The big surprise in my secular, indifferent nation is that 55% of friends that we have a conversation about faith feel more positive about Jesus afterwards (Talking Jesus Report). 96% want to know more! The reality is that many people will come to a special service if asked personally, yet most of us aren’t asking.
How do we create a culture of invitation?
Before the event
Leaders need to set the pace. In the run up to Christmas, leaders need to be talking and praying about who they will invite.
Do an audit of how welcoming your church really is. You can use this “How welcoming is your church?” PDF. Maybe you could ask a non-church attending friend to do it for you 😉
Assume your Sunday attenders will be coming to the carol services, so don’t expend energy in the notices section trying to get them to come! Use the notices to share about invite friends. every meeting host should be saying who they will invited.
“I’m inviting my neighbour John to encounter God’s love”
“I’ve been taling to Sue at the gym about church and I’m inviting her to the carol service”
This year, we are going to film a testimony of someone who became a Christian after responding to an invite to a carol service and then doing Alpha. We’ll show it in small groups and one Sunday in November.
Produce some postcard flyers for people to give to friends.
Make sure they have the what, where, when on them (i always put a little simple map on flyers. Even if pople know where teh churhc building is, it is anothetr trigger – read that in Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point “)
Also have some digital images for people to share and put in WhatsApp messages, social media posts and email.
I always check the best social media images size or just choose the Canva size- you can check out the current best sizes for yourself.
We always create a Christmas page on our website and use a good thumbnail image for it with the details of the service. Then check the post URL in the Facebook Share debugger and tweak until it looks the best!
During the event
As part of our welcome to the service we thank guests for responding to the invite to come (maybe there will be a gospel response at the end!) and we thank people for inviting their friends.
Explain what will be happening and watch out for churchy jargon.
Response – plan your response for the end.
We have a little card in our welcome packs with a free pen for people to fill out if they want to keep in touch. One of the surprises in the “Quiet Revival” is the uptick in people wanting to read the Bible. Perhaps you could offer free Bibles for the response cards. I have even had someone my son describes as a streetwise gangster ask for a Bible this weekend. I keep a stock of new Testaments!
After the event
Get in touch with everyone who filled out a response card and invite them back to church.
Thanks the church for being so inviting, let them know how many came and how many guests there were.
