In an interview, Outreach founder and chief executive Scott Evans said a recent study by Southern Baptist-affiliated Lifeway Research sparked the campaign. The study found that “82 percent of people who don’t go to church would be somewhat likely to go if invited but that only 2 percent of people who do go to church had invited someone,” he said. Outreach, Evans said, is “equipping people to be inviters.”
Eric Abel, the vice president of marketing for Outreach, said the organization works with about 17,000 churches; most of the interest in the back-to-church campaign is coming from evangelical or nondenominational churches.
According to Evans, there have been more than 1,000 requests for the tool kits. Outreach’s Web site allows people to record how many people they’ve invited to church; the count is up to nearly 700,000.
In Great Britain, Back to Church Sunday, which is Sept. 27 this year, was started in 2004 by the Anglican Diocese of Manchester. Anglican churches in New Zealand and Canada picked up the idea, and British Baptist, Methodist and United Reform churches are taking part.
Although the Back to Church Sunday campaign in the United States is generating buzz on Facebook, many mainline Protestant churches were staging fall welcomes long before there was electricity, much less computers. Concord Presbyterian Church in Statesville, N.C., is holding its 234th homecoming celebration on Sept. 20 — the congregation was founded in 1775 — with guest speakers and musicians.
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RNS: 'Back to Church Sunday' Emphasizes Communal Effort to Get People in the Door
In an interview, Outreach founder and chief executive Scott Evans said a recent study by Southern Baptist-affiliated Lifeway Research sparked the campaign. The study found that “82 percent of people who don’t go to church would be somewhat likely to go if invited but that only 2 percent of people who do go to church had invited someone,” he said. Outreach, Evans said, is “equipping people to be inviters.”
Eric Abel, the vice president of marketing for Outreach, said the organization works with about 17,000 churches; most of the interest in the back-to-church campaign is coming from evangelical or nondenominational churches.
According to Evans, there have been more than 1,000 requests for the tool kits. Outreach’s Web site allows people to record how many people they’ve invited to church; the count is up to nearly 700,000.
In Great Britain, Back to Church Sunday, which is Sept. 27 this year, was started in 2004 by the Anglican Diocese of Manchester. Anglican churches in New Zealand and Canada picked up the idea, and British Baptist, Methodist and United Reform churches are taking part.
Although the Back to Church Sunday campaign in the United States is generating buzz on Facebook, many mainline Protestant churches were staging fall welcomes long before there was electricity, much less computers. Concord Presbyterian Church in Statesville, N.C., is holding its 234th homecoming celebration on Sept. 20 — the congregation was founded in 1775 — with guest speakers and musicians.
Read it all.