Big Days - Special Sundays

10/17/2015

Have you ever heard of the 3-hump camel? At our Multiplying Church Cohort meeting at the University Church of Christ, Malibu, CA, Tom Nebel, author of Leading Church Multiplication, prepped us on how to set a growth calendar for a church around Special Sundays. View Tom’s presentation under Resources for Multiplying Churches.

The 3-Humped Camel and Special Sundays
There is a rhythm to the church calendar. Some times of year people around us are more willing to consider attending a church: at the start of the school year, Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day are typical seasons. Tom suggests that your church should identify three seasons in your church calendar where you can promote seeker-sensitive activities. In between these "humps" are the times when you intentionally you affirm new commitments and increase the discipleship strength of your committed.
You're probably familiar with the one-off Friends Day approach where you encourage your people to invite friends, co-workers, and relatives to come with them. That's fine, but Tom encouraged us to make better use of special days by making them the beginning of 3 or 4 week special preaching series on topics of particular interest for people looking for spiritual answers.

Three Benefits of Special Sundays
1. Special Sundays give your people the opportunity to invite others to come with them. Your people are your best advertisement for your church. Churches that grow are churches whose members are constantly inviting their networks to come with them. Give your people reason to make statements like these: "Wow, we had a great day yesterday at church." "Our preacher really touched me with his lesson; I could hardly wait to share some of those thoughts with you today." Or "I wish you could have been with me at church this week, the lesson was so helpful to me. I know it would help you too." These sort of statements are like irrigation, they water the desire to investigate God.
2. Special Sundays create an attendance surge. Visitors are good but often those who will return and stick because of Special Sundays will be people who are already part of your church network but irregular in their participation. Special Sundays lets you see the size of your network and gives your irregular attenders opportunity to develop an attendance habit.
3. Special Sundays give people chances to reboot--to recommit--to their spiritual journey. Life sometimes just wears people down. A period of intense work, sickness, or even vacation may get people off track of their habit to be at church. We're also seeing the decline of church attendance among committed Christians. Special Sundays give people regularly occurring reasons to encounter God again, to experience his refreshing presence in their lives.
For more information on helping your church grow check out the Beyond 200 overview on the Kairos website.
The 3-Humped Camel and Special Sundays
There is a rhythm to the church calendar. Some times of year people around us are more willing to consider attending a church: at the start of the school year, Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day are typical seasons. Tom suggests that your church should identify three seasons in your church calendar where you can promote seeker-sensitive activities. In between these "humps" are the times when you intentionally you affirm new commitments and increase the discipleship strength of your committed.
You're probably familiar with the one-off Friends Day approach where you encourage your people to invite friends, co-workers, and relatives to come with them. That's fine, but Tom encouraged us to make better use of special days by making them the beginning of 3 or 4 week special preaching series on topics of particular interest for people looking for spiritual answers.
Three Benefits of Special Sundays
1. Special Sundays give your people the opportunity to invite others to come with them. Your people are your best advertisement for your church. Churches that grow are churches whose members are constantly inviting their networks to come with them. Give your people reason to make statements like these: "Wow, we had a great day yesterday at church." "Our preacher really touched me with his lesson; I could hardly wait to share some of those thoughts with you today." Or "I wish you could have been with me at church this week, the lesson was so helpful to me. I know it would help you too." These sort of statements are like irrigation, they water the desire to investigate God.
2. Special Sundays create an attendance surge. Visitors are good but often those who will return and stick because of Special Sundays will be people who are already part of your church network but irregular in their participation. Special Sundays lets you see the size of your network and gives your irregular attenders opportunity to develop an attendance habit.
3. Special Sundays give people chances to reboot--to recommit--to their spiritual journey. Life sometimes just wears people down. A period of intense work, sickness, or even vacation may get people off track of their habit to be at church. We're also seeing the decline of church attendance among committed Christians. Special Sundays give people regularly occurring reasons to encounter God again, to experience his refreshing presence in their lives.
For more information on helping your church grow check out the Beyond 200 overview on the Kairos website.