Michael Harvey 
Creating a Culture of Invitation in Your Church 

We like to think our church welcomes visitors. But how welcoming can we be, if we are not inviting? We are welcoming as long as people get themselves across the church threshold, but we fail to take our welcome outside. During the years Michael has been developing Back to Church Sunday, he has conducted an extensive study on the seemingly simple subject of ‘invitation’. Over 650 times in 12 countries he has asked: ‘Why don’t we invite our friends to take a closer look at Christ?’ The many answers form the impetus for this book. After considering why it seems so hard to invite friends to church, Michael looks at our concerns over acceptance and rejection, and suggests ideas gleaned from years of trying to establish a culture of invitation. ‘When I have specifically encouraged Christians to issue an invitation, some people say yes and some no. God sent his son to invite us all into a relationship, and so to be like God is to be a person who invites!’

Tabella dei contenuti

Contents
Acknowledgments 8
Foreword 9
Preface 11
Introduction 13
Chapter
1 What’s Wrong? 19
2 Twelve Reasons for Not Inviting 28
3 Facing the Fear 46
4 Responding to Rejection 72
5 Addressing the Problem 91
6 Best Practice 126
7 The Ultimate Inviter 147
Appendix 154
Notes 156

Circa l’autore

After a successful career in the insurance and consumer electronics industries, Michael now runs Back to Church Sunday campaigns around the world.