New Member Orientation – Ministry Models

Join us Wednesday July 5, 2017 at 1pm Central Time as we discuss New Member Orientation on our Ministry Models Teleconference. Call 515-604-9000; Access Code 540330.

When people join a church in your district – through baptism, profession of faith or transfer – you can give them a great start by having a simple but powerful New Member Orientation. This orientation can help them get started immediately in  the ministry and mission Jesus has called them to do. This is the primary purpose of the orientation.

Here are 3 Ministry Models for New Member Orientation that I have found helpful. Feel free to use, adapt or discard them in your ministry. Remember, a MODEL can Make Our Difficulties Easy & Light!

1. Schedule the New Member Orientations by Faith. Rather than wait to plan or schedule a New Member Orientation till new members show up, schedule the next four by faith. I highly recommend you schedule them the Friday evening before your regular Fill the Baptistry Sabbaths. We found that 6:30-8:30pm worked best for us. We met at the church building but you can also have the orientation in a home setting.
2. Invite as many as you can to participate. This includes the new member(s) who will join officially the next day plus any of their relatives, pre-Adventist friends, two church members of the same gender to serve as New Member Coaches for their first two months and any other church leader who is willing to attend. This allows the new members to be surrounded by loving people they already know and other loving people who are part of their new church family.
3. Make your time together count. Use the time together to hear their stories of God’s leading, affirm their joy in being a part of God’s final mission, message and movement and clarify specific ways they can grow rapidly in Jesus, winning others to Him and taking His final message to all their world. We divided the two hours roughly in this way – 30 minutes each for Hearing the new members stories, reaffirming the Adventist message, Sharing four hopes we had for them during their first six months of membership and how to personally participate in the global mission Jesus has given us. See more details on the content of our New Member Orientation this at this link.

In my early days of ministry we cleared people for baptism, profession of faith, re-baptism and even transfer one by one in their homes. Since that time I have found great benefit in clearing them as a group at a New Member Orientation the night before (6:30-8:30pm) they join officially. This seems to strengthen their commitment and bonding with Jesus, His Word and His people.

Here are some related resources:

New Member Orientation – Video Clip     Manual     PowerPoint

Baptism Preparation – Ministry Models link.

“When the members of the church of God do their appointed work in the needy fields at home and abroad, in fulfillment of the gospel commission, the whole world will soon be warned and the Lord Jesus will return to this earth with power and great glory. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14. {Acts of the Apostles 111.1}

 

Inspired Insights on activating New Members (from Counsels for the Church p. 69)

Just as soon as a church is organized, let the minister set the members at work. They will need to be taught how to labor successfully. Let the minister devote more of his time to educating than to preaching. Let him teach the people how to give to others the knowledge they have received. While the new converts should be taught to ask counsel from those more experienced in the work, they should also be taught not to put the minister in the place of God.

The greatest help that can be given our people is to teach them to work for God, and to depend on Him, not on the ministers. Let them learn to work as Christ worked. Let them join His army of workers and do faithful service for Him.

Let the teachers lead the way in working among the people, and others, uniting with them, will learn from their example. One example is worth more than many precepts.

Those who have the spiritual oversight of the church should devise ways and means by which an opportunity may be given to every member of the church to act some part in God’s work. This has not always been done in the past. Plans have not been fully carried out whereby the talent of all might be employed in active service. There are but few who realize how much has been lost because of this.

In every church there is talent, which, with the right kind of labor, might be developed to become a great help in this work. There should be a well-organized plan for the employment of workers to go into all our churches, large and small, to instruct the members how to labor for the upbuilding of the church, and also for unbelievers. It is training, education, that is needed. Let all set their hearts and minds to become intelligent in regard to the work for this time, qualifying themselves to do that for which they are best adapted.

That which is needed now for the upbuilding of our churches is the nice work of wise laborers to discern and develop talent in the church,—talent that can be educated for the Master’s service. Those who shall labor in visiting the churches should give the brethren and sisters instruction in practical methods of doing missionary work. Let there be a class for the training of the youth as well. Young men and women should be educated to become workers at home, in their own neighborhoods, and in the church.

Heavenly angels have long been waiting for human agents—the members of the church—to co-operate with them in the great work to be done. They are waiting for you. So vast is the field, so comprehensive the design, that every sanctified heart will be pressed into service as an instrument of divine power.

 

Future Topics

The topics for our Ministry Models teleconference listed below will rotate between these general categories – Personal/Family, Soul Winning and Pastoring. We will post notes for each topic/teleconference.

2016

• September – Time Management
• October – Increasing Your Baptisms
• November – Planning Your Church Calendar
• December – Goal Setting & Accomplishment

2017

• January – Baptism Preparation
• February – Nominating Committee
• March – Family Time
• April – Finding Interests
• May – Church Board Meetings
• June – Starting Well in a New District
• July – New Member Orientation
• August – Mobilizing Members in Ministry

Please join us by phone (whether walking, driving, eating or studying) and let’s see what the Lord does to help us each succeed in our daily walk with Him, all our relationships including our families, and in our ministry and mission. Call 515-604-9000; Access Code 540330.

 

 

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