Back to Church Sunday - feedback from 2011

Initial responses from Back to Church Sunday this year are encouraging - the CofE is reporting roughly 14,000 guests at BCTS services among a sample of churches who took part in it*. Over 4,000 took part in it overall, and the report extrapolates the sample figures to estimate that nearly 80,000 extra people turned up on that Sunday. I imagine the actual figure is slightly less: churches reporting back are more likely to be those who had a succesful day (!) but that's still pretty good going.

I'd be intrigued to know if this is the kind of thing which works better when done every year, or more intermittently. It's only going to engage with people who once went to church (a sizeable, but shrinking number), but experience seems to show that if those people find a church which is relevant, accessible and welcoming, then many of them join it.

Here is one way to do BCTS, and do it well:
St Mary the Virgin, Yaxley, in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, is an example of a church where Back to Church Sunday is part of a successful mission strategy: regular Sunday attendance has nearly quadrupled from nine to a viable 35, thanks to personal invitations from church members, and the pioneering work of the Revd Tiffer Robinson, who knocked on every door in the village of 400 people to personally invite everyone back to church.


In fact, why save it for September. I'm sure there are plenty of occasions during the year which people could be invited to. Let me think, there's something happening in December isn't there?

*Can I commend whoever is behind the information gathering. The CofE is often painfully slow at gathering stats - I guess there are other things to be getting on with! - but it's good to have qualitative feedback in time for it to make a difference. In case this dizzying speed is all too much, don't worry, in January 2012 it'll be back to normal, when we get the attendance data for 2010.

'Don't Go to Church Sunday'

A footnote on this old post about Back to Church Sunday:
Idea for next year 'Back to World Sunday', where churches close their services and Christians spend the day hanging out with their non-churchgoing friends.

Someone else has had the same idea: Don't Go To Church Sunday at the moment just seems to be a website with a few ideas. It isn't a massive site, just one page - here's a snippet:
Why?
- Because we should be more interested in being the church rather than going to church.
- Because we should be more concerned about people getting to know Jesus than keeping ‘church’ going the way it always has.
- Because there are more people who have never been to church in Britain than those who have.

the site lists a few ideas and examples from around the country. (Ht Evangelism UK). I don't know if there's any kind of organised campaign connected to it, there aren't any clues on Google, though there are 55 million results for 'don't go to church Sunday'.

Other benefits:
- cuts the carbon footprint of the congregation who would otherwise have driven in (ditto on heating an ancient building - plan DGTCS in mid-January for fuel efficiency).
- the vicar/minister gets a bit of a break. Not that I have a vested interest......
- giving everyone else a break who normally puts out chairs, makes coffee, sets up the building, plays music etc. etc.

Against
- it'll be the one Sunday in the year when several people walk in off the street, only to find the place closed.
- Mrs Miggins will still turn up to make the tea anyway, because that's what she's always done every Sunday since she took the job on . Actually, she could look after the folk who've come in off the street. Sorted.
- Several members will take the chance to try the new house church down the road, as they've spent so much time in church meetings that they don't have any non-Christian friends left to hang out with. They'll like it so much that you never see them again.

80,000 guests on Back to Church Sunday

The CofE is reporting today that, based on returns from churches, around 80,000 people came back to church on BTCS this year, 53,000 to Anglican churches, but with more churches from other denominations getting on board.

Here's some of the blurb:

The Church of England’s Head of Research and Statistics, the Revd Lynda Barley, says: “If the returns we have received from almost one fifth of the participating parishes are representative, the scaled up figures would suggest that 53,000 extra people attended Church of England churches that Sunday, among 82,000 coming back across the UK once other denominations are included.

“We know from local research that new attenders and the churches enjoy the Back to Church experience of church. Not only has the number of participating churches increased between 2008 and 2009 so that approximately 20 per cent of Church of England churches are now taking part, but the average number of extra people per church has grown, with participating churches each having welcomed an average of 19 extra people compared to 14 last year.”

and there's this rather cheeky footnote
The number of people returning to the Church of England on 27 September 2009 alone could have filled the O2 arena in London twice over – and still left a queue of 7,000 (the highest quoted membership of the National Secular Society) outside without a seat;

Thoughts:
- are the churches which have sent data back in more likely to be those for whom it went well? After all, if nobody showed up, that might make you less likely to send the forms back in.

- More importantly, what was people's experience when they came? I don't know what qualifies as good 'repeat business' for shops, and I'm aware that the sizeable majority of readers of this blog never return for a second look. I'd be interested to see any feedback from the visitors who came on that day, what they thought, and how it measured up to expectations.

- It's a substantial rise on the 37,000 last year, and it probably still has plenty of potential. There are several million former churchgoers in the UK. But it's not going to appeal to the increasing majority who don't have any church background, and has to be part of a wider outreach strategy, rather than the cure for all ills.

- I also wonder what the pattern looks like in churches which have run BTCS for several years. We had fewer people this year than in the previous couple of years when we've run Back to Church Sunday, and there comes a point, unless a church is adding new members quite rapidly, when everyone has invited all the people they can think of, and they've either said yes or no.

'Back to World Sunday' - artists impression

Whole books have been written trying to explore this one dilemma. Thanks to ASBO Jesus.I suggested somewhere that instead of 'Back to Church Sunday' in 2010 we should have 'Back to World Sunday', cancel our church services, and just encourage Christians to mingle.

Though it's not an either/or. Perhaps we should alternate every other year.

Did anyone come back to church?

Back to Church Sunday want to know what happened, you can relay your experiences here.

Thanks to Paul Bayes' Start the Week for this, which also has links this week on:
- Mission Action Planning - a new training day on Nov 12th, the week before the Mission 21 church planting conference in Bath. Don't expect to see me in Yeovil in mid-November!
- new Church Army/Christian Enquiry Agency partnership
- focus on older people
- Rowan Williams CD from York Courses
- a publication which covers topics like 'how to pray in board meetings' (apart from 'Oh God how much longer is this going to go on for?') and 'funeral evangelism'.


Comment is Free has a couple of pieces about Back to Church Sunday:
'What's the Point of Back to Church Sunday?' which wonders if it's fishing in the same pool as Alpha. Alan Wilson has responded, and debunks the myth that BTCS was dreamed up by a marketing department somewhere. If only we had one...


Meanwhile, 'You and Yours' is covering the topic tomorrow: this from their website:

*Call You and Yours: How relevant is organised religion in today's society?*

This weekend Christian churches in England and Wales are organising their latest "back to church" day to try and encourage people to return to Sunday worship; though their rap inspired radio advert has been criticised by some for being an embarassing attempt at trendiness.

There are also suggestions that British Mosques are failing to connect with young Muslims in the UK and there's been a steady decline in the numbers of people attending traditional Synagogues.

Those within the organised religions continue to debate whether it's time to modernise - so that they reflect society's more liberal views on homosexuality and the role of women.

In times of hardship and changing circumstances people supposedly look for meaning in life - are we more inclined to turn to spiritualism or the humanist movement rather than tradititional religions?

Let us know your thoughts ahead of Tuesday's programme.

details of how to call are via the link above.

Update: a search for Back to Church Sunday on Twitter throws up one or two successes, people tweeting about a decent number of guests in church. We had 2 (I think) one who was there not because it was BTCS, but because she 'felt a need to go to church' and really enjoyed it. We split it over 2 weeks to include our Harvest service next Sunday, so there may be others at that.

Idea for next year 'Back to World Sunday', where churches close their services and Christians spend the day hanging out with their non-churchgoing friends.

Radio 2 Church? Back to Church Sunday on Jeremy Vine Show

Really good chat between Jeremy Vine and Bishop James Jones on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday, talking about welcome, mercy, what to wear to church, what to do if someone asks 'are you saved?' The section starts at 1:42:50 into the show. (There's conversation earlier in the show on euthanasia)

“when you get a taste of mercy, it does begin to change you” (James Jones)

It's worth listening to the phone-in bit after the song. Some interesting stories, how would your church respond to the unmarried mum seeking baptism for her child?

'Bishops to PR Event' Sunday

Say what you like about Back to Church Sunday, it's capacity to get bishops doing quirky things for column inches in the press is unparalleled. There seems to be a transport theme this year, including bicycles, motorbikes, trains and motorised advertising hoardings.

quite a nice little vid from Steve Croft, Bishop of Sheffield



Meanwhile news of BTCS doesn't seem to have reached my own Diocesan website. (Update: it's there now. Amazing what a quick email can accomplish!) For more serious postings on the topic, use the tag below.

Back to Church Sunday Radio Ad

A new radio ad has been produced to go with Back to Church Sunday, hear it here, there's also a CofE press release about it.

Reflecting this year’s theme of ‘Come as you are’, the 40-second advert features a variety of voices reading a rap-style poem that counsels listeners “You might have left for so many reasons, but am I wrong to sense that now’s the season, to stop, turn around, walk back? Don’t look to make no airs and graces. Faked up smiles and masked up faces. No need to make no innovation. Please accept this as your invitation.”

It set me wondering who the ad is aimed at. Most of the people who might come back to church are those with a church background: that figure increases with age. Will a rap-style poem appeal to most over-60's who are thinking about coming back to church, or will it put them off, if they left churches in the first place because they were trying too hard to be trendy? Having said that, there are probably loads of folk in their 50s who were brought up on Grandmaster Flash.

Dave Walker also has thoughts.

Back to Church Sunday is 27th September, and the ad will be running in various places from next Monday.

Back to Church Sunday, September 27th

A few links for Back to Church Sunday

Back to Church Sunday site: unfortunately if you're after publicity packs for this year, they're no longer taking orders, but you can sign up for 2010. This is obviously only for churches which plan ahead.

Lichfield Diocese article, noting that around half of those invited had stayed in touch with the church in some form or other, (though some of those were possibly in touch with the church already?) and 12-15% have become regular church members.

Church Times article by Paul Bayes, which notes that up to 3m people may be waiting for the right invitation.

the latest Inspire magazine is BTCS-theme, with several stories of people who've recently returned to church and rediscovered their faith. It's available free for churches to order (there, that got your attention didn't it!?)

More substantial post from earlier this year. with quotes, cartoons etc. As I said back then, don't even think about asking someone to your church until you've done an honest appraisal of what they'll find when they come. That's unless you're aiming to have 'put the general public off church Sunday', which has admittedly been the default Anglican setting in some places for much of the 20th century (sounds of spluttering into teacups). So if you're now prepping for 2010, use this worship audit first to gauge how visitor-friendly your church is.

Mission and Fresh Expressions Resources by Diocese: Manchester - Rochester

Continuing the survey of 44 diocesan websites for useful resources on mission and fresh expressions that could be useful for anyone. Previous posts covered:
Bath and Wells - Coventry
Derby - London
Sheffield - York to follow next week, all being well.

At the end of the series I'll also be doing a 'top 10 resources' post, and some suggestions about what resources could, pretty easily, be held in common across all diocesan sites.

This time, we start in the land of my birth (almost)

Manchester a pretty comprehensive looking site. Interesting bits:
Mission planning statistics - the Diocese has neighbourhood census and demographic stats organised parish by parish, to help parishes understnad their mission context. There is a pack for each parish with maps and key local stats. Excellent idea.

A very good Parish Audit booklet, taking parishes step by step through the process of thinking about their local context, and how to respond to it. Great tool for thinking through priorities and direction as a parish/church.

Superb communications home page, which helpfully sets out all the main local media in the Diocese, and which area they cover, as well as what communications the Diocese is sending out and who to. Great overview, the kind of thing every diocese should do. Great. The other communications stuff is of a similar standard - there are a cluster of advice pages on publicity, news releases, media contacts, websites and magazines (use links in the sidebar from the Communications home page).

Chunky Evangelism section, which starts with a clear statement of intent: Manchester Diocese has a vision to see the local church growing: growing qualitatively in terms of spirituality, unity, generosity and discipleship. Growing quantitatively as more people are drawn to faith in our great God and his son Jesus. Within this is a page on Experience Easter, with ideas about how to make the most of Easter as an outreach opportunity. To free up time to do outreach at Easter, there's another page with bags of resources for Good Friday meditations, well worth a look (though a bit late for this year!)

If the diocese has a key outreach event, a downloadable poster is put on the site so people can access the publicity themselves. Clever.

Sadly not online, but avaible from the Diocese, are a couple of booklets on outreach with particular age groups. Luv 'em is for work with children and young people, and Silver Service for ministry with the elderly.

Newcastle
Good 'faith and life' section on baptism, weddings, funerals etc., which recognises that many visitors might come with these on the agenda. Lots of stuff here that could be easily replicated in every diocese, or indeed on your own church website.

Norwich: 'Committed to growth' says the top of the sidebar, which is encouraging. This link takes you into a suite of Mission Action Plan ('Growth Plan') resources, with a booklet introducing the idea, which would make a useful PCC resource in its own right for pretty much any church. The MAP resources are well set out, with templates, example plans etc.

Very good Mission Support Fund page, with the guidance notes for applications, a full list of projects funded so far, dates and deadlines for applications over the year. Good example for other dioceses to copy.

A booklist on Welcoming Newcomers, v helpful, with links to 2 examples of church welcome packs, one of which (hoorah!) was from another diocese. There are also simple pages explaining Fresh expressions and alternative worship, with links to local examples.

A page on discipleship courses reproduces the LICC survey of discipleship materials, helpfully adding which parishes are using certain courses for people who want to explore further. This is vital: it's so much better having someone local who can talk you through how they've done it, what's worked and what hasn't.

Helpful page on alternative and creative worship, from all-age to 'liquid', with links to blogs, books and resource sites. Helpful for people wanting to explore some popular alternatives to a standard hymn sandwich.

Easy to use Back to Church Sunday page with downloadable invites and posters, but they need to change it over from 2008 to 2009!

Couple of good case studies of redeveloping churches as community centres.


Oxford Big Back to Church Sunday splash on the home page, sends a clear message about what's important. Their BTCS resource page has some useful case studies of parishes which did it, along with the usual resources, and a 'timeline' of how to prepare.

Oxford is also sponsoring a study of how faith communities 'add value' to their neighbourhoods, the results will be interesting and will contribute to a crucial national policy debate.

The Encouraging Evangelism page has a selection of vid clips on the practicalities of evangelism, of which the most helpful are no's 3 (on running a mens breakfast), 4 (on running an Alpha/nurture course) and 5, which focuses on the Jigsaw fresh expression of church in Witney:



Oxford is one of the pioneer Dioceses in Fresh Expressions , having invested heavily in the Cutting Edge initiative several years ago. Cutting Edge resourced 6 pilot new congregations,
there's a summary of the fruits here, and the full report on the project is well worth a read if you are looking to set up a Fresh Expression within an Anglican diocese, very very helpful. The Diocese has also produce a concise 'Beginning, Nurturing and Sustaining Fresh Expressions' booklet, which is available as a pdf.

Yet another superb link: Nurture Courses - this focuses on the four most popular (START, Alpha, Emmaus, Essence), with a full review of each, and several stories from people who have used them. It also includes a handy list of books and websites on evangelism, and a useful page on how to follow up an evangelistic event so that it helps you make contacts.

There's also a brief list of useful links to sites and blogs on evangelism, and there's also a cluster of documents around 'Living Faith', the diocesan vision for growth and development. There's a clever 'Easter Ingredients' evangelistic leaflet, based around Hot Cross buns - if you can airbrush out the Oxford logo this could be used anywhere, good idea.

I mention just in passing that Oxford diocese also links to three of its bloggers...


Peterborough tough job to follow Oxford, but some very handy niche products. Under Mission downloads, there are some great little booklets on Providing a Welcome, and ministry with the elderly, and some good ideas here on options for outreach, and several documents produced for a 2007 Lent course to get churches to think about mission.

Good Back to Church Sunday section with stories of people who came back to church, a countdown, welcoming children, and ideas for BTCS at Easter and Christmas.

introduction to Parish Nursing, interesting concept: "A parish nurse is a registered nurse with community experience, who works through the church, offering spiritual as well as physical and mental care."

Portsmouth: woo, psychedelic! A site designed by an evangelist: the first 4 sections are on Jesus, stories of people who came to faith, FAQ's and life events (baptisms, weddings etc.). It's only when you get to the penultimate 'Info' panel that there's anything about the Diocese, and you end up at a site within a site with Diocesan information. Love it. They even have pretty much the entire Street Bible online at the site.

Intriguing Evangelism section, buried deep in the bowels of the site, including links on leading someone to Jesus, and this nice gospel illustrations page. Some good material here, but quite tricky to navigate.

Helpful summary of key CofE thinking on mission: Mission Shaped Church, the 5 marks of mission, Lambeth statements etc. , peculiar formatting though. Also an article reproduced from elsewhere "Questions Christians ask about sharing their faith".

The diocese have also mapped the 2001 census data onto parishes, v. helpful.

Ripon & Leeds
interesting policy document on mission and ministry in UPA parishes, of which they have several.

Has a FX section, and great to see that there are 4 video clips of different FX in the diocese, plus an intro from the Bish. Love the Saturday Night Service in particular. Otherwise fairly standard contents (what is FX, training, funding etc.) but at least it's there. Strange that the vids aren't linked from the FX page!

Rochester. The Diocesan Evangelists have their own site, complete with testimonies, FAQ's mission booklist etc. There seem to be plenty of them, which is encouraging! To be honest the navigation is bewildering - I found myself on the same site via 'Mission and Unity', which also seems to have a separate site from the main Diocesan one. Seems odd that 'unity' should be separate, but what do I know?

There may have been other helpful resources on this site but frankly I just gave up, what with new windows popping up all over the place, and bits of the site which didn't do what they said they'd do. PLEASE CAN THE NEXT BISHOP OF ROCHESTER BAN POP-UP WINDOWS.

A real curates egg of sites, though there are at least some mission/evangelism/fx resources on all of them. Just goes to show that the way you communicate is vital to whether or not you'll get your message across, no matter how important that message is.

Best bits:
Manchester communications tips
Norwich on mission funding
Oxford on FX and nurture courses
Peterborough booklets on welcome and ministry with the elderly
Portsmouth gospel illustrations
Ripon & Leeds FX videos.

Back to Church Sunday 2009

There's been a flurry of press releases about this - Sunday 27th September 2009 - in the last day or so, including Christianity Today and the CofE national site. All 44 CofE dioceses are taking part, as well as several other churches, so it's good to see it spreading. Over 35,000 people came back to church on the equivalent Sunday last year, and a significant number stayed connected.

It's a very simple idea: church members invite friends and neighbours 'back to church', and the church tries a little bit harder at being welcoming and friendly, without going over the top. There's no point making the service radically different from what you normally do, as people will then be disappointed when the week after doesn't measure up to their first impression.

A couple of quotes, one from a guest at BTCS 2008

"I didn’t feel like they were trying to shove religion down my throat, they let me make up my own mind. It was a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, just like one big family. I would recommend it to others: you never know where it could lead you. My whole life has changed completely in the last year.”

and Paul Bayes, the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Adviser: “The most important thing about Back to Church Sunday is ensuring that those returning to church get a truly warm welcome. Things like the length of services, the hymns and songs we sing and even the way we give out notices can all have an impact on the welcome people feel. It’s also critical that churches think though what they can offer people who have made that brave step to come back. I hope many churches will be setting up an informal course explaining the Christian faith, or perhaps holding special lunches over the next weeks for returning worshippers to meet each other.”


Resources:
- the Back to Church Sunday site has some top tips and resources.

- The CofE link above has some testimonies which will encourage folk to give it a go.

- Guildford Diocese have a resource page, which tells the story of how it worked locally, and how best to prepare for BTCS, very useful. Local news also from Ely via the Bishop of Huntingdons blog.

- Before you invite anyone I suggest you use this very helpful Worship Audit, from Chelmsford Diocese, to make sure that your worship is vaguely newcomer friendly. It's better to find out the answers to these questions before you invite guests along. Bit like tasting the dish you've been cooking before serving it up to the mother in law.

cartoon by Dave Walker.

Back to Church Sunday promo vid

New promo for BTCS available on Youtube



The 2009 date for Back to Church Sunday is Sept 27th. According to their site, 3,000 churches took part last year, and over 30,000 folk said 'yes' when invited back to church.

Obviously, this is only one tool in the box, and not the answer to everything. It will work for folk who have dropped out of church 'by accident' - through changing jobs, moving house, or falling out of the habit. It won't work for folk who've never been near a church. And it will be a negative thing if you invite your friends and the church isn't welcoming!

37,000 back to church

...according to Back to Church Sunday, based on data from 1/5 of the 3,000 churches taking part. Report here, BTCS website here. Ht Dave W's church times blog. That's quite a number, and it'll be interesting to see if the quality of welcome, fellowship etc. is such that they stay, or realise that they'd been staying away for good reason!!

Based on research by Richter & Francis, Mission Shaped Church estimated that 35-40% of UK residents have some kind of church backgrounds (though that number is shrinking), but no longer come to church. These are folk who come to Christmas services, know some of the songs and the Bible, and could come to church without it all feeling completely alien.

MSC argued that half of these might be open to returning. However, TEAR fund came up with a much lower figure in its research last year. Instead of there being 20% of 'open de-churched' (to use the jargon) it reckoned there was only 5%. Still, that's over 2m people that back to church Sunday can work for, and it's clearly helped many of them. Here's the Tear Fund chart

Speaking to a local youth team yesterday, we used a simpler version the above graphic and asked them to mark on it where they did most of their mission work. It was encouraging to see a lot of splodges on the left hand side of the chart. Most Christian outreach, such as BTCS, Alpha, etc., is of the 'come to us' variety which mainly connects with the fringe/occasional/open de-churched segment, which is a small and shrinking chunk of the whole.

I'm looking forward to the day when we get a 3-D version of the chart which shows people's attitude to spirituality, faith and prayer. Lots of people who don't go to church pray regularly, and defining things in terms of their contact with the church can give the false impression that God is only at work within the church. When we actually talk and listen to people, we often discover that He's been there way ahead of us, and that what people have rejected is not God, but the church and the cultural trappings which grow like brambles around the gospel, or the hurtful mistakes of Christians which have practiced the opposite of what was preached.

new wedding website

Up and running from Oct 1st is 'Your Church Wedding', timed to coincide with the new rules for Anglican weddings. Nice logo too.

(Ht Start the Week, who also want to know how your 'Back to Church Sunday' went, if you did one. )

Update Oct 1st: and here is the news, it looks like a really good site. You can listen to hymns, click through a lot of helpful pages and questions, all the subsections are short and snappy and seem to link well to one another. Good job, whoever put it together. Dave Walker has more. Great to see Andrew Chalkley getting the recognition he deserves at the Beeb in their report on this today. If he gets any more popular, I'll have to start blackmailing him with past issues of our satirical college 'magazine' Forum, which he edited.

Back to Church Sunday

....is coming up this weekend, the CofE has a press release about it, with stories of how bishops are trying to publicise the day around the country. Around 30,000 guests are expected, which is a fair number, and research suggests that around 1 in 10 of these will like it enough to stick around. I'm not sure how to take that - what about the other 9 out of 10?!


We're spreading our BTCS over 2 weekends, as we can never fit everyone in anyway, and Oct 5th will be our Harvest service, which seemed to fit with the whole concept. We had about a dozen guests last year, some of whom are still with us. More thoughts here.

In the opposite direction, Prodigal Kiwi notes the publication of a new book, Quitting Church, and links to some of the other key research and reading on this topic.


And it's also a great chance to post Dave Walkers cartoon, a scene which will be famliar to churchgoers everywhere:

They came back

Though I wasn't there, I gather we had several extra people at our 'Back to Church Sunday' service yesterday. One person I asked said she couldn't tell whether we had many new faces because she was in the side chapel - which is where our overspill seating is! It seems to have encouraged a few folk to come along, but will they be there next week......?

Bit of a mad week this week, lots of things which are a bit out of the ordinary, and involve extra thought and planning:
- this morning, 'start the week' prayers at our local primary school, which started up today, a mixture of parents, staff, governors and children, praying for the school community for 10m before the Monday morning bell.
- this evening: a 'vision evening' at a local village church which is trying to come to terms with life without their 'own vicar'.
- tomorrow evening: speaking to the church council of one of Yeovil's larger churches about our plans for mission in new housing areas, and encouraging them to think about whether folk from their church should be part of the mission teams.
- Saturday morning: harvest service at a local garden centre
- Saturday evening: our first church 'film night', using Al Gores 'An Inconvenient Truth', I'm hoping to lay hold of an easy-to use carbon footprint calculator, to help folk think about ways they can green their lifestyles.

So, a fairly quiet week.....

Back to Hype Sunday

According to the CofE media centre (it used to be called 'news'), 20,000 people will be coming back to church this Sunday, in response to 'Back to Church Sunday'. If true, that's an impressive statistic, but how do they know? There's clearly an effort to create a sense of momentum and of something important happening, but I'm always a bit ambivalent about these things, because if the promise isn't realised then it all goes strangely quiet, and the media centre turns to other things, rather than looking at why the event didn't live up to the hype.

The story is at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr8607.html and at the end of a list of attention-grabbing things that bishops are doing is by far the most significant paragraph:

Canon Paul Bayes, the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Adviser, believes the event is a key opportunity for churches: “The most important thing about Back to Church Sunday is ensuring that those returning to church get a truly warm welcome. Things like the length of services, the hymns and songs we sing and even the way we give out notices can all have an impact on the welcome people feel. It’s also critical that churches think though what they can offer people who have made that brave step to come back. I hope many churches will be setting up an informal course explaining the Christian faith, or perhaps holding special lunches over the next weeks for returning worshippers to meet each other.”

The thing is that if we gave a warm welcome to the folk who just dropped in on an ordinary week, and treated our worship as the 'shop window' it actually is to enquirers, that those 20,000 would turn up without any great advertising push, and they'd have a positive experience of the church. It's a marketeers way of talking about love, but 'customer service' is what people pay attention to. We love the newcomer by welcoming them, giving up the best pew for them, letting them to the front of the coffee queue, and forgoing our weekly chat with our best chums in order to spend time with them. That should be normal.