Back to Church Sunday Resources

Back to Church Sunday (B2CS)

Here are a few thoughts which you might find useful as we seek to encourage our members to invite family, friends, neighbours and strangers to church and enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in a local church community.

"Remember success is measured not so much by how many come but by how many are asked. If we don’t ask who will? Whether people accept our invitation or not is between them and the Holy Spirit."

Resources:

• Invitations and advertising material can be ordered thru Augsburg Press/Anglican Book Center (Tel: 800-265-6397). Augsburg will ship materials directly to any parish that orders them.

• The Diocese of Toronto’s website (www.toronto.anglican.ca) has some resources you are welcome to use. Type in “Back to church Sunday” and you will be taken to a page which has number of  PowerPoint, bulletin insert, sample sermons and video resources to help parishes prepare for Sunday Sept. 30, the date set aside for B2CS.  Browse around and see what might be of use to you. The Toronto Diocesan B2CS committee is holding a contest encouraging the production of a 30 second video on inviting  people to come to church; these videos will be made available for the use of any parish/diocese in early September.     

•  Michael Harvey, the indefatigable founder of B2CS, has visited many diocese/synods and would love to accept more invitations. He has written a book which is highly recommend: Unlocking the Growth: You will be amazed at your church’s potential.  Michael is expanding his ideas to include seasonal invitations (Christmas, Easter etc.) and has a better understanding of trends. ( www.backtochurch.co.uk)  

 
Social media challenge:

• Model invitation yourself. As you may know the bishops of Toronto stood outside commuter train stations with local clergy handing out invitations the past few years joined by Fred Hiltz, Michael Pryce and Mark MacDonald last year. It was very effective in generating media interest but we don’t think it will work for a fourth  year. This year we are trying to leverage social media by issuing invitations and sharing B2CS resources with clergy.   One video you may want to share on your Facebook page or twitter account is linked through our youtube site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQDwMiy-s0w&feature=relmfu

•  When you see posts or tweets on B2CS, please retweet or share them.