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 50% 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 about going to Cornelius until Peter finally went.  You could go 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. There are many “sent” stories.
2. Peter, like many of us, was reluctant to go to a stranger and share his 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. All Peter had to do was explain some things.

Acts 10 is a great text to use to double first-time guests.

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There are numerous ways you can build on this text to meet the needs of your specific 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 or text messages 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 Go Big Visitors Package (formerly the I Love My Church Day Campaign) or don’t want to, you can still use this text to sensitize your people to the need to reach out.

The Go Big Visitors Package (formerly the I Love My Church Day Campaign) is a four-week program designed to double the number of first-time visitors and then retain 50% of them. It’s simple. Done right, it will cost you an investment of time and money. But it’s worth it.

Question: What other texts would you use to encourage church members to invite visitors? Share your ideas in the Comments section below.

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