MARCH: A Time To Start Marching For The Master!
At the request of Willard Collins, back in 1959, Ira North wrote a wonderful book entitled: “You Can March For the Master.” Although the artwork in the book is dated, the principles set forth in it are never out-of-date. For example, consider brother North’s opening statement in Chapter 1: “God never intended for his people to be a group of inactive, lukewarm people. He intended that we should be dynamic, wide-awake, and growing.” Then in the third paragraph on Page 1, he wrote: “The greatest mistake that the individual can make is the mistake of doing nothing. The sin of ‘do-nothingness’ is real.” The rest of the book is then devoted to helping members of the Lord’s church to see that they can and must March for the Master.
The men here at Bethel recognize that every member should be more actively involved in the work of the Lord. They are convinced that the GROWTH TEAMS arrangement is a good one, but they felt it needed to be restructured. The restructured program will have the following three teams: (1) The Visitation/Bible Study Team; (2) The Correspondence/Media Team; (3) The Member Care/Benevolence Team. Each member is asked to review the work for which each team will be responsible and then to sign up to work on the one team on which they can be most effective.
The Visitation/Bible Study Team will set up visits for every local visitor, will meet one night per week at the building to go out and conduct visits, and/ or have bible studies. This team will spearhead door knocking at appropriate times.
The Correspondence/Media Team will be responsible for handing out cards to visitors and then will be certain that all visitors receive a card/or telephone call the same week they visit. This team will provide sermon tapes when such are requested and will attend a short weekly meeting on Sun. night or Wed. night to get their assignments. This team will provide information for the “House to House” publication, advertising and the bulletin when needed. It will also work with the Member Care Team in sending cards to the sick.
The Member Care/Benevolence Team will focus its attention upon the needs of members—sending cards, making calls, providing meals when necessary for sick or shut-in members. This team will also be responsible for sending flowers for funerals and etc. It will implement a telephone/email tree for important news. This team will periodically have brief meetings and will handle benevolent requests.
Open Letter—Regarding Growth Team RecommitmentAs with any plan sometimes a revision is necessary. We feel that the current make up of the growth teams is an ideal scenario, in that everyone gets paired with the line of work they feel they can excel in, rather than us pulling names out of a hat. However, as with most programs, sometimes they need to be reorganized so the enthusiasm can stay strong. We are not going to make a lot of changes to the current system, but we do want to get another commitment from everyone. We ask that you take careful consideration of the duties outlined for each team. Make sure you are willing to make the commitment required. We ask that you only sign up for one team in the beginning. If later you feel you can commit to more than one, that is fine, but please make sure first.
Hopefully, by having smaller, more dedicated teams, we will be able to accomplish more and keep a high level of enthusiasm. The key words for this newly reorganized system will be COMMITMENT and ACCOUNTABLITY. The team leaders will be asked to give a brief team status report at each business meeting, so all the men will know what teams are doing what. Hopefully every member realizes the importance of this matter and will want to sign up; but again, if you are unwilling to make a commitment to the work, please do not write your name down.
Some teams will need to meet more often than others, so please take that into consideration. Although some teams will be primarily responsible for a particular task, it does not mean that the entire congregation’s help will not be needed. For example, door knocking, sending cards after gospel meetings, work days, folding “House to House”, providing meals, etc. should not be the burden of one team, so they will be enlisting everyone’s help.
At the request of Willard Collins, back in 1959, Ira North wrote a wonderful book entitled: “You Can March For the Master.” Although the artwork in the book is dated, the principles set forth in it are never out-of-date. For example, consider brother North’s opening statement in Chapter 1: “God never intended for his people to be a group of inactive, lukewarm people. He intended that we should be dynamic, wide-awake, and growing.” Then in the third paragraph on Page 1, he wrote: “The greatest mistake that the individual can make is the mistake of doing nothing. The sin of ‘do-nothingness’ is real.” The rest of the book is then devoted to helping members of the Lord’s church to see that they can and must March for the Master.
The men here at Bethel recognize that every member should be more actively involved in the work of the Lord. They are convinced that the GROWTH TEAMS arrangement is a good one, but they felt it needed to be restructured. The restructured program will have the following three teams: (1) The Visitation/Bible Study Team; (2) The Correspondence/Media Team; (3) The Member Care/Benevolence Team. Each member is asked to review the work for which each team will be responsible and then to sign up to work on the one team on which they can be most effective.
The Visitation/Bible Study Team will set up visits for every local visitor, will meet one night per week at the building to go out and conduct visits, and/ or have bible studies. This team will spearhead door knocking at appropriate times.
The Correspondence/Media Team will be responsible for handing out cards to visitors and then will be certain that all visitors receive a card/or telephone call the same week they visit. This team will provide sermon tapes when such are requested and will attend a short weekly meeting on Sun. night or Wed. night to get their assignments. This team will provide information for the “House to House” publication, advertising and the bulletin when needed. It will also work with the Member Care Team in sending cards to the sick.
The Member Care/Benevolence Team will focus its attention upon the needs of members—sending cards, making calls, providing meals when necessary for sick or shut-in members. This team will also be responsible for sending flowers for funerals and etc. It will implement a telephone/email tree for important news. This team will periodically have brief meetings and will handle benevolent requests.
Open Letter—Regarding Growth Team RecommitmentAs with any plan sometimes a revision is necessary. We feel that the current make up of the growth teams is an ideal scenario, in that everyone gets paired with the line of work they feel they can excel in, rather than us pulling names out of a hat. However, as with most programs, sometimes they need to be reorganized so the enthusiasm can stay strong. We are not going to make a lot of changes to the current system, but we do want to get another commitment from everyone. We ask that you take careful consideration of the duties outlined for each team. Make sure you are willing to make the commitment required. We ask that you only sign up for one team in the beginning. If later you feel you can commit to more than one, that is fine, but please make sure first.
Hopefully, by having smaller, more dedicated teams, we will be able to accomplish more and keep a high level of enthusiasm. The key words for this newly reorganized system will be COMMITMENT and ACCOUNTABLITY. The team leaders will be asked to give a brief team status report at each business meeting, so all the men will know what teams are doing what. Hopefully every member realizes the importance of this matter and will want to sign up; but again, if you are unwilling to make a commitment to the work, please do not write your name down.
Some teams will need to meet more often than others, so please take that into consideration. Although some teams will be primarily responsible for a particular task, it does not mean that the entire congregation’s help will not be needed. For example, door knocking, sending cards after gospel meetings, work days, folding “House to House”, providing meals, etc. should not be the burden of one team, so they will be enlisting everyone’s help.