| Igniting ministry training focuses on hospitality By Melissa LauberUMConnection Staff  The Igniting Ministry campaign launched its third phase of training March 6 at the Baltimore-Washington Conference center where more than 90 people gathered to learn how to make their churches more welcoming.
Igniting Ministry is a national promotional program that includes a series of television commercials designed to raise awareness of The United Methodist Church. The ads, which run in the Easter, Christmas and back-to-school seasons, have proven to be successful. Results from 2003 show that after watching the ads, 44 percent of the viewers were more likely to embrace favorable impressions of The United Methodist Church than were those who had never seen the advertising. The ads do not stand alone. In the past two years, more than 25,000 local church leaders nationwide have received Igniting Ministry training. We want to live out the promise, said the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnson, an executive with Igniting Ministry. We want to make sure that what were selling is actually available in your local church. To assist churches in living out the Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors message presented in the commercials, three training sessions were offered. The first two, Starting Out and Moving On introduce and explore the basics of welcoming, inviting and discipling. Living Up, the third training opportunity, was unveiled here for the first time. This training seeks to assist churches in discovering its marketing and welcoming potential. Were cynical. A decline-mentality has crept into our ministry, Horswill-Johnson told the Living Up participants. He encouraged them to begin to measure their churches success not by membership statistics, but by the number of people in worship and the ministries that churches provide. Using the principle of live as if, churches can achieve their mission of creating disciples, said Horswill-Johnson, who also stressed that religious leaders need to learn how to be comfortable with concepts like branding and marketing. | 
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