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This sharing gave the team the best picture of the desired experience of The Starting Point—a safe space for being known and getting the needed support from one another and from God by His Spirit and His Word.
Goal 5: The Plan for More
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Strengths of the Soul Care Project
The project proposed to do three things: (1) get to know prospective members as they get to know Clifton Park; (2) have prospective members get to know and connect with one another; and (3) discern their spiritual condition for proper next steps, noting potential barriers to their growth in relationship with Christ and the church. New ground was being broken at CPBC where, in a group setting, participants were required to be transparent, not closed but open to share about themselves, and the sharing was nonnegotiable. The soul care leaders decided early that they too needed to be a part of this transparency, reflecting on the questions and using wisdom in their unguarded responses, for they realized that their sharing was part of the prospective members connecting to Clifton Park. These sharing exercises required also that participants be reflective, to consider things about themselves and their relationship with God which they would not have considered otherwise. The four-part HAQ proved its worth for this
reflective thinking and sharing. Participants also had opportunities to affirm one another, find common ground, and connect out of this authentic sharing.
Besides providing a place of transparency and connection, the teaching from the Word of God was rich. Each week leaders and participants read Matthew 22:34-40 and completed each HAQ based on an understanding of the context and words of Jesus i n that passage. They became well acquainted with the context and would hide the two commandments in their hearts by way of memorization. In addition, my use of the
supporting Scriptures as God’s response to their responses on the HAQ proved ingenious, undoubtedly Spirit-directed. The command to love God is a command to respond to His love (lesson 1); God wants our all as He calls us to love no one or nothing more than Him (lesson 2); a biblical view of self frees one up to focus less on self and more on others (lesson 3); and we love others the way God has loved us, the way we desire to be loved (lesson 4). It was as if the Lord had them to exhale faulty thinking and inhale the truth from His Word for righteous thinking, believing, and being.
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Finally, listening to and recording the participants’ responses on the HAQ by the team leaders provided the content for the behind the scenes reflections regarding the depth of their relationship with the Lord, their soil type, and recommended next steps.
The soul care team was often in agreement with one another’s commentaries and recommendations, being no more than an inch off in assessing spiritual maturity levels.
The degrees of maturity marked as 1, 2, or 3 on the leader’s evaluation form yielded a more accurate assessment. The leaders’ recall of the responses was clear and accurate with team members rarely, if ever, not hearing the same things.
Weaknesses of the Soul Care Project
It often takes time for persons to warm up to one another and the four weeks they spent together did that, but the warming starting at the third week, which meant that persons had only one more week together. I would not recommend that the time be extended in The Starting Point, but that the transparency, sharing, and warm safe atmosphere created through it continue in a different space with the same people. The desired connection was achieved, a cohort formed, but it was too short-lived by way of having an intentional space similar to what was just experienced to keep the transparent, honest conversations going.
Another weakness of the project is that I assumed that the lack of retention and assimilation solely falls with the new members team, that the one remedy is to put
prospective members together for four weeks around authentic conversations and they would stay. This faulty blame neglected the responsibility of other players; in fact, it did not give room to ponder what role other ministry partners need to play in bringing these persons along. Much of the work, even the follow-up, is through Christian education;
surely, the affinity fellowship and serving ministries are important. These retention and assimilation efforts require that the essential ministries be identified with each essential ministry owning and doing its part.
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A third weakness of the project was realized immediately following the first round of The Starting Point: There were no participants for the second and third rounds;
no consideration was given to where they would come from. All but three of those contacted through the telephone survey who said “yes” to participating in the sessions actually participated. Without panicking, I had to consider where the prospects would come from for the next two rounds. Certainly, I re-invited the three who said yes but did not come, yet, as already proven, they were no guarantee. Thankfully, two Sundays prior to the start of the second round, I held a discipleship orientation at 9:30 a.m. with those who received membership at the 8:00 a.m. service. Because I knew that I would be explaining my school project and issuing an invitation for their participation in the project, I also invited a recent prospective member to sit in on this new member discipleship orientation. All three agreed to participate; two were asked to join the second round while the one was asked to be a part of the third round. Along with the two from the discipleship session (one a new member and the other a new prospective member), three others (members) from the same age bracket were invited to join in that second round. Similar recruiting was done for the third round, which included five prospective members (one of those prospective members was contacted through the telephone survey), the one new member previously mentioned, and two members who were in their second year of membership, whom I felt could use a reboot.
Finally, as mentioned, soul care is new language around Clifton Park, which means that what prospective members experienced in The Starting Point was unique, not common, and not likely to be experienced in group settings anywhere else in the church, at least not immediately. The spirit of sharing in kind that was fostered at The Starting Point will desire expression and will assume that it is commonplace. Therefore, I am moving all Christian education spaces to carry this transparent flair as teachers are trained to be transformational in their lesson aims and activities and more conversational in their teaching style.
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