We have amazing MarriedPeople partner churches. These marriage champions are taking the MarriedPeople resources and doing things that are above and beyond anything we dreamed about.
We want you to meet them. So once a month, well spotlight a different church that is impacting not only the marriages in their church, but in their community. We want you to meet people from churches of all sizes, large and small, in various types of communities, whether urban, rural or suburban, with budgets big and small and volunteers plenty or scarce. Regardless of how different these churches may be from yours, we think youll find some relevancy to where you are.
We gave them a list of questions to find out more about their church, their team and their ministry. This month, we would like to introduce you to Monica Humpal at Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Mooresville, NC.
Church: Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church (Mooresville, NC)
MarriedPeople champion: Monica Humpal
Size of your church: 2,500 membership, 1,000 average worship each Sunday
Approximate number of married couples: membership: 850, active: 400
Describe the area you are in: We are a suburban lake community, roughly 20 miles from Charlotte, NC, which is a large urban city.
Tell Us About . . . You and Your Team
I am full-time clergy on staff.
How did you get involved in marriage ministry? I heard MarriedPeople’s Ted Lowe speak at the Orange Conference, and that was the catalyst to beginning to explore this ministry in our church and community. I saw both the need in our church and the lack of marriage ministries around us, so I created it using the MarriedPeople resources. Now it’s part of my job.
How many people are on your marriage ministry team (including you)? 12
How did you recruit your team? I hand-picked team members to ensure we had representation from all ages and stages of life.
What are the demographics of the couples in your church? Mostly couples, in their 30’s-40’s, with kids
Tell Us About . . . How You Use the MarriedPeople Resources and Strategy
What resources do you use from MarriedPeople? We purchase the MarriedPeople Strategy Pack every year. We usually do three of the large group events a year, and we give out the Date Nights at each event. We also send out the MarriedPeople E-ZINE every month.
How do you communicate with your couples? Bulletin, email, verbal announcement in worship, church website, social media
Does your marriage ministry have a social media presence? Our marriage ministry does not, but our church does. We use the church’s social media accounts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Do you encourage/invite couples from the community to your marriage events? Yes, always!
How do you reach couples outside your church? Social media, word of mouth, local paper. We encourage couples to invite friends to attend.
What has been on really great thing that has come from using MarriedPeople? The resources have helped us hone our ministry and make it well-rounded. Instead of having one event here or there, we now have a comprehensive strategy to help marriages and this material truly helps churches do that in an intentional way. Without this material, we were doing haphazard things such as one class on Sunday morning, then, several months later having a one-time marriage workshop, and nothing every tied together or made sense. This material flows and builds upon itself, but not in such a way that you MUST attend everything to understand the flow of the ministry.
What has been your biggest success so far? Large group events have really been successful and we have seen roughly, 1/4 of those attending each time are first time attendees who do not go to our church (from the community at large).
What has been your biggest challenge? ?Small groups. Couples don’t have time to commit to that and/or are reluctant to be in an intimate setting with other couples (husbands especially).
What’s your dream to happen next? An “Almost” MarriedPeople ministry!
If MarriedPeople could equip you with one resource, what would it be? Materials geared toward couples who are engaged or in committed relationships to get them READY for marriage.
Thanks, Monica, and the awesome team impacting marriages in Mooresville, NC!
Tim Walker is an editor on the MarriedPeople team, and blogger at timswords.com.
