UMCOM Offers Welcoming Ministry 101 Course

The “Welcoming Ministry 101" online course (WL101) is designed to help you expand your own understanding and skills with welcoming as well as equip you to lead your church in establishing and maintaining a dynamic ministry of welcoming and radical hospitality. The four-part course allows you to work at your own pace at your convenience as you read information, explore multimedia materials, engage in discussion forums, complete assignments, take quizzes and share feedback. To successfully complete the course, you can expect to spend 2-3 hours per week depending upon how in depth you go with assignments and whether or not you work offline with your welcoming ministry team. Together with additional training and resources, you will be able to guide your congregation to live a welcoming lifestyle that extends radical hospitality to everyone all the time both inside and beyond the walls of your church.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Interpret what it means to be a welcoming and hospitable congregation.
• Identify and enlist team members for the welcoming ministry of your congregation.
• Lead opportunities for members to learn and live their role in a ministry of welcoming.
• Plan and implement ways to extend the congregation’s welcome beyond Sunday and the walls of the church.
• Develop plans and strategies establish and maintain a dynamic welcoming ministry in your congregation.
• Become a welcoming certified congregation and engage with other welcoming certified congregations through an online annual renewal forum.
• Stay up-to-date with resources and tools from United Methodist Communications and other agencies of The United Methodist Church as well as non-United Methodist faith-based organizations focused on welcoming ministry and radical hospitality.

The course begins the first Wednesday of every third month, and each session is open to registered participants for eight weeks.

The next session will be held September 7–October 31.

Learn More at umcom.org