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Friend Day reaches
friends
Friend Day is a simple plan for doubling your attendance in 5 weeks.
It is best held in the spring or fall or on a special day when visitors
are most likely to attend. For the plan to be successful all church
leaders must participate in the program. Although all your attendance
growth will be on this one Sunday, 4 weeks of preparation are necessary.
Here is a week-by-week guide.
Week 1
- Print Friend Day commitment cards to distribute during week
3.*
- Encourage everyone to invite one friend. If each one will bring
one, you will double your attendance on Friend Day.
- Ask all members to write down the names of friends, relatives,
and associates they could bring to Friend Day.
- Have the pastor read to the congregation a Friendship Day commitment
card from a friend he has invited who has agreed to attend on
Friend Day as the pastor's guest. The pastor should try to invite
a person prominent in the community and known to those in the
church.
- Post the card on the bulletin board or reprint it in the bulletin
for all to see.
- Challenge each Sunday School teacher and every other leader
in the church to get a commitment from at least one person who
will be his or her guest on Friend Day.
- Begin a series of sermons on the theme of friendship.
Week 2
- Ask the church staff and board members to read their letters
of commitment from their friends who will come to Sunday School
and church with them on Friend Day.
- Post these letters on a bulletin board or other highly visible
spot for all to see.
- Encourage members to pray daily and specifically for their friends
and for Friend Day.
Week 3
- Ask each Sunday School teacher and worker to read his or her
letter of commitment from the friend who will be attending on
Friend Day.
- Distribute Friend Day commitment cards for your members to give
to their friends. Each person should invite at least one friend
to be his or her special guest on Friend Day and to affirm that
intention by signing a Friend Day commitment card.
- Instruct each teacher or class leader to phone students during
the week to remind them to complete their commitment cards and
turn them in on the fourth Sunday.
Week 4
- Collect all the commitment cards from congregation.
- Instruct each class to take time to pray specifically for their
friends and for Friend Day.
- Remind teachers or class leaders to send cards to their class
encouraging them to arrange with their friends to come with them
next Sunday, Friend Day.
Week 5 - Friend Day
This day should be specifically planned to honor your friends and
to be meaningful to them. Prepare for company. Design the Sunday
School class, the morning worship service, and every other aspect
of the day with your friends in mind. You may want to have an all-church
dinner with the friends as guests or encourage the members to take
their friends to lunch. Present the gospel clearly, lovingly, and
relevantly. Announce upcoming special events that would be of interest
to your unchurched friends. Do your best to build the kind of relationship
that makes further contact with your friends possible.
Week 6 - Follow-up
- Preserve the results of your Friend Day efforts with effective
follow-up.
- Get the name, address, and phone number of each guest. Monday
mail a letter from the pastor, and designate someone from the
church/Sunday School class make a phone call.
- Encourage each member to send a thank-you card to his or her
guest for Friend Day.
- Add the guests' names to your church mailing list.
- Encourage each one who brought a guest to continue to reach
out to that friend or family member.
Maintaining appropriate contact with each guest lets them know
the church cares about them and their needs. With good planning,
hard work, and compassion for the lost, your church and Sunday School
can be a friendly place for unchurched people.
* The Friend Day Manual can be ordered from Gospel Publishing House
(1-800-641-4310) or Church Growth Institute (1-800-553-4769).
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