UCC - Friend-Raising draws a positive response, many guests

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Friend-Raising draws a positive response, many guests, from around 
the coun try

> Written by Staff Reports
> November 9, 2010

Over 315 United Church of Christ congregations
participated in this past weekend's
?Friend-Raising? campaign. As a new twist to the
familiar invite-a-friend weekends, the UCC put in
place an online form where congregations could
record their results and share their experiences.

At least 4,200 people visited the UCC

congregations that reported their results ? a 6.2
percent increase in attendance over average worshipers in these 
congregatio ns.

As the first Sunday of the month, many

congregations celebrated communion including
Magyar UCC in Elyria, Ohio, where, upon inviting
?everyone? to the communion table, they
enthusiastically remarked, ?Everyone did participate!?

Churches also noted how Friend-Raising coincided
with other events in their church life.
Recognition of All Saints Sunday, Veterans Day
and stewardship campaign drives were seen as ways
to introduce people to the regular rhythms of church life.

St. Stephen UCC in Louisville, Ky., recorded 39
visitors on 75 individual invitations sent. ?Each
family or individual was asked to take an
invitation that our church office printed and
sign it, address it, mail it, or just hand
delivery,? said the Rev. Jim Harper III, pastor
at St. Stephens.  After promoting the program for
three Sundays using a variety of UCC-provided
printed and video materials, Harper noted, ?It was a great day of 
celebra tion.?

> The Rev. Felix Carrion, StillSpeaking
> Coordinator, preached at New Vision UCC in
> Canton, Ohio, and led a workshop following
> Friend-Raising Sunday worship. Fifteen visitors
> attended worship and 20 people attended the StillSpeaking workshop.

?There was a palpable sense of energy and

celebration at New Vision,? said Carrion. ?It's a
growing congregation that is looking for new ways
to incorporate StillSpeaking into the life of the
church, including equipping its youth.?

As of 3pm eastern time Monday, the congregation
reporting the highest number of visitors was St.
John?s UCC in Kutztown, Pa., with 52 visitors which included 15 youth.

?We celebrated All Saints Sunday, so we had the
added incentive of the families of those we
remembered,? said the Rev. Karl Jones Jr. of St.
John's. ?This was also one of our jazz services,
so we had visitors who came for the excellent
music? We will follow up with all the visitors
with welcome messages and invitations to participate in our other 
services. ?

The per-capita invitation prize goes to Journey
UCC , a new church start in Delmar, N.Y., where 36 members welcomed 
33 gues ts.

Using technology such as e-vites, Facebook and
the UCC's video messages, visitors were treated
to a guest speaker from a Ugandan mission partner
and a pancake breakfast following the service.
?Our current space has a 70-person occupancy and
with 62 in attendance, we were packed. After
worship it was a miracle to watch the tables roll
out, the griddles come out.? said the Rev. Sandy
J. Damhof of the church's record setting attendance.

?Bring a friend Sunday wonderfully confirms that
there is a power in combining the wizardry of
today?s technology with the tried-and-tested
word-of-mouth invitation,? Carrion said of the
campaign.  ?Some of our churches recorded
historic tallies of visitors because these
churches were energized to participate in and
make Bring-a-Friend Sunday a reality.?

While the reported numbers are encouraging to
event organizers, they note that still more
congregations are yet to record their numbers or
were unable to participate in the Friend-Raising
event Nov. 7 because of other commitments during
Sunday worship. Several congregations said they
would be holding their Friend-Raising Sundays in the near future.
[]

You can continue to watch the Friend-Raising
tally and read more testimonials at
<<http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/friendraising.html>ucc.org/god-i
 s-still-speaking/friendraising.html>.