CHURCH ENGAGEMENT GUIDE
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How to Prepare for an Effective Back to Church Sunday Event Each step includes ideas and tools to help you engage: Step 1: Review the campaign kit Step 2: Roster and e-newsletter Step 3: Build Excitement in your church Step 4: Equip your member to reach out Step 5: Invite your community Step 6: Plan your special event
Prepare for an Effective Back to Church Sunday Event Step 1: Purchase the Back to Church Campaign Kit. Get the tools you need to plan a successful event easily! The Back To Church Sunday Campaign Kit contains everything you need including: Campaign Planning Guide with helpful leadership information and tips. ● Resource CD with sermons, web resources, PowerPoint templates and more… ● DVD with promotional video. ● 5 reDiscover Church Outreach booklets ● 5 posters, invite tickets and more… ●
Step 2: Pick a date, list your church and join the e-newsletter! Most churches will participate on September 12, 2010 to get maximum media exposure, but you can do it any time of year and in conjunction with any message or series. Consider joining with other churches to do a city-wide event. List your church in the National Roster of Participating Churches – It's Free – and it's a great way to help visitors find your church. PLUS Local and national media outlets may reference the roster to report on participation – so you could also increase your media exposure! Click here to add your church! Sign up to receive the weekly Back to Church Sunday Enewsletter and get ideas and tools before the national event.
Step 3: Build excitement in your church.
Get your members excited about your special event and inviting their friends by starting your internal promotion early. Show your congregation the promo video included in the kit and encourage them to begin praying about the people God may want them to invite. Also, put up Back to Church Sunday banners in your church to build excitement.
Step 4: Equip your members to reach out A recent study by the North American Mission Board and LifeWay Research found that 67 percent of Americans say a personal invitation from a family member would be effective in getting them to visit a church. So, equip your members with tools to help them invite their friends. •
Order the reDiscover Church booklet and have them custom printed with your church information or have your members add a personal note on the back and hand them out or use as a visitor gift on the day of Back to Church Sunday. Click here to preview the book.
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Use the FREE e-vite feature on www.backtochurch.com to invite friends to your local Back to Church Sunday service! And put a widget on your website or blog to let the members of your church use this tool directly from your site to invite anyone to your local Back to Church event.
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Also, give each church member a few business-card sized invitations that they can easily hand to people they would like invite to church.
Step 5: Invite your community "73% of people who don't attend church were never invited." - Barna Group
• Send a direct mail invitation to every home in your community! A postcard is still the easiest way and most affordable way to invite every family in your community back to church. Choose a design that matches other promotional tools like your ReDiscover Church booklets or outdoor banners so recipients will make the connection. Hang Back to Church Posters in local businesses like the gym or grocery store – write your event date and service times in the space provided. ●
Get members involved by asking your small groups, youth group or Sunday School classes to deliver DoorHangers to their neighbors. This fosters fellowship between believers and increases the excitement as they invite the community to visit the church. ●
Custom Postcard
Poster
DoorHanger
• Use widgets and banner ads, and countdown clocks from the Resource CD to decorate your webpages, enewsletters and blogs.
• Use Facebook and create an event for Back to Church Sunday and ask church members to invite their friends virtually.
• Send out a press release. Customize the free press release template that matches the national media for more exposure! • Post Back to Church outdoor banners in front of your church to invite passing traffic to attend and to show visitors they are in the right place on the big day!
Step 6: Plan for your special day. Make sure your church is ready to receive guests on the day of the event. Purchase visitor gifts to hand out – the reDiscover Church Booklets , or other books are great inexpensive items that can leave a lasting impression. Prepare a special sermon for Back to Church Sunday. The Campaign Kit includes two full sermons. Or, take advantage of the sermon resource page from SermonCentral.com with sermon outlines, illustrations, videos, PowerPoint templates and more! Be sure to visit the LifeWay Research page to view stats and research related to Back to Church Sunday. Then follow the preparation tips in your planning guide to make sure your facility and ministry teams are ready too! Take a walk around your building with fresh eyes and look for things that are easy to fix but might keep visitors from feeling at home. Finally, and most importantly pray for your new visitors and watch what God will do when your members invite their friends and family Back to Church.