What is Back to Church Sunday (BTCS)?

This initiative, also known as Invitation Sunday, is the most successful Anglican mission or outreach model so far, for churches to grow numerically and also to develop a welcoming ethos. It was started in the UK in 2004 and has grown to over 6000 churches around the world, including here in South Africa.

The model used here is the simplest evangelical model possible, involving a single step – that is why it is known as “evangelism anyone can do”.  Each member of congregation simply has to invite someone you already know to church. That’s all.

Imagine: if every one of us invited a friend, a family member, a neighbour or a colleague
to church and they accepted, we would double our congregation in a day!

Obviously this is not intended to be a “one-day wonder”, but rather intends for a church to develop an invitational mindset that persists.

When is Christ Church Arcadia doing Back to Church Sunday?

CCA is taking part in the international BTCS on the last Sunday in September. However, to get into the spirit of BTCS, we are having a "dry-run" a month before, on 25 August.

How do I get involved?

Step 1:

• Ask yourself, “Who has God been preparing for me to invite?”
• Pray – then ask God to prompt you about people to invite.
• Respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompts.

Step 2:

• Practice the question, “Would you like to come to church with me?”
• Prepare/rehearse how you would invite your friends and what you would say.
• Pray for courage for courage to invite, and pray for those being invited. Pray, Pray, Pray – the vital key.

Step 3:

• Make the invitation. Invitation cards are available from the church office or download them from http://www.growingthechurch.org.za/Training-BTCS.aspx.
• People can say “Yes” or “No”. Don’t be disappointed if it is the latter.
•  Ask more than one person. Have a few people on your prayer list whom you could ask, 4 or 5.

Step 4:

•   Go and pick up your invited guest from their home and walk or drive over together. This is first prize.
• Or meet your guest at the church and welcome them to sit with you.

Step 5:

• Introduce your guest(s) to your friends at tea time after church.
• Add your guest to the church by adding them to your circle of friends at church. The warmth of Christian fellowship is attractive.

Step 6:

• Assume they are coming the following Sunday, so invite them again. And follow    up.
• Serve them in relation to their needs. Love them practically. Heal old wounds. Bring hope as Jesus would!