Let’s offer Christ to unchurched people we know

Bring a Friend Sunday asks Southwest Texas United Methodists to do a simple, yet powerful, disciple-making act: Invite and escort an unchurched acquaintance to worship March 9.
The annual Bring a Friend Sunday effort encourages all church members to see themselves as hosts on the Sunday before Palm Sunday. As hosts, they are to:
> Pray in advance for unchurched friends, relatives and acquaintances to open themselves to Christ.
> Ask these friends and acquaintances into their church home.
> Join these guests in worship to help them to feel welcome.
> Introduce guests to others in the congregation.
> Invite guests back for Palm Sunday and Easter celebrations.
The return visits can be the first steps in the disciple-making process. If someone comes to church three weeks in a row, he or she is likely to return again.
But getting an unchurched individual to attend worship for the first time is often the most difficult step toward commitment to Christ.
Studies show that 70 to 90 percent of those who join a particular local church already have friends or relatives in that congregation, the Bring a Friend Sunday planning materials say.
Some church leaders over the years have asked me about those “studies.” Here are some details:
Sociologists of religion have observed and talked to people about why they join various Christian groups—both churches and sects—for more than 45 years.
The reasons, detailed in multiple articles in scholarly journals, have little to do with doctrinal appeal, church programs, preaching or some sort of brainwashing. The primary factor is that new recruits have interpersonal attachments to others in the group.
New members join because they want to strengthen those connections. Doctrine and theology become more important as new members learn about the faith community they have joined.
Furthermore, sociologists have found, new members come overwhelmingly from the ranks of those with no prior religious commitment or only nominal connections to any faith group.
Those are the people we try to reach during Lent through Bring a Friend Sunday—unchurched individuals we know. They are the same people we have tried to connect with during Open House Month in September and Home for Christmas during December.
To establish a backdrop for our Lenten invitations to unchurched friends, the conference is buying radio ads in Austin, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio and is putting up billboards across the region.
These Southwest Texas ads will appear at the same time the General Commission on Communication is running television commercials on national cable networks.
All these ads end with a common message: “Open hearts, open minds, open doors. The people of The United Methodist Church.”
This concentrated multimedia advertising blitz—the first of three waves planned during 2008—will briefly raise awareness of our denomination among Southwest Texas residents.
Past sociological studies have found that unchurched people do notice such messages. But the individuals who come to our churches are usually invited by someone they know. Social networking is a key element in sharing the gospel and bringing new people to Christ.
Our Southwest Texas Conference vision statement says we offer Christ to all. We need to begin by offering Christ to those we know.