I know some of you have purchased our “I Love My Church Day” program designed to double the number of first time visitors and then retain 75% of them. So I wanted to share this preaching idea with you.
One of the great texts to use the Sunday before you conclude the program and ask your people to invite their networks is Acts 10. There are three excellent reasons to use this text to encourage your people.
1. God is a sending God. He bugged Peter to go to Cornelius until Peter finally went. You could gro from here and quickly show all of the times in the Bible God sends someone out to the least, the last, or the lost. Abram, Moses, Jonah, Amos, Paul, etc. the “sent” stories are legion.
2. Peter, like many of us, was reluctant to go to a stranger and share faith with him. He frankly didn’t want to do it much less eat pork with a Gentile. But he did it anyway since that is what Christians do.
3. To Peter’s surprise God had already been working on Cornelius to prepare him for Peter and all Peter had to do was explain some things.
There are numerous ways you can embellish this text to meet the needs of your area and people. For example, if your people have never done anything like this before they will be uncomfortable inviting their friends and networks. So encourage them to use email to invite everyone on their list who lives in the area. Anyone can do that without much fear.
And if you haven’t purchased the I Love My Church Day or don’t want to you can still use this text to sensitize your people to the need to reach out.
I Love My Church Day is a four week program designed to double the number of first time visitors and then retain 75% of them. It’s simple and easy. Done right it will cost you an investment of time and money. But it’s worth it.