By SHARON SHERIDAN

Ginny Melvin recalls the time a newcomer arrived at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Riverside, Conn., and, before coffee hour was over, was signed up to help with the annual Ski and Skate outreach fund-raiser. While that was an unusually speedy shift from visitor to volunteer, St. Paul's does encourage newcomer involvement in parish activities to make them feel at home.

"Our goal is to properly welcome and further integrate them into the church family, and the way that we are most successful in integrating them is by getting them hooked up with activities that the church is doing ... that are more than coffee hour," explains Melvin, vestry member in charge of new members.

That includes "foyer groups," which meet monthly for fellowship and a meal at members' homes. "It's a marvelous way to get to know that core group of people pretty well," Melvin says.

And there are the annual fund-raising events, a fall Ski and Skate Sale and spring Fair for All with carnival rides. "Even though these things are churchwide, it's really such a wonderful way to get to know the newcomers," Melvin says. "When you are working hard right next to a new person, you're talking a lot. You're getting to know them, they're getting to know you. It's all friendly, and it's not artificial. And then you remember them."

St. Paul's also plans regular newcomer events, from holiday luncheons to tennis outings, which "old-timers" also attend. About 250 families belong to the church, Melvin says, with 33 joining in 2001 and 18 more through early November 2002.

Diana Riolo's first contact with St. Paul's came through its preschool, which her now second-grade daughter attended. Now a Sunday school teacher, Riolo became friendly with some church members through the preschool and began attending St. Paul's two or three years ago.

"Father [Robert] Taylor was just so welcoming to the children in the church itself during service. That, to me, was everything," she says. "We had been to other churches before that just frowned upon having little ones in the sanctuary."

The church and preschool playground apparently is another evangelistic tool. The first time Greg Gorka attended with his son, now 7, he checked out the playground and said, "I love this, Dad. We've got to come here."

"That was a tipping factor," says Gorka, whose family of five joined St. Paul's after moving to the area in July 2001. "I found it very much akin to my previous parish, which was very child-friendly and very welcoming as well."

St. Paul's weekly effort to greet newcomers and invite them to fill out visitor cards, coupled with the church's quick followup in contacting families and answering their questions, impressed Gorka.

But it's not a high-pressure push to recruit members, says Craig Lanzoni. While, during weekly announcements, rector Taylor welcomes newcomers and invites them to fill out a card, he says, "it's nonthreatening -- very much, `Make the effort, and we'll respond. But if you don't want to make the effort, that's okay. We're not going to chase you around.'"

The Lanzonis filled out a card and received a follow-up phone call. Soon they were "regulars," he says. "It kind of fits our needs. You can get as involved as you want to, but nobody pressures you to do so."

Two other things he likes about St. Paul's: laughter and applause both are welcome in church.

Attending Andrew Weeks' Magnetic Church conference inspired St. Paul's members and invigorated its newcomer ministries, Melvin notes. "He has just wonderful ideas."

Weeks even called and commented on their newcomers literature, she says. "He's been a great inspiration."

Sharon Sheridan of Flanders, N.J., is a freelance writer and editor and a frequent contributor to Episcopal Life.

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