Who We Are

 

Welcome to Zion's Hill United Methodist Church!  We hope you will find our site to be a valuable introduction to our church's ministry, life and its wonderful people.  We invite you to join us in worship soon to experience first hand our "Joyful Community."

 

 

 

 

We are joyful, caring and prayerful Christian community dedicated to meeting the spiritual needs of our Church family through strong faith, dedication and commitment to the ideals of the United Methodist Church.

 

 

Membership in Zion's Hill United Methodist Church is open to all who believe in Christ.  The congregation is made up of people with many diverse Christian heritages, as well as as many life-long Methodists.  It's hard to get lost in the crowd here.   We can respond well to individual needs because of our modest size.  Members can choose their appropriate level of involvement.  We receive newcomers warmly and new members are invited to join throughout the year. 

 

RETHINK CHURCH
2011 PLAN

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it
under the bushel basket, but on a lamp stand , and it gives light to all in the house. Matthew 5:14-15
5:14-

The objectives for Rethink Church continue to be the same as they were last year—develop an enthusi-
astic and excited membership, raise awareness of Zion’s Hill UMC within Wilton, increase visits from
local seekers to see what we’re about and add new members to our church community. To meet these
objectives, the Rethink Church Committee presented its plan for 2011 to the congregation on January
9th at a pot luck luncheon following the service.

The new plan begins with a repositioning of ZHUMC as the community church of Wilton:

“Since 1844 we have been quietly perched over Route 7, watching over Wilton
and helping the community through the activities and programs we lead, pro-
mote and support. Not the fanciest or flashiest church in town, we are an inti-
mate group of caring, hard-working individuals committed to enhancing the lives
of our community through connecting with Wilton residents. In short, Zion’s Hill
is The Heart of Wilton.
Wilton.”

We will begin building this new brand through a thematic advertising campaign in the Wilton Bulletin
running twice a month for nine months in 2011. The theme we plan to use (see examples below) is in-
tended to create curiosity and interest in the readers and strengthen our presence in Wilton.

On May 15th our church service will have several musical numbers from the Broadway show Hairspray
with the sermon based on the theme of the show. We expect to hold up to three such integrated
church/music services in 2011, tentatively tapping Jazz, Gospel and Broadway music for such services.
We will then supplement this with up to four Saturday night music events, holding Movie Nights the
same night so families with young children can attend. In this way, we hope to use music as a means of
“pulling in” non-members to give us a look. The first of these Saturday night programs is targeted for
March 12th as a Cabaret Night with Karaoke music.

Building on our outstanding success in 2010 with Relay for Life, we plan to show our town spirit in
2011 through supporting 3-4 community events including relay for Life (May 13-14) and providing re-
freshments for the annual Christmas Walk. We anticipate participating in these events as a ZHUMC
team, using scarves, T-shirts, caps, etc. as identifiers. We see these events as “reaching out” and

Supporting our community.

In 2011 we will reconstitute a Welcoming Team, seeking to have someone from the Team at every
service, event and program we offer who will welcome, inform, assist and obtain contact information
from all seekers and newcomers who check us out. Handout materials for newcomers will be up-
dated and distributed by Team members and Pastor Steve will seek to follow up on all newcomers
with a visit or call.

The last part of our plans for 2011 is to improve our internal communication and external promotion.
To assist with this we plan to redesign our website with a design that reflects our new branding. We
have already begun to add more personalization to the website and expect to update it far more fre-
quently. We have also launched a church page on Facebook which we believe will be an enhance-
ment to our communication, particularly for our younger members.

These plans are ambitious and will require commitment from our entire membership if we are to suc-
ceed with our overall objectives. Members are asked to volunteer to help with the planning and exe-
cution initiatives outlined above, to participate in and support those initiatives, and to reach out and
invite local friends, co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances from childrens’ activities, etc. to come to
one or more of our expanded programs and activities.

The light that is Zion’s Hill UMC has been kept under a bushel basket for too long, with its radiance
and warmth provided only to our membership. It is time to move that lamp onto the lamp stand, to
reignite its flame with our energy and enthusiasm and to let it shine for all of Wilton.

Jason Brandt

Bill Glass
Steve Goldstein

Don McKinnon

Jonathan Prescott

Karen Prescott
Judy Robinson

Diane Strickrodt

Jannice Williams

Jason Witty
Kim Witty