6. Give Your Congregation Invitation Tools
Did you know that 82 percent of people would come to church if a trusted friend invited them?
Yet in a typical year, only 2 percent of Christians invite a friend to church. Heartbreaking.
Create some full-color cards with details on it which people can hand to their friends.
Last year we tied candy canes to Instagram-like cards to make them easier to hand out to friends. This year we’re also doing business-size cards and some full-size posters. The posters pop up all over our cities in places like Starbucks, hockey arenas, community centers and more.
It’s easier to invite a friend to something like Christmas than to a regular Sunday morning.
7. Use social media
Sure, maybe you don’t have the bandwidth to build fresh websites. Just do it for free using social media. Create a Facebook event or promoted posts. Use all your social media channels and get the word out.
Encourage your people to share with their friends. They are your number one source when it comes to promotion because they’re already invested and engaged.
This year we’re doing a Photo Booth at our campuses that will create some fun Instagram moments with dressed up kids and people holding a “Join us for Christmas Eve” signs.
8. Distribute (free) tickets
Why not ticket your Christmas services? Free tickets of course, but tickets help create demand.
They have also helped us manage fire code. Eventbrite is an inexpensive and easy solution.
Plus, having tickets drive decisions and commitments to attend.
9. Love your community
This year, we’re attempting to give double the amount of money we normally give to our community partners like the local food bank, right before Christmas.
We’re also participating in local Christmas parades and community events in ways that show our community that we’re for them and that God is for them.
Love makes a pretty irresistible force when it’s unleashed on a city. And generosity makes an impression on unchurched people.
10. Invite them back
Every year, without hopefully sounding like a commercial, we invite people back for January.
They get a card explaining the new series and dates, times and locations. Last year we even played the trailer for our January series during the services (you can see it here), even though it was anything but “Christmassy.” Because our January series dealt with a felt-need (people don’t like their jobs and find life overwhelming at times), it created a huge buzz and many guests returned in January simply because they saw the trailer.
I know inviting sounds basic, but you’re dealing with unchurched people. Think about it, you would never go to a party unless you knew you were invited.
Unchurched people don’t know they’re invited unless you invite them. So invite them.
11. Plan a call to action
God’s grace is sovereign. We’ve had people commit their lives to Christ during volunteer events and during series about tithing. So God can do anything.
But you need to do your part. Don’t let people walk away bored or with just a big warm fuzzy. Challenge them. People will leave mostly unchanged unless you create a different expectation.
Almost every year, we give people an opportunity to surrender their lives to Jesus…and it’s amazing how many people do. And when we invite them back and offer them steps to take in the new year (like beginning Starting Point), Christmas starts a journey for them that often ends with them surrendering their lives to Christ.
What Are You Learning?
Got any tips?
