{"id":4473,"date":"2015-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2015\/04\/13\/want-people-to-come-to-church-email-them\/"},"modified":"2015-04-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T00:00:00","slug":"want-people-to-come-to-church-email-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/want-people-to-come-to-church-email-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Want People to Come to Church? Email them!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSend them an email! When the folks at unseminary.com<\/a> asked 81 churches to send members an email on Saturday and then measure to see if it affected attendance, here's what they found:<\/p>\n

\n\t57%<\/strong> of the churches that sent Saturday email saw a week-over-week increase in attendance.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaturday<\/strong> is typically the "lowest volume" day for incoming emails and it also has the highest open rates.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe increase in attendance among all the churches was over 1,000 people.<\/p>\n

\n\t—Rich Birch, "Do Saturday Emails Increase Sunday Church Attendance?" Unseminary.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t10 Commandments Remix<\/h2>\n

\n\tLast December "Two professing atheist authors held a contest in which they asked followers to 'rethink the Ten Commandments' and come up with 'an alternative secular version … for the modern age.'" The contest resulted in more than 2,800 submissions from 18 countries. The entries were evaluated by a panel of 13 judges, including Adam Savage from the Discovery Channel's Myth Busters<\/em> and Greg Epstein, executive director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation. The winning entries:<\/p>\n

    \n\t
  1. \n\t\tBe open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  2. \n\t\tStrive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  3. \n\t\tThe scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  4. \n\t\tEvery person has the right to control over their body.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  5. \n\t\tGod is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  6. \n\t\tBe mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  7. \n\t\tTreat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  8. \n\t\tWe have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  9. \n\t\tThere is no one right way to live.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n\t
  10. \n\t\tLeave the world a better place than you found it.<\/strong>\n<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n

    \n\tNo word whether the atheist Big Ten will spark a movie with a Charlton Heston lookalike.<\/p>\n

    \n\t—Heather Clark, "There Is No Right Way to Live: Atheists Invent Their Own Ten Commandments," Christiannews.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n\tThe Only Time Some Can Worship<\/h2>\n

    \n\tThe Vineyard church in Syracuse, New York, recently added a Thursday night service. Pastor John Elmer explains: "I realized what a huge need there was for it. A third of the American workforce works on the weekend. At least 60% of families with children between the ages of 6-17 participate in organized sports, with many of those having weekend events. … Throw in both parents working and chores to be done, lawns to be mowed and families just wanting to spend time together, and church on the weekend wasn't always making it on the calendar."<\/p>\n

    \n\t—Tony Morgan, "Thursday Is the New Sunday," TonyMorganLive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \n\t\t"Mixing social media with daily life diminishes daily life. When I'm with my son, I want him to be able to take for granted that I am there. And no matter how often I might look up from my phone, if our time together is material for social media, I will never be more than half there. I want him to grow up in a home that is a safe haven, not a stage."<\/p>\n

    \n\t\n\t

    \n\t\t—Tyler Blanksi, "Social Media and the Sacrament of the Present Moment," Holyrenaissance.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

    \n\tCopyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership Journal<\/em>.\n\tClick here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Send them an email! When the folks at unseminary.com asked 81 churches to send members an email on Saturday and then measure to see if it affected attendance, here's what they found: 57% of the churches that sent Saturday email saw a week-over-week increase in attendance. Saturday is typically the "lowest volume" day for incoming Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":4474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[177,156,187],"tax_ctp_tags":[3604,3712,3726,4444,4662,4867,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tax_publications-2015-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-spring_2015-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-church-attendance","tax_ctp_tags-creativity","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-sabbath","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nWant People to Come to Church? 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