Back to Church Sunday encourages people to come, then stay
BRANDON, MB—Michael Harvey saw it as a sign from God. It turned out he was the last passenger on the last flight out of London's Heathrow Airport as a volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed clouds of ash that soon grounded all aircraft across western and central Europe.
Harvey's departure allowed him to do a cross-country tour in Canada to launch 2010's "Back to Church Sunday" movement.
"That volcano has been dormant for about 170 years," Harvey told a group of about 20 clergy and lay people at St. Matthew's Anglican Cathedral in Brandon. "It's a bit like the Church."
The "Back to Church Sunday" movement started in England in 2004 as an effort by the evangelical wing of the Church of England to help the Church reach out to both the un-churched and parishioners with whom it has lost touch.
"We don't believe in growing the Church," says Harvey. "We believe God does the growing. We do the locking. We lock growth down. Now we have to work at unlocking growth."
It's based on a simple idea. Every member of a parish committed to the program invites another member to come to church on a designated Sunday. This year it is September 26. Then the results are measured six months later to see what happens.
More than 100,000 people have accepted the invitation in the six years the program has been running, and organizers have found from 15 to 20 per cent of those who come end up staying.
That is what its all about for Harvey. "God wants people to come back into a relationship with Him," he says.
The movement has caught on, not only in the Church of England, but in other mainline and evangelical denominations in England and has now spread to become an international movement. Harvey says the goal is to achieve a million invitations.
In Canada, one of the first dioceses to adopt it was the largest, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. Last year more than 2,600 visitors attended "Back to Church Sunday" in the diocese, and many stayed on. One suburban church attracted a crowd of 300, with people standing on the lawn.
The key is the personal invitation. Harvey notes that it takes a very brave person to venture into a church on his or her own. And yet many Christians are reluctant to invite friends.
Augsburg Fortress Canada is supplying Canadian resources for "Back to Church Sunday."
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