...is September 30th. It even has a website
http://www.backtochurch.co.uk/ It's designed to be a day when people who have got out of the habit of going to church are invited back. I saw an estimate that for every 1 person in church, there are 3 who would go if they sorted themselves out to do it. Not sure how accurate that can be, but it sounds a plausible guess.
A friend of mine is also suggesting that for church-goers it should be 'not-fail-to-get-to-church' Sunday, so we can be there for people who do come back.
And... it's the first Sunday that most University of Cumbria (fka St Martin's) students are in a position to get along to morning worship.
One local church has even spotted this connection
Your old church St James Whitley is attempting to build for Back to Church Sunday by having our Harvest Service on the 30th followed by a harvest supper on Monday 31st.
ReplyDeleteThe training in Coventry included a super talk by the customer services manager from John Lewis in Solihull. Looking at our church with the eyes of an outsider or new arrival to the area was a real relevation!
Moving the main phone contact number to a mobile number that can be passed around to be always available from the parish office/vicars number was one of the good ideas that we have tried.
Excellent. Good to hear things are thriving back in Whitley.
ReplyDeletePS I think you mean the 1st Oct for the supper!!
ReplyDeleteI read that statistic also... I think back to church sunday is a really good idea as a way of encouraging people to return to church when they have no great objection to church apart from the fact they haven't been for a while and it has been so long that they wouldn't think about going on a Sunday anymore. That's a different kind of person to the type of person you would invite to alpha or similar.
ReplyDelete