About Orienting
Orienting is helping people understand and participate in where things are and how we do things in this particular place.
Different elements of orienting include:
- Follow up contact and conversations with visitors.
- Newcomers gatherings and classes.
- Orientation to the building and to the activities of the church.
- Connection to the clergy and others.
Getting Specific: Orienting on Sunday Morning
Orienting people to our congregations is about giving them a meaningful community experience so that they will not be lost socially, physically, spiritually – they will have a way to ‘anchor’ into the congregation and take the next steps in their spiritual journey in Christ
Some Areas for Orientation:
- The space: the physical setting and special artifacts of your congregation. Remember that you are orienting with a purpose—not just helping them find their way around (this is important!) but also attaching them to the congregation’s story
- The people/community: This is both about getting them connected to specific people and kinds of people AND about getting them connected to the personality of your congregation and community
- Our identity /theology: We are The Episcopal Church locally expressed in a specific tribe. Who is The Episcopal Church? What is that tribe?
- Experience / Worship: What have newercomers just experienced? What did they notice? How can we help them interpret this enough to help them go forward to experience and learn more?
Ideas for you to consider:
Space
- Tour to include bathrooms, childcare, nursery, and classrooms
- Kitchen – and at the appropriate time, teach how to make coffee
- Artwork and other “stuff” and stories and connection to who you are NOW
- Special sacred places & objects: any devotional practices associated with these.
- Anything distinctive and different and what it says about the congregation NOW
People/Community
- Introducing the newcomer to people who have things in common with him or her
- Connecting to rector, vicar or other clergy – yes, very important
- Any tidbit about the history and what it tells us about this people in the NOW
- Any connections between this church community and the neighborhood that says something about this people NOW. What is the role of this church in the community
- Partnerships with other churches.
Identity/Theology
- Any unique feature of The Episcopal Church that this community expresses
- A particular theological emphasis in the congregation
- Notable cultural identities
Experience/Worship
- What would newcomers have noticed? What can be said about what it expresses about the congregation’s identity NOW
An Activity for you to try in a Small Group:
Thinking about your church space and how you can orient people via conversation/comments about space:
Look at and consider in detail the places/spaces, physical features or special artifacts in your congregation that you might tell someone about. Make a list of the things that draw you in. By each make notes about a story or some description that you might mention about that place/space, physical feature or artifact that would say something about the congregation’s identity as it exists NOW.