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"George! George . . .where's George?!" cried the 3-year old
toddler repeatedly as he ran into the sanctuary.
George,
it seems, was nowhere too be found. Tears began to well up in Jason's (name changed) large
brown eyes as his disappointment at not getting his customary Sunday morning hug from his
"newest oldest friend" transformed into sadness. But before the waterworks could
spill forth, George, a tall, ambling man in his late '70s suddenly appearedstriding
through the front door of the church. Squealing with delight, the youngster ran as fast as
short little legs could carry himstraight into "Grandpa" George's waiting
arms.
George and Jason aren't related. They're "just pals"Prayer Pals, to be
specific. Prayer Pals, a ministry that teams seniors with children, is one of several new
ministries started by Calvary Lutheran Church after they learned of the needs of the
community around them through Percept's MinistryMatch
tool. With an advanced degree in math, Calvary's pastor, Jim Berg, already had a head for
numbers, charts, graphs and all the other tools of the demographic trade that thrill
someterrify others. But, as it turns out, Link2Lead's resources were easy to
decipher. Even the non-math leaders on Calvary's Council, as well as pastors from other
Lutheran churches in the area (with whom Berg shared the information at a retreat), were
impressedif somewhat ignorant of what the information revealed.
"A number of those churches had not even thought about the ramifications of the
changing community around them," says Berg. "My own church council, which by
that time was very well informed because of the demographics, just laughed in a good
natured way at the other church leaders there, saying, 'What are you sayingyou mean
you don't get to see these numbers all the time?'"
As a result of Percept's tools, Berg started a contemporary worship service that grew from
15 to 70. On the other hand, the traditional service went down from 80 to 40, confirming
the overall decline in the senior community population. Although Berg and the congregation
were happy about the increase in worshippers, many lamented the generational split caused
by the two servicesthe older members by and large attending the first service, with
the younger ones in the second.
"We determined that our older members needed to make changes to allow for younger
ideas. . . so, instead of complaining about all those young families who were coming to
church who they didn't know, some of the older folks decided to get to know them,"
says Berg. Prayer Pals was the perfect vehicle to bridge that gapallowing God to do
a "new thing" by using the old. -Jenni Keast |
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