Church evaluation
Notes on visit to Cambridge Church, Leawood KS Background: Cambridge Church is an AMIA church which was started about 6 years ago as an ECUSA church plant. The church was started by Jay Fowler, the current Rector, with the vision to actively reach out to disconnected people. We visited Cambridge for two main reasons: First, they really are reaching unchurched people—Jay estimated that for about 80% of their congregation Cambridge is the first church they have even really been involved in (at least for a long time). The second draw is that Jay clearly has a gift of encouragement and a desire to share what he has learned with others just getting started in church planting. ... The Service: The first thing that is striking about visiting Cambridge Church is the abundance of signs. Like Resurrection, they meet in a high school, and they have clearly made it a priority to make sure people know where to find the church. ... When you walk inside there are signs directing to the worship space, to the restrooms, welcoming signs with pictures of the people of the church, and a big sign saying children’s ministry (or maybe “Ask about Children’s ministry here”) with a person standing under it (Whom we talked with about where to put our kids—I say more about that below). ... It ended with a call for some sort of response—for first time visitors who wanted to get to know God better to come and visit again, and for those who want to grow more in a knowledge of God to get involved with the upcoming 40 Days of Purpose at the church. ... She introduced it with something like “this was written as a description of the core beliefs of the Church and we find it helpful to say it each week to remember what we believe. ... The people running the petting zoo were members of the church (one had a button on saying ‘ask me about the 40 days of purpose’) yet even when we were asking them about the animals they never introduced themselves or asked our names. This is not to be critical, but rather it was striking that here is a church which is focused on being welcoming to the unchurched—and they show it by being very friendly and accessible, but yet there is still that hard thing of getting people to take a risk and introduce themselves to people they have not met yet. CONVERSATIONS WITH JAY AND HIS WIFE JANINE We talked about a lot of things with Jay in regard to church planting and reaching the lost. Some of the helpful insights and comments are below: In building a core team of leaders for the church plant (and this could apply to a second service team) the key question that Jay asked people was, “If we trained you, would you be willing to lead a small group for your unchurched friends and neighbors? ... Jay said he probably shared with about 100 people about the vision and goals of the church, and 24 said they would be a part of the team. He was meeting with a lot of Episcopalians, so many liked the idea of starting a new church, but when they realized that being a part of the team involved leadership—and specifically leadership in outreach to the unchurched—many declined involvement (including one bank president who was ready to give a lot financially). ... He now uses the term again to give recognition to that initial team, most of who are still a part of the church—although now in a variety of leadership roles and involvement. ... The core team also visited a lot of churches together and after church they would all meet up some where and process the service together and fill out a critique sheet. ... They did a big mailer, a phone campaign, and they invited folks from other churches to come visit so they would have a big crowd for their first services (so if core team folks invited their friends, their friends didn’t come to a church with only 24 people in it). ... Jay said this was actually a pretty frustrating and almost depressing time, to have your numbers drop each week of church. And yet for a church plant to start with 60 people is pretty good, it is just hard to watch the decline week after week. ... He has also found that it is a powerful connecting experience that is non word oriented, and therefore can be very helpful for connecting people with the church.