Office - 116 LaRonge Rd. Saskatoon, SK. S7K 8E5
Phone - 249-4844 Fax - 955-7462

Outline of VRCP Visits to
Small Rural Churches 9

- Initially, we contacted pastors or church chair persons in order to schedule our visits and describe our program for our time together.

- We suggested, ahead of time, that the evening begin with a pot luck supper at about 5:00 pm. This was optional, but we Mennonites get comfortable over food, and we hoped to establish a comfortable atmosphere for the evening. It also helped us to get an early start, which made it easier to travel home after the meeting. In fact, this only came together a few times, but when it did it worked well.

- Before the meal, we had the pastor or leader introduce us briefly and we took a moment or two to introduce the reason for our visit. We requested that a local person open in prayer for the meeting and the meal.

- After the meal (or before the meeting), we moved the chairs into a circle (or around a table, or shifted pews around, or just gathered in a corner) and then sang a congregational hymn together. We asked the group to select two songs that speak to them of steadfastness, perseverance and hope in difficult times.

- We presented a short Bible reading and meditation (attachment A).

- From there we moved on to a more detailed introduction of the Vibrant Rural Churches Project and presented our expectations: "We trust that rural congregations of MC Sask will view our time together as a positive event, where the focus is not on reliving the pain of decline or grieving the past, but on present successes and future potential and possibilities. We certainly do not want to deny or minimize the pain and frustration, but in this meeting we hope to look with you beyond those difficulties. Our desire is for the congregations we visit to take ownership of the event and its outcomes. We are not coming to tell you what to do, but to learn together from your experiences."

- We reviewed the statement of objectives which we had brought along, written out on large paper, and hung on the wall (attachment B).

- Then we called for the second congregational song.

- We introduced the discussion period with comments along these lines: "After these introductory comments and explanations, we want to listen to what your congregation has to say. We have previously shared five questions that we hope will help us all talk about the internal faith life of your congregation and its outward expression in community ministry (attachment C). We will have additional questions to expand on these, and will use them to lead/encourage discussion (attachment D). Again, our objective is to understand and record what is working for you and what gives you hope, so that others may learn from your experience."

- We did this as a whole-group discussion, unless there were more than about 20 people present. We used flip charts so we didn't lose what the group had to say. This proved to be very important, both in helping the group to think about and get excited about what they were doing, and in terms of building their trust in our ability to record carefully what they were saying. We normally did our own recording, although occasionally we needed to ask one of those present to be a recorder.

- Closing prayer.

- Those groups that had chosen not to do a 'carry-in supper' normally provided a snack after the meeting and there was good fellowship around this food.

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