Episode 55 | Sunday Attraction: Creating The Elevated Excuse To Invite

Pastor and creator of "Back To Church Sunday," Pastor Hal Seed of the New Song Community Church in Oceanside, California, shares how they have created the "elevated excuse to invite" for Sundays throughout the year for the purpose of attracting the lost to church so that they can reach them with the Gospel.

This is an "insiders recording" with Hal Seed that we were able to get access to in order to help and encourage you to create more attractional Sundays to reach the lost.

NOTES: Hal Seed:  Sunday Attraction – Creating An Elevated Excuse for Inviting to Church

6:41 Attractional Evangelism still works

6:50 Everyday is a good day to bring someone to Jesus, but some days are better than others.  

7:00 Sundays are the best day to lead someone to Jesus

7:13 All Sundays are good Sundays to bring someone to Jesus, but some Sundays are better than others.  For example, Easter and Mother’s day. People will attend on these Sunday’s even if they don’t come any Sunday of the year

8:44 3 Elevated Excuses to invite people to church:

9:20 Attractional Campaigns

• During attractional campaigns, everyone does the same thing at the same time in a church. There is a broad purpose that appeals to everyone.

• Has a book involved that everyone is reading. Has sermons for 5 or 6 weeks on that particular campaign, etc.

• Ramping up for the campaign is huge. Getting people involved and plugged in is key

• The more a church does an attractional campaign, the more it will grow

12:04 Wow Weekend

• Have someone come in or an event that people only have one opportunity to be a part of Ex: had Bethany Hamilton come and speak

13:46 Comeback Event

• Created a national back to church Sunday and churches saw a 35% increase in attendance that Sunday 14:56

• Marketing for these events: Business cards, prayer, door hangers

• I Love Sundays Campaign 15:36

• The Right Kind of Sunday Consumes Your Life 16:26

16:55 Why Elevated Excuses work:

• First, Events are appealing

• Secondly, It’s a moment of time- it only happens now!

• Thirdly, everyone gets involved

19:12 Every year Hal does 2-3 attractional campaigns, 2 wow events, and 1 comeback event

22:51 Power of inviting is the best thing

28:01 Helpful resources for evangelism:

• The God Questions Campaign. It’s a six-week Church-wide Campaign that answers the major questions people have about God, Christianity and the Bible. This Campaign has been used in over 2,000 churches to attract and lead people to Christ.

• The God Questions Gift Edition. This short gift edition of The God Questions is being used by churches as a gift to first time guests. We’ve found that giving a gift increases visitor return rates significantly. The Gift Edition answers the key questions and presents a gospel invitation. At $1.99 each, this little book more than pays for itself with higher rates of retention.

• Monthly PastorMentor videos. We’re creating a series of practical training videos that teach pastors and their teams a thorough system for each of the eight systems of their church. The two most pertinent sessions for you would probably be “Your Assimilation System” and “Your Outreach System.”

• Healthy Church Systems EBooks. I wanted to help pastors with quick, practical resources for growing their churches, so I’ve created a series of short (20 pages) eBooks that cover each church system thoroughly. I recommend that pastors who want to reach out start with Keeping Visitors Coming Back and then go to Attracting More Newcomers. So many church mentors are charging so much for their resources that they’ve created a price barrier, so we’re selling these at $4.99 each – basically enough to cover the cost of editing them and posting them on our website.