Fellowshipping Chairperson: Help Please

[willie]

Hello! I'm new to this Forum and I hope I am putting this in the right section.

Recently I have been called as a Fellowshipping Co-Chair. The problem is I don't know what I should be doing. Could someone please give me some specifics that I can actually put into action? I feel totally clueless. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Guest]

Interesting, that's a calling I haven't heard of before! Sometimes bishops "create" callings according to the needs of the ward. Did the bishopric member who issued the call give you any guidance as to what they want you to do?

[Guest]

Hello! I'm new to this Forum and I hope I am putting this in the right section.

Recently I have been called as a Fellowshipping Co-Chair. The problem is I don't know what I should be doing. Could someone please give me some specifics that I can actually put into action? I feel totally clueless. Thanks in advance for any help!

We don't have that in our ward either...

Co-Chair... that means there's another one in that position right? Maybe get with that person and figure out what the main goal of the calling is.

My guess is you will be charged with making sure new members feel welcomed and loved in the church as well as those that just moved into your ward from other wards and maybe the less actives as well. That's actually part of my job as a ward missionary so maybe you work under the ward mission leader? Just a guess. Maybe you have the ward missionaries only concentrating on investigators while Fellowship co-chairs do the less-actives and new members?

[willie]

Just some background. The ward is a brand new singles ward that should actually just be a branch right now. For whatever reason, the branch status was just skipped.

I was given a phone list of mostly inactives and told to call them by the Bishop and my fellow co chair. Many of these people have previously requested not to be contacted. It puts me in a very uncomfortable position. I feel like a hated telemarketer.

If there is actually a role for a Fellowshipping Chairperson that does not require me telemarketing to people who have requested not to be contacted, I would prefer to do that!

[willie]

I forgot to add that I am also an assistant ward missionary leader.

Being expected to contact people on a phone list really makes me feel horrible because many of these people have requested previously not to be contacted.

[Dravin]

I forgot to add that I am also an assistant ward missionary leader.

Being expected to contact people on a phone list really makes me feel horrible because many of these people have requested previously not to be contacted.

I'd talk to the Bishop about that. I'd also have a hard time contacting someone with a standing DNC 'order' in place.

[Guest]

I forgot to add that I am also an assistant ward missionary leader.

Being expected to contact people on a phone list really makes me feel horrible because many of these people have requested previously not to be contacted.

Yep! That's the ward missionary calling.

Okay, in my ward, we are given a list of all the members in our region, active or inactive. We are also given a list of investigators in that region. The ward is divided into 4 regions with 2 ward missionaries assigned to each region. We go through the list and get with RS and EQ every month to see who got a visit and who didn't and any other pertinent info they can provide (e.g., in the hospital, moving, got divorced, disfellowshipped/excom'd, hates the church, etc.). We also get with the ward clerk to determine who attended sacrament meeting and who didn't. So then, the way I've been doing it is I organize the list into 1.) Needs service work, 2.) Needs fellowship, 3.) Needs missionary discussion, 4.) needs invitation to church, 5.) Do Not Call, 6.) Preparing for baptism.

So then I get with the missionaries to make the missionary visits and service work and just follow-up with them to make sure it is done. I also get with other members living in the region who may be able to provide fellowship or just a quick call to say hi or invite to church (not really a HT or VT visit). Of course, the Do Not Calls don't get any calls.

And that's that.

The list is quite big for my region, so we can't get to everybody in a month. There are 56 families in my region not counting investigators. Only 16 families are active. And 6 are Do not Calls. The rest may get VT or HT visits or letters but a lot of them don't (Our VT and HT numbers are low). So, there's a lot to do and we don't always catch them within a month.

In any case, I only make a few calls myself. Most of the work I delegate to RS and EQ and the Missionaries and I just make follow-ups to get them on the ball. Most of my concentration is on the investigators who are candidates for baptism or preparing for one because our Ward Mission Leader wants a report on that every week. We try to get those preparing for baptism with active members as part of the preparation so they don't get that "shock" when the missionaries don't call them anymore.

P.S. We also have this program where we hold an activity every 2 weeks for people to invite non-members to. Basically, it's either an introductory video to the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith or an ice-cream social with a small talk. This just started and we sometimes have one or two investigators show up. Usually nobody shows up... but we still hold it anyway. The activity is scheduled at the same time as cub scouts so we usually have scout parents there to eat ice cream with. It's a wierd feeling.

Edited October 25, 2013 by anatess

[willie]

Thanks everyone for your insight!

[Traveler]

I forgot to add that I am also an assistant ward missionary leader.

Being expected to contact people on a phone list really makes me feel horrible because many of these people have requested previously not to be contacted.

I thought I would tell a little story here. When I was young - I grew up with two older brothers - there more siblings but the three of us kind of grew up different than the rest - many families are like this. Anyway we had our favorite cozens. There was one cozen that was male like us and of age in the middle of the three of us. We were great friends and grew up getting into lots of mischievous. Since my grandparents were LDS so was all our family - including aunts and uncles and cozens. But this particular family was not real active, moved away from Utah and the church. I do not think my cozen ever even became a priest in his inactivity.

But we have always been friendly. Years later my cozen had been away from the church for so long he did not really consider himself a member - but at the same time had not been religious or concerned about religion. A few years back my long lost cozen decided to come to a family reunion. My brothers and I were there and we all renewed our friendships. Of course my cozen bragged about his inactivity - but that was not so different from the person that we had grown up with and loved. He was still fun to visit with, kid with and remember old memories. He has been to every family reunion since - and our friendships renewed.

Along with all this, my oldest brother was visiting with his brother in-law - that is far removed from our family. His brother in-law told a story of being called to be a ward missionary and as part of his calling to contact inactive members - including members that had requested many time to not be contacted. He told my brother of one contact they had made of a member that became very angry and went and got a shot gun, and run them off his property and threatened to use it if anyone from the church ever showed up again. My brother's brother in-law brought into serious question why we would visit such inactives.

But during the story the name of my cozen came up. My brother wondered how may members had such a peculiar name and decided to call up to cozen to find out if it was him. Come to find out - it was our cozen. So my brother told the cozen that he was not going to believe it but the guy he had run off and threatened was his brother-in-law. The both had a great laugh over it - but the bottom line is that my cozen now has home teachers coming regularly - even though he still does not attend.

The moral of the story is that G-d knows us all and has us in his mind and if we will allow him to help - anyone can be brought a step closer. In fact I believe that many are just waiting from a miracle and they will start their journey back. I believe that for every active member there is at least one inactive member that they know that they could help when the time is right. And all we need is the faith to listen for that right time.

The Traveler

[mdfxdb]

If they are on a do not call list then do not call them. Respect their wishes.

[Traveler]

If they are on a do not call list then do not call them. Respect their wishes.

Agreed - find some other way.

The Traveler

[applepansy]

I forgot to add that I am also an assistant ward missionary leader.

Being expected to contact people on a phone list really makes me feel horrible because many of these people have requested previously not to be contacted.

Thank you. I was going to say that it sounded more like ward missionary than fellowship coordinator.

Fellowshipping inactives just means you become their friend. I would think that as a coordinator you would maybe pair up an inactive with someone who might have the same interests/concerns and maybe a friendship would develop from there. The key here is that any friendship attempts need to be sincere and often it takes a long, long time to develop a relationship with someone who is holding the church at arms length. But with persistence and time its through sincere friendship that hearts are touched and people are changed.

[applepansy]

If they are on a do not call list then do not call them. Respect their wishes.

There is a difference between calling someone as an assignment from the church and calling or visiting a neighbor who you'd like to get to know.

I agree... if they have requested no contact from the church then respect that, meaning don't show up and say "I'm your home teacher" or "I'm the ward missionary." But there is nothing wrong with befriending someone. If you're sincere in your motives (Christ-like love) then even if it takes a long time to trust your motives eventually they won't be offended.

That's what missionary work on a ward level is all about. Sincerely applying the love of Christ to our relationships with those who are inactive will always change hearts.

[Guest]

If you are co-chairs, why is the other one giving you orders? I'd definitely talk to the bishop about people who have asked to be left alone, and don't just do what your co-chair says. Be willing to talk about it and split the duties, but "co-" implies that you should be deciding on that together.

[willie]

If you are co-chairs, why is the other one giving you orders? I'd definitely talk to the bishop about people who have asked to be left alone, and don't just do what your co-chair says. Be willing to talk about it and split the duties, but "co-" implies that you should be deciding on that together.

Working with the "Co-Chair" has been awful. She actually sent another guy into Sunday School to fetch me in order to meet her outside so I could call people from the list during the second block. She tries to constantly order me around. I dread seeing this individual. I have never felt this way about anyone at church.

I agree about not calling people on the do not contact list, but the Bishop wants it done and so does the other co chair.

[mdfxdb]

Working with the "Co-Chair" has been awful. She actually sent another guy into Sunday School to fetch me in order to meet her outside so I could call people from the list during the second block. She tries to constantly order me around. I dread seeing this individual. I have never felt this way about anyone at church.

I agree about not calling people on the do not contact list, but the Bishop wants it done and so does the other co chair.

I would request further instruction on this. What gives the bishop the right to call someone who has specifically requested not to be contacted????

Personally I would not do it. It is contradictory to their wishes.

[Quin]

Out of curiosity...Is the fellowship chair role also supposed to be coming up with fun stuff to do? Events and adventures type, like river rafting, and theatre booking, and ski trips?

Our ward has a bit of an organic calling (aka not official) because a lot of us were bored, so we started a Facebook group that gets non-church-related activities together with ward members. In general, every month here's at least one mental, physical, spiritual, practical "thing" going on. Like a ski-bus, a food prep group (using the church kitchen to cook and freeze meals both ahead of time, like tamalesday we each ended up wih about 200 tamales plus had some set aside for missionary dinners & new parent meals), a Nutcracker Ballet group booking, a golfing day, a knitting group, a book club, and an oil change day (learn to, or help others learn, bring your own oil).

Some things repeat monthly (book club for example), others quarterly (oil changes), seasonal (skiing vs swimming), etc. Buts it's all of us getting together to do fun stuff either alone or with our families.

Q

Edited October 26, 2013 by Quin

[willie]

Quin, coming up with fun stuff in my ward is the role of the "activities" committee.

[Quin]

Quin, coming up with fun stuff in my ward is the role of the "activities" committee.

Ah, so.

In ours, the activities committee is strictly church related; temple nights, service days, holiday celebrations, etc.

Q