27 September is Back to Church Sunday: Come as you are

This Sunday, half a million Christians will be inviting someone special to come back to church in one of the largest co-ordinated ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.

Churches across the UK and further afield will be offering an especially warm welcome at church services and events for Back to Church Sunday (27 September). Church members have been encouraged to personally invite someone they know to come back to church for special services and events on the theme of ‘Come as you are’.

A number of churches are combining the event with their harvest celebrations. “Harvest is a time when some folk return to church for their annual visit to say ‘thank you’ and on this occasion they will find an even warmer welcome than usual,” said the Revd Gill Newton, minister at Cheadle Hulme Methodist Church in Cheshire.

Derrick Norton, Evangelism Network Development Officer, said; “Back to Church Sunday is taking many people by surprise, because of the growing awareness of its success. Here is an event which accords with some people’s interest in spiritual things, and which is an opportunity for those outside the church to find a way to return.

“We are encouraged to do what we know we should – to be welcoming. It starts with prayerfully and personally inviting someone we know to what is a fairly typical church service, but where we have planned a warm welcome for visitors. We know there will again be lots of good news stories, as people step out and allow God to use their simple acts of hospitality.”

In Appleby and Dufton in Cumbria, people who come to church this Sunday will be invited to attend a ‘Come as you are’ course later in the year. Paul Dunstan, District Evangelism Enabler for the Cumbria Methodist District, said, “The beauty of Back to Church Sunday is its simplicity”.

A 40-second radio advert promoting Back to Church Sunday will be broadcast on local radio stations around the UK, inviting people to take part.

Back to Church Sunday is a joint initiative of the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Salvation Army, the Church in Wales, Churches Together in Scotland and Elim Pentecostal Churches, as well as churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Source: Methodist News Agency 21/09/2009

At Caversham Heights Methodist Church we will be combining this year's Back to Church Sunday with the Cenetenary return visit of our former Deacon, deacon Vic Downs and his wife Anne on 18th October.

BACK TO CHURCH CELEBRATIONS

The invitations plopped through a large number of letterboxes telling people that we would love to see them back in Church to meet old friends, worship with us at our Harvest Festival and to discover the progress we have made since their last visit. As a result we had a full Church on the Sunday morning of 30th September and there was great rejoicing all round! It was good to see all the push-chairs at the front of the church and the Sunday Starters were delighted to welcome so many extra children for the second half of the service.

Various groups who meet at the church decorated a window each, on the theme of farming, making the church not only colourful but interesting by their different displays. There were lots of sheep and poppies, but the Girls’ Brigade window with colourful caterpillars that became butterflies according to the angle from which you were viewing them drew much attention, as did the Zambia link window with the help of many photos, two miniature beehives and 'hundreds' of bees all over it!

The very happy service began with people bringing gifts of dried goods (to be sent to ‘Feed The Children’) and tinned goods (to be sent to CIRDIC, the Churches in Reading Drop-In Centre), followed by the presentation of a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Service Award to Tara Keating and a certificate to me for completing the 33-week Disciple 3 course. (Two others completed this course but one was ill and the other was preaching at the Kentwood church.)

The Minister, Dermot Thornberry gave an ingenious children's address, illustrating what we would miss if the potato had no EYES, the corn had no EARS, the bananas had no HANDS and the cabbage had no HEART and pointing out that God needs our eyes, ears, hands and heart to praise Him and appreciate His wonderful creation.

Deacon Becky Bawden and the Minister Dermot entertained with an amusing sketch in which a dahlia (Becky) and a dandelion (Dermot) debated their own importance in God’s colourful creation. There was a choral item by a small group and Dermot spoke on various moods of harvest before the lively hymn ‘You shall go forth with joy’. We certainly did, and the happy fellowship continued with tea and coffee in the hall afterwards, with many joyous reunions. It was especially good to have former Sunday School pupils bringing their own children now to enjoy Sunday Starters and the Girls’ and Boys’ Brigades.