ChurchNext in the World: St. Peter’s in Charlotte, NC

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If you want some ideas about how to use ChurchNext in your congregation, just ask the good people of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte, NC. They have a great system for incorporating ChurchNext classes into their different ministries.

The Rev. Joslyn Ogden Schaefer, Associate Rector at St. Peter’s, says that at St. Peter’s, the staff periodically looks at the church’s goals and considers how their resources, including ChurchNext classes, can support what they are trying to do at the time. In this way, they have found many exciting ways to use ChurchNext classes to support their ministries.

For example, in 2015, the staff at St. Peter’s wanted to focus the church’s energy on joslynschaeferJesus: on renewing their understanding of who this compelling figure at the center of our religion was. Toward that end, one approach they tried was to unify four ChurchNext classes on the gospels into one class called “Befriending Jesus” and create a Christian formation project wherein students took the class over the summer. They plan to use modified versions of the same kind of class again in the future. (To learn how to use ChurchNext classes to create your own classes for your congregation, take our 15-minute free class, ChurchNext for Congregations.)

St. Peter’s finds the variety of ChurchNext classes available to be useful in planning Christian formation series. For each topic, they look to see in what ways ChurchNext courses can support their needs. They have found classes to support many topics, from stewardship to spirituality to aging. St. Peter’s also uses ChurchNext to support baptism. All prospective godparents are asked to take How to Be a Godparent with Nancy McLaughlin to help them prepare to take on this important role in the lives of their godchildren.

We hope that your congregation, like St. Peter’s, explores was to use ChurchNext classes as you consider ways to enact your current goals. If you have a story of how a class has been helpful to a ministry at your church, please comment! We would love to hear about it.

 

 

 

 

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