in gemenskap Test the hospitality of the congregation by asking if we we have members willing to give shelter in private homes to the 10 young lonely coming boys that sleep in our Church on occasion. What do we need to put more time and resources into in order to realize what we have described about children, youth, young adults and families in the ministry action plan? Themes: build community - welcoming - inspiration from others - mentorship - involvement Ensure that there are smaller groups gathering in each language group for young families. Today only the Korean fellowship has this. There is a young adults group and there needs to be a next natural step for families. More freedom for the young people to get together like sport activities and fika Welcoming kit for all newcomers. For the Young people:kids bible Communicate the fantastic things that already happen like Sunday school and Role play Message more relevant for young people. Clarity needed in preaching. Easy points to remember and take away. Look at other churches that successfully attract young people and learn what they do right and how young people get engaged. Gathering all the volunteers engaged in working with Young people in church and show appreciation Young people and families need to be seen the first time the come to church. Contact them and keep in touch. Good resources allocated. Need to connect with worship group Continue to work to build community on regular basis Friday s and Sunday Connect young people with adults in church, mentorship Children ministry, how, when and by whom it is done More volunteers around the work for the children 0-13 years We need more expertise on the matter of social media and the digital era. Do we need to match up all the other activities for teenagers or can we as a church offer other things? Continually build community, with longevity, in the same way that the confirmation group has been successful Looking for ideas and inspiration from other types of groups that have similar experience in building longterm community Develop relationships, and mentorship programs, to support young adults and/or parents of small children. Give young adults opportunities for action and involvement in forming and developing the future of the church Involve our young members in serving the free lunches for the have not people and for them to find out that have not is a wide concept. - A clear job description is necessary for the leader in every area of responsibility 7
What do we need to put more time and resources into in order to realize what we have described about volunteers and leadership in the ministry action plan? Themes: share experiences - ask personally - mentorship & support - communicate needs Structured mentorship Youth people in the councils Inform about needs Ask individuals directly in order to raise a sense of urgency. Get a list of names of potential people and ask them. Encourage participants in small groups to become leaders. Have more of leadership training and meetings. See leadership or volunteering as a social opportunity. Ask members of the church about their talents and what they can contribute with. Have more opportunities for leaders and volunteers to share in services. Arrange and present different areas with a need. Have lists for people to sign up at a ministry fair. Develop, inspire and support leadership talents through training. With training comes confidence, and this can help to attract new volunteers. Care of volunteers. Maintaining contact with them as a part of leadership responsibilities. Acceptance that a volunteer position can be for a defined length of time, and not a permanent position. Visit each others services more often. Do more diaconal work together. More fellowship and activities for the young people together. Create a joint choir. Keep up the good work with existing activities Cultural exchanges; ie some kind of art expression meeting - dance, music, painting Map out people from all groups living in my area -> maybe create small cell group, have dinner or just have a glögg o fika! What do we need to put more time and resources into in order to realize what we have described about fellowship in the ministry action plan? Themes: mix (small/prayer) groups - work together - meeting places - have fun! Sports events together We need to structure and invite people actively to small groups. Tickets for dinner that are sold in the Christmas Market- try to mix different food cultures. Swedes go home to a Korean family... Immanuel Cricket team! Invite people to small groups based on geographic locations. Should be easy to hook into a small group. Visit each others services more. Do more diaconal work together. More fellowship between the young people in the different groups. Create a joint choir. Retreats and camps for the whole church. Fellowship between the language groups should be encouraged and can be setup by geographic location. More outreach/outdoor services together. We disagree on if always having a joint service would be good or not. Encourage members to visit each other s kyrkkaffe Have the joint services. Maybe more than four per year? Offer summer and winter camps To meet, both in formal groups and in informal groups for discussions, as we are doing today Reflect on how we describe our church to others Winter camps with young adults across language groups. Common prayer, or prayer groups, made up of members from all fellowships MORE: church based program similar to swap your life, perhaps via an App, to facilitate more spontaneous communication and meetings MORE: having fun together! START: doing fun things together to encourage fellowship and relationships: skiing, cooking, making music, swimming, painting, hiking, sailing, playing golf, etc. 8
What do we need to start doing, stop doing, do more of and do less of to turn all of this into reality? Start doing Stop doing Investigate the possibility to start a social business like Katarina church Hiding as Christians in our daily life does Charging for coffee/fika manifestations outdoors in the public Music school? Learning from mistakes - Dare to say it didn t work- Courage to drive Fill in names every year in all groups/committees without thinking "do change we need this group"? Focus on common ground Blaming others Listening to God about which way to go Promote members to visit all the different worship groups Review all church activities in all groups in order to clarify the meaning and connection to the church. There needs to be a clear link. Strengthen the leadership program for all generations. Bible study on who we want to be as a church Do more of outreach to non-christians forgiving social work offering/collection (and talking about it) volunteering and equipping volunteers small groups per geography connection of our activities to our core: BEING CHURCH; SERVE CHRIST information on website structure Collaboration between churches -> we can divide work/focuses and do what each church is best at having fun together Theological discussion on what church we are and want to be. Do less of negative gossip meetings that doesn t lead to the core - more doing more action Unclear engagements/descriptions of volunteer tasks high ambitions rather than listening nagging about money Ideas! Joint prayer groups for the whole church Retreats for the whole church A joint choir for the whole church. Winter camps for families and youths Open café in church every day Immanuel-app with push notes: meetings: sports, worship, dinner etc needs for volunteers needs for financial support Outdoor service with a special theme Find 10 church members who are willing to open their home for an unaccompanied youth to live there (ensamkommande) Dinners at home. Inviting people from the different groups. Evolve the dinner tickets at Christmas market but where you can choose different international food Start offering "Augmented reality" so that people who visit the church or just pass by can point their phone to different parts of church and interaction different ways.. Start offering a "swap your life" program. Different mentor programs Unified church orchestra. In the summer time, church service at public place like Kungstragården to present church presence and deliver God's message. More collaboration with other good forces to fight polarisation. Open up our facilities in a greater extent. Outreach to the local community and finding new people to fill the seats. "Fill the seats" program Add more of a spiritual level of the diaconal work. The bread and the word together. Example: offer a prayer in the chapel when it is vinternatt, or a common prayer before serving food in lunch I gemenskap 9
What should be included in the next Ministry action plan? The most important part is missing, relating to how we evangelize and make God known in our society. INVITE PEOPLE TO KNOW JESUS AND THE GOSPEL. How to reach the spiritual seekers of Stockholm. How do they know we exist? What can we offer them? (For example Alpha). How can we change the society? What can we do about climate change and racism for example? Write about the needs of the elderly. Learn from the experiences of the many elderly people we have in our church. Before coming up with the next ministry action plan, we need to appraise the current plan, identifying the shortfalls and loopholes. Then after we can formulate the new action plan. How to reach new people. There should be a mention of the elderly in our congregation their special needs to be able to take part in congregational life and contribute to it through their life experiences Communication between us internally and externally. A lot of things in the current plan have been effectively implemented, hence, the current plan should be operational the next two years Thank you! 10