It has been said that many Churchified people don't invite their friends to their Church, not because they are embarrassed of God, Jesus or the Bible, but because they are embarrassed of
their Church.
At our Church in Sacramento, one of the strategies we used to overcome this was by having pseudo-celebrity guests join our services. We had sort of well known attorneys, scientists, musicians, pastors from other countries, local pastors, politicians and the like join us from time to time.
Having these guests would do a few things:
- It provided a kind of focal point for regular attenders to invite their friends.
- It made it easier for those who don't usually go to Church come check out ours, which led to them seeing that we did have a few normal people there, it was a good place to be, we cared about them, etc., etc.
- It gave our regulars a chance to hear from others in the Christian community and get a perspective broader than just mine.
My model for this strategy came from my friend Jon. Jon had a much larger Church ( a couple of thousand, as opposed to the approx. 150 people that was our average attendance) so he got better known people.
Some of his guests included the Little Mermaid voice girl, Smokey Robinson and others that were well enough known that you might have heard of them, even if you didn't live in Northern California.
One of the more interesting guys (although it would be hard to call Smokey Robinson anything but interesting) was Gary Busey. During his talk, in a display of evangelistic fervor, he declared, "YOU PEOPLE NEED JESUS, DAMNIT!!!"
He might be crazed and a little rough around the edges, but you can't accuse him of not having passion.
Here are a few of the locals we corralled, for those that were there and want to remember.
Jonathan McKee
Wally Magdenal
Brad Dacus
Andy Allen
Lisa Daggs
Nathan Oates
Dennis Petersen
The Stock Brothers
Ted and Lee
That is all I can think of. If I missed your fave, lemme know.
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