God at Work: Shepherd of the Hills, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
God is at work at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church (SOTH) in Rancho Cucamonga! In recent months, SOTH has been testing the outreach potential of offering free “Community Connections” seminars, based on felt-needs in the community. So far, God has granted great success!
The idea of hosting outreach-oriented seminars came about as the result of a “Thriving Communities” grant that SOTH received during their recent pastoral vacancy. The grant encouraged them to learn more about their local community. Through a survey of community members, SOTH learned that three of their most-expressed needs were: dealing with anxiety and depression, building stronger marriages, and dealing with grief and loss, especially during the holidays. Those needs became the topics of free seminars SOTH offered this Fall. In order to limit their costs, most of the seminar speakers were people within the congregation with experience and education in these areas.
At the first seminar in September, SOTH used a social media marketing campaign to advertise the seminar in the hopes of reaching new people. About 50 people attended the first seminar and 25% of them were not members of the church! Nearly all of the new attendees learned about the seminar through the social media campaign.
At the second seminar, the social media campaign did not yield the same results, but many non-members still attended at the invitation of SOTH members! The church is confident that the combination of social media advertising and personal invitation from members will continue to be effective in reaching new people and drawing them in to the life of the church.
Each seminar also has a follow-up event, designed to engage new people beyond the seminars. For the first two events, Sunday morning Bible studies on the same topic followed each seminar. For the final seminar on “Dealing with grief and loss during the holidays”, the follow-up event will be a special “Blue Christmas” worship service, especially designed for people experiencing grief and loss.
Recently, SOTH was awarded a $5,000 mission grant from the PSD that will enable them to continue to test this new outreach model. Senior Pastor Scott Christenson stated, “We’re grateful for the District’s support and encouragement of what we’re doing. We’re going to keep trying new things and see what works!”
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