The ministry is established on the strong foundation of a church community. Building real ties among its members is as important a part of it as anything else: belonging and serving and uplifting the membership mission itself. Still, these days, it can be really difficult to find time to entertain the possibility of serious relationships among people within a community, which calls for the deliberate approaches outlined in this post that serve to strengthen community relationships in church.
1. Provide Opportunities for Fellowship
Do something outside of Sunday, so that the people of the church can engage with one another: Transform fellowship into a series of exciting activities, such as potlucks, game nights, or community service project work, which ends up getting people together in nonthreatening environments. Fellowship activities get people started and then allow them to move into sharing their lives with each other.
2. Promote Small Groups
Small groups are indeed important to connecting church members more deeply. This is the arena in which members can safely engage in some personal and vulnerable study of scripture-reading while sharing and praying for one another. Something that will have to be encouraged in small groups will be diversity-ensuring that this is not pigeonholed into affinity groups, such as all older adults, senior singles, young marrieds, etc., but encourages interactions among members from different backgrounds and life stages.
3. Have Communications Upfront
Bringing all these things under the roof of sound communication is one of the functions of ushering a relationship into the corridors of establishment and sustenance. Keep using the very many different communication networks at your disposal like email newsletters, social media, or personal outreach to enrich and inform members of any democracy that their church community has. Show attention, care, and interest in the lives of church members as far as personal outreach goes.
4. Inspire Volunteerism
Volunteering could help engage members to their mission and their church even more. Create different opportunities in which members can serve within various ministries: welcome teams, community outreach, etc. Shared memories in serving will enhance the spirit of camaraderie and purpose.
5. Acknowledge and Celebrate All Milestones and Achievements
Birthday, anniversary, baptism, or personal achievement, anything that could be a milestone should be acknowledged and celebrated-the events will help contribute to making members feel loved and it will enable them to know they’re appreciated. Continue these forms of celebration in your church culture, be it in the form of announcements, cards, or a given special event for recognition and honor of your members.
Conclusion
Building up internal relationships in your communities would take intent and the establishment of situations where connections can grow. With fellowship, small groups, communications, volunteering, and celebrations, you build a community that cares for and sees its members in all ways-the former even including the spiritually intended ones.
How does your church create more solid ties amongst its members? Add your thoughts in the comments section below! For more exceptional top content on building communities and ministries, kindly subscribe to our newsletter.