September is here. This past week, I think the final group of schools has begun. Hopefully, you are seeing things to settle down in your church setting. I was always ready to get the summer slump behind me and focus on the fall. As we know, Fall is a beautiful time of year, and it can be beautiful for our churches as well. I encourage you to schedule events and activities for your church. One of the things that I have done in my ministry was High Attendance Days.

High Attendance Days gives your members and attenders an opportunity to get involved in the ministry of the church. Sometimes our entry points into our church and small groups can be ambiguous. This ambiguity is not intentional, but it can happen. With the High Attendance Day, anyone can help in inviting someone to church. In the past, I have set a goal to achieve. This goal may be a chosen goal or trying to break an old High Attendance record of the past. I have had different results with High Attendance Days. They have been very successful and sometimes I have only seen some participation. I remember one High Attendance in particular. We did not reach our goal that day but the following Sunday we had more in Sunday School/Small Group Bible Study than the High Attendance Day. I confess that on that High Attendance I was discouraged but the next Sunday, we were able to celebrate. It must have been a delayed reaction. 

One of the reasons that I did High Attendance days was to provide an opportunity to invite people to church. In my pastoral experience, members and attenders need a reason to invite. Now we would think that people would consistently be inviting people to church. Sometimes we need to be reminded to invite people to church. 

If you have family that lives close to you invite them to your church. We all have family members that are unchurched, and we would like to see them attending. You may say I have already given them 10 invitations to church. Well, the 11^th invitation may be the one that they respond to. Also, I invite friends and we need to invite them if they are unchurched. We all have friends and some of us have different groups of friends. We may have an affinity or hobby that we make acquaintances and build relationships. These relationships develop into friendships. 

Thirdly, I encourage you to invite associates, these can be coworkers or someone that we are associated with. For those in the work force, we will spend more time with coworkers than with family or friends. Always look for the divine appointment that God gives to you when you are with coworkers. 

Fourthly, we should always consider inviting our neighbors. Today we are living in a society that places little value on getting to know our neighbors. We live very private and often secluded lives. We need to build relationships with our neighbors to see where they are spiritually. We might be surprised to find someone we know or see who could be looking for a place to worship or for a place to answer their spiritual questions.  When I speak of neighbors, I also want you to consider your community. Does the community know that the church is there? We might be surprised on how little our community knows about your church. I strongly believe that our churches should have a strong presence in our communities. 

Another reason that I like High attendance days is because it has resulted in adding new attenders to the church. It may be one family or one individual, but I have seen it happen several times. Dr. Larry Purcell said, “Today people seek to belong to Sunday School/Small group Bible Study that offers that place where they can build strong relationships and especially with Christ Jesus.”  He further states, “We have seen that someone attending a Bible study group is more likely stay in church.”

 So let us think about a High Attendance event for your church. Pray about it and those who will attend. Be ready to meet those who arrive and assist them to where they need to go in your facility. Offer them a seat next to you so you can be there to help or explain. Simple things that we can do to have an eternal impact on their lives.