God in Everyone

We received a great letter from a neighboring congregation of [another faith tradition] in January: "We support your recent ad campaign to raise the issue of inclusion of all as members in faith communities. Friends have a long-standing testimony that there is that of God in everyone. We thank you for your leadership in bringing this issue to the attention of the nation."

Comma Crazy

We're going "comma crazy"! At our annual congregational meeting, we used the "God is Still Speaking" theme for our potluck luncheon. The congregation sat down to tables with Stillspeaking placemats, refrigerator magnets and tablecloths rubber-stamped with the large comma. It wouldn't have been complete without a "God is still speaking" cake! We are grateful for this wonderful initiative the UCC has organized. Our congregation recently defined our core values as Love, Faith, Commitment, Fellowship & Acceptance. Together with these core values and the UCC, we believe we will be able to reach out to people beyond our own church doors and do great things.

Practice

Ours is an open country church well off the beaten path. Still, the Sunday after the ads began airing (or trying to air) we welcomed a visitor, who told me he thought he'd found a spiritual home. We had practiced not only being friendly, but being welcoming -- and our work has paid off!

Numbers

On January 9 we received 14 visitors, and on January 16 we received 21 visitors, many of them not repeats from the previous Sunday; so in two weeks we had about 30 new visitors.

Conference Mentions

Two weeks ago, I attended a conference entitled "Through the Stained Glass: Religion and Media" and, at different times, two of the speakers (journalism professor & pastor of another faith tradition) complimented the Stillspeaking campaign.

Many Methods

We are responding to the campaign in several ways: big sign on the street, big sign inside, press kits & flyers for media, brochures, visitor kits with a video, weekly cable TV program, church website, statewide website, weekly newspaper ads, announcements, mission moments & sermon content. I hope you can help us let the rest of the conference and the national church know about our efforts and that the www.speakfromtheheart.net resources are available freely for their use.

Long Alienated

I am a very spiritual Christian person. I have not been to a "Church" in a long time because I find it difficult to support any organization that discriminates. God teaches forgiveness and gives us free will. Although I am heterosexual I feel my children should be free to be who they are. We have no way of knowing their sexuality until they hit puberty. All children need to be free to be who they are and who they want to be. I also dislike the male dominance found in most organized religions. I think the commercial is powerful. After seeing the commercial I visited your website and located a church in my community. I hope to find a new place for me and my family to grow as loving Christians where all of Gods people are welcome and not judged.