How active do you feel the Meeting should be in recruiting new members? That is, do you envision the Meeting consisting mainly of persons already familiar with Quakerism or should we active seek to introduce persons in our community to Quakerism?
I would like to see us reach out more actively to people who are not yet aware of what Quakerism is. In terms of the concentration of Quaker population in this country, we live on the frontier - which is historically the growing edge of religions. This means that we are a different kind of Meeting from those in, say, Philadelphia (Quaker Mecca, so to speak). We must be more mindful of developing our own group's sense of who Quakers are; we must devote more attention to developing among us Quaker ways of living; and we must more actively reach out to others who might like to join us.
I'd like to see us develop a plan for outreach. A flyer? Poster? Advertisements? An outreach committee??
But first, discernment: in what ways are we and are we not prepared to provide for the needs of those who might respond to our outreach?
I agree completely with Ann, particularly the last paragraph. I think we need to plan carefully and ensure we are prepared before we expend resources getting new folks in the door. If they don't go away with something and feel interested in coming back we haven't accomplished much.
2 comments:
I would like to see us reach out more actively to people who are not yet aware of what Quakerism is. In terms of the concentration of Quaker population in this country, we live on the frontier - which is historically the growing edge of religions. This means that we are a different kind of Meeting from those in, say, Philadelphia (Quaker Mecca, so to speak). We must be more mindful of developing our own group's sense of who Quakers are; we must devote more attention to developing among us Quaker ways of living; and we must more actively reach out to others who might like to join us.
I'd like to see us develop a plan for outreach. A flyer? Poster? Advertisements? An outreach committee??
But first, discernment: in what ways are we and are we not prepared to provide for the needs of those who might respond to our outreach?
I agree completely with Ann, particularly the last paragraph. I think we need to plan carefully and ensure we are prepared before we expend resources getting new folks in the door. If they don't go away with something and feel interested in coming back we haven't accomplished much.
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