The 80% Factor

 

Have you ever invited anyone to church?  Has your invitation ever been denied?  Chances are that if you have invited someone to church they may have said, “NO.”  Studies show that it takes as many as seven invitations to the same person before he or she will respond positively to your invitation.  Often, we give up after the first invitation.  Too often we feel that one invitation is enough.  The reality is that we need to be persistent in our invitations.

 

There is one exception to the rule of inviting the same person at least seven times to attend church.  Eighty percent of the people who are invited to attend church on Christmas Eve will attend worship services.  Read that line again.  Eighty percent of the people who are invited to attend church on Christmas Eve will attend worship services.

 

Christmas Eve is that magical time of the year when people are open to invitations to be a part of our worshipping community.  Christmas Eve presents a common biblical story that draws people together.

 

How can you use this eighty percent rule to benefit your church?  Place this information in your newsletter.  Encourage people to think of someone that they would like to invite to church.  Encourage church members to call the people the week before your Christmas Eve service to extend the invitation.  Encourage church members to offer to drive the people they are inviting to church.

 

Have church members give the names and phone numbers of all the people who were invited to your Christmas Eve service to the church office.  The information will be used to call visitors the day after Christmas.

 

Have greeters available to greet people attending worship services.  Have printed information available about your church for visitors to take home.  Have your church members introduce the visitors they have invited to at least two other church members or families.

 

The day after Christmas, have the pastor, staff, or volunteers call all the people who have been invited thanking them for attending church on Christmas Eve and inviting them to attend your next worship service. There is a great chance that if they attended your Christmas Eve service, visitors will be open to attend your church for Sunday worship.  Christmas is a great time to be invitational.

 

Blessings,

 

Mike Wuehler

SE District News

December 2007

Published monthly for the leadership of the UMC in the SE District of Minnesota