I’ll assume you know the “pray like mad” part.
Here’s step two:
Crawl underneath the hood of any growing church that is actually growing from the unchurched, and you will find that the number one reason newcomers attend is that they were invited by a friend.
Churches grow from the unchurched because their members and attendees talk about it to their unchurched friends. It comes up in their conversations like the mention of a good movie, a favorite restaurant, or a treasured vacation spot.
There is a culture of invitation.
As Michael Green noted about the explosive growth of the early church, which was entirely conversion growth, Christians were talking about the church, Jesus, and the gospel like it was gossip over the backyard fence.
Meck experiences over 70% of its total growth through those who were previously unchurched, charted carefully through our membership classes. We’ve had some classes run as high as 77%.
We also track how they came to the church. Was it through direct mail? Did they see a sign? Did they drive by and see the campus?
The number one answer has never changed: “I was invited by a friend.”
That’s how you do it.
Then, once they’ve been invited, you can tell them to leave their tie at home and offer them a good cup of coffee when they arrive.
