Congregations make plans for Dec. 24 outreach effort
By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
The people of Hunt UMC are always trying to think of ways to be more welcoming.
Church members have undergone extensive welcoming training in the last year, said Orlene Kitzman, welcoming coordinator. They have evaluated their tactics and made necessary changes.
And for the second year the 364-member congregation is participating in Home for Christmas, an eight-week outreach effort across the Southwest Texas Conference. The goal is to remind neighbors and visitors of the true meaning of Christmas.
“Our hope is that people would be blessed when they come here,” Kitzman said, “that they’ll see Jesus Christ in us and realize what he came for—that he came to give us eternal life and save us from our sins.
“And we hope that we can be welcoming to the people who come.”
Now in its seventh year, Home for Christmas is the third of three annual conferencewide outreach campaigns. The effort promotes Dec. 24 candlelight services as special events to which church members may invite unchurched friends and neighbors.
The campaign follows a step-by-step plan of prayer, invitation and follow-up. Publicity-generating tools, such as promotional signs, news releases and advertising, support the invitation effort.
For the small, rural community of Hunt, Kitzman said a Christmas Eve service can have great potential for attracting visitors.
Church leaders, she said, have printed Christmas Eve service times on cards. Members can hand them out to friends and family. The church has also purchased yard signs. Members can display them in front of their homes.
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Advent activities prepare UMs for coming of Christ
By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
Elaine Galle of Industry remembers feeling a connection with Christmas hymns as a young child, back when kids could still sing about Jesus in public schools.
Churches would include Christmas hymns earlier in the season, she recalls, so all young children could know most popular carols. And all the youngsters wanted a part in the Christmas program at Industry UMC.
More than 50 years later, Galle said, children can no longer sing about Christmas in schools, and churches don’t use Christmas music during Advent. But children still come from all around the city to take part in Industry UMC’s Christmas program.
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Consultants praise organization
of conference staff
The Southwest Texas Conference is one of the best-organized nonprofit agencies an independent group of consultants has ever seen.
That was the verdict delivered Oct. 27 by Executive Advisory Consultants of South Texas to the Staff-Conference Relations Committee.
“This United Methodist Center is a marvelous, highly efficient and strongly dedicated-to-serving-others organization,” said Leonard P. Zych, executive director of the consulting group.
“The United Methodist Center definitely radiates God’s love and demonstrates a proven ability to manage change. In 20 years of work with nonprofits, this United Methodist Center is the best organization we have observed.”
Zych, a retired Air Force colonel and corporate training executive, acknowledged that the organization wasn’t perfect.
[full story]
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