3 Ways To Increase Your Attendance This Christmas

Christmas is one of the greatest opportunities to invite friends, neighbors, and family to church. Millions of people will flow into a Christmas Eve or Christmas service, many of them attending for the very first time. Why? Because someone invited them.

As we prepare for celebrating one of the most historic days in our Christian faith – the birth of Christ, here are three effective ways to can increase your attendance this year: 

1. Make a phone call.

One way a church can effectively invite people to services is to simply make a phone call. I know it sounds simple, but sometimes this is truly all it takes to encourage visitors for the Christmas season. 

Below is a 3-step plan to successfully invite visitors through a phone call. 

Create call lists 

Your database should be full of names and contacts that have visited your church over the last couple of years. The Christmas season is a great opportunity to connect with the people who have visited in the past and give them an opportunity to come back. Make a list of the names and phone numbers in your database. Depending on how many names are in your database, it should be least 25 contacts but no more than 50.

Create call list packets.

The call list packets will include all the materials needed for your call list team members (discussed in the next point) to successfully make their calls.

Each packet will have a call list with each persons contact information and a script. The script will include a greeting, introduction of who and why the person is calling, and the information for all of your Christmas Eve services (times, locations, etc.).

Each call team member should be sensitive to whatever may be going on with the person on the other end of the phone. The call may turn into an opportunity to minister to the person by either listening or even having the opportunity to pray with them about a current need in their life.

Recruit your call team members.

Once you have created your call list packets, it's time to recruit your call team members. This could be by a posting in your weekend program, making an announcement during the service, or giving a call list packet as volunteers leave the service.

This is a great way to get people who may have never been involved in serving to be engaged in the Christmas services. 

2. Build invite cards.

The invite card is a simple and effective invitation tool your members can use to invite friends, family, and coworkers to Christmas services. It would be advisable to have the cards professionally printed with all of your service times and locations.

Place the invite cards at every exit of your church so your members can pick them up on the way out of the services. Remind them of one rule: if you take it, you have to give it to someone as an invite to the Christmas services. These are great to give the cashier at Target, your barista at Starbucks, the teller at your bank, your coworker, or even the new family who just moved into your neighborhood. Christmas is one of the few times in the year where it's not awkward to invite someone to church.

3. Prepare a seasonal teaching series.

About three or four weeks before Christmas is a great time to emphasize the importance of the people that God has strategically placed in our sphere of influence. The weekend teaching is a great way to communicate the importance of sharing the good news. What better time to do it than Christmas time?

The message series gives the ‘why’ of reaching people, but it also a great way to teach the ‘how.' On the first weekend of the series, it is a strategic way to introduce the call list and the invite cards. Every week until Christmas, continue to give the tools until all of the call packets are taken and the invite cards are handed out.

This Christmas season gives your church the unique opportunity to invite new visitors to your church body. These ideas should walk you through this process effectively. 

What do you have planned for your Christmas services this year?