Austin church extends outreach effort

‘Friendship Month’ at
Bethany UMC to end
Sunday after 5 weeks

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Bethany UMC, Austin, expanded Bring a Friend Sunday into a monthlong focus during April.
The 2,632-member congregation’s Friendship Month concludes April 30.
Rita Thompson, Bethany’s director of evangelism and hospitality, reported that after three Sundays the church had 15 to 20 guests. That figure, she said, is based on the number of gifts the church has given to its guests this month.
Thompson said she had heard of Bring a Friend Sunday as part of the United Methodist Church’s “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” initiative. But Bethany didn’t want to limit the focus to April 2. The first Sunday of the month is a communion Sunday.
“Methodist communion is an inclusive service,” Thompson said, “but still people might not feel comfortable taking communion in a church they don’t know.”
Participating in an unfamiliar ritual—or choosing not to participate at all—might be awkward, she said. Additionally, services on communion Sundays generally don’t show the full depth of the church’s worship styles.
“You might not get the full choir or the full praise band,” she said. Expanding the effort was a way to “get beyond those barriers.”
Momentum would grow as members brought friends the first Sunday, then the next and then the next, she said. If you get people involved one Sunday, she said, repeat what you’re doing, and they will, too.
And when someone brings a guest, Thompson said, make sure their effort is acknowledged. Bethany gave token gifts to not only the guests but to the church members who brought them.
The final Sunday of Friendship Month is to include a fellowship meal following worship.
“We gave people who brought guests tickets to the meal and asked them to bring their guests back to have a meal with us, too,” Thompson said.
Youths are really caught up in bringing their friends to church, Thompson reported.
On Palm Sunday, she said, “I saw two kids throwing one of our Frisbees (one of the token gifts) out in the courtyard. I asked them where they got it, and they said they had brought three friends that day. So they’re inviting them.”
Thompson estimated that 10 to 15 youths have been guests at Bethany this month.