Our On Demand training resources are available by subscription only. We offer 12-month subscription plans at varying rates, depending on the Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) or your church, or the number of congregations in your diocese. Subscriptions give an unlimited number of individuals unlimited access to all our On Demand Materials through the use of a password that is emailed to the subscribing diocese or congregation, and then shared by that diocese of congregation.

Based on workshops developed over 14 years by Invite Welcome Connect Founder Mary Foster Parmer—as outlined in her book of the same name—this new digital offering allows church teams to engage with the ministry’s teachings on Invite, Welcome, and Connect at their own pace. The workshops have been thoughtfully divided into smaller video components to allow congregations to focus where their efforts are needed most, and to bring in new team members at any time. Read More Here

You should have received the password to access the online On Demand materials from your church or diocese. If you haven't, but are sure your institution is subscribed, put your name, email address, diocese, and congregation (including city) into the chat, and we'll send you the password.

Our On Demand training is a combination of videos, text materials, checklists, an online idea-generation and sharing tool, and links to external resources. It is best used in a group setting, but is designed also be used by individuals. We have an article on our site that goes into detail. Read the Article

Watch this video to make sure your congregation has taken all the preliminary steps before you take the Invite Welcome Connect training. Resources Download the "Questions to Answer" document referenced in the video Essentials Toolkit for all Sections of Invite Welcome Connect Transcript Download a pdf of this transcript Are you ready? Hi, I'm Steve Welch, Executive Director of Invite Welcome Connect. Those of us who work closely with this ministry are delighted to know that you and your church are prayerfully considering integrating Invite Welcome Connect practices into the life of your congregation. And we're pleased to offer you significant training videos to inform, inspire, and equip you for this undertaking. But first, we think it's important for you to answer some questions and make some decisions before diving into the training. Doing so will significantly help you launch Invite Welcome Connect into the life of your church. Now, I recommend that you download the document titled Questions to Answer before watching the training videos. That document aligns with this short video and will come in handy as you prepare to do the training. You can find a link to this document on the Invite Welcome Connect website. So let's get started. First, what do you know about Invite Welcome Connect? Well, for more than a decade, it's been a transformative ministry used in numerous congregations and focused on three essential aspects of ministry. The first of those three is evangelism, sharing the gospel of Jesus with others. The second is hospitality, how we receive guests once they have found our churches. And the third is about belonging, helping people feel a part of our communities of faith. It's not a program. It's not a turnkey solution. It's a framework to help your congregations focus on these three critical activities. Invite Welcome Connect can be adapted to any size congregation and so will be unique to your church. This ministry does not have a beginning and an end. Rather, it's a serious undertaking of actions designed to help our churches make progress toward changing the culture of the Episcopal Church, moving from maintenance to mission. My next question for you is whether you have read the Invite Welcome Connect book by our founder, Mary Foster Palmer, which describes the basics and gives inspiring stories of congregations that have already implemented Invite Welcome Connect. Reading this book will lay the foundation for establishing this new framework of ministries at your church. You can find a link to purchase the book on our website or from Forward Movement or Amazon as an affordable paperback or e-book. Another important question relates to your vestry or bishop's committee's familiarity with Invite Welcome Connect. Do they support creating and empowering Invite Welcome Connect? If so, will they have any role in the way the Invite Welcome Connect teams work? For example, will the teams be required to make reports to the vestry or bishop's committee? Will they provide a budget for the team's work? Understanding the role between the team and the vestry or bishop's committee is so very important to avoid misunderstanding. Establishing that relationship before undertaking any new Invite Welcome Connect is a critical initial step in getting started. Another critical question is how familiar your clergy are with Invite Welcome Connect. Do they wholeheartedly support creating a team or teams to pursue this training, knowing that new practices of evangelism, hospitality, and belonging will probably be instituted in your congregation as a result? What role will they take in the creation and ongoing support of this new ministry in your church? In the same vein, will a staff person be a member of the Invite Welcome Connect team? And if so, who will that be? How much authority will that person have in the decisions that the team will make? Many congregations may already have people involved in ministries that might overlap with Invite Welcome Connect work. Examples might include a communications team, a greeters group, evangelism committee, or a newcomer ministry. If so, what will the relationship be between the existing teams and the new Invite Welcome Connect team? Clarity will be so important to avoid duplication of ministries. And finally, has a team already been formed to undertake this training? Has the team leader or coordinator been chosen to call the meetings and hold the group accountable for its mission? If not, who will recruit a team and assign their responsibilities and grant the authority to make decisions? You might be thinking that these questions are a lot to answer. Well, they are. But once they are answered, it is more likely that you will have a successful launch of Invite Welcome Connect at your church. Remember, every congregation is unique, whether small or large. Whether you establish a single team or multiple teams, or maybe one for each of the three essentials, it will be important for them to understand that they are empowered by supportive clergy and lay leaders. So answer these questions and get your team in place. Then you're ready for the training. Our team will be here to help your team all along the way. Congratulations, and may God richly bless the Invite Welcome Connect ministry at your church.

Coaches support ministry teams in implementing and maintaining Invite Welcome Connect ministries, after training has already been started. Successful engagement with the ministry of Invite Welcome Connect depends on intentional collaboration between clergy and lay leaders, and the addition of a Coach significantly increases the ability of a faith community to creatively live into the ethos of this ministry. An Invite Welcome Connect Coach works with the clergy and/or Invite Welcome Connect team(s) of a faith community to support, encourage, and hold them accountable to envision, plan, and implement the Invite Welcome Connect ministry into the life of that congregation. The focus for a Coach is on the congregation building its own capacity as it creatively utilizes Invite Welcome Connect resources. For more information about booking a Coach email iwcteam@invitewelcomeconnect.com

One year of coaching, with online sessions every other month, costs $1100 for congregations in dioceses that subscribe to Invite Welcome Connect On Demand; $1200 in non-subscribing dioceses.

No. Coaching is an additional charge.

Workshops by Founder Mary Foster Parmer and Certified Invite Welcome Connect Facilitators Certified Invite Welcome Connect facilitators are available to conduct intensive workshops in your community of faith. These facilitators are experienced practitioners of this ministry in different contexts and congregation sizes. More than 60 dioceses have hosted Invite Welcome Connect workshops. Workshops may be conducted in-person over the course of a weekend (Friday evening presentation, Saturday workshop, and Sunday sermon) or online in a series of shorter sessions. Email us for more information.

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