Using Friday Night Events to Connect Church Guests

By Josh Hunt

Fasten your seat belt, friend, because giving Friday nights to Jesus will connect more people to your church in less time than any method I know.

We used to have our friends over on Friday nights to play cards. We would have dessert, tell jokes, and play games together. One day I suggested to my wife Sharon that we invite a couple who had visited the church to join us on Friday night. We did, and we had a good time in the process. During the entire evening, we never said anything about church or Sunday school or the Bible or anything remotely religious. But, do you know what? They joined the church in a few weeks. Now, he is teaching a class himself. And they would both tell you that they were not living the disciple's life before they played cards and ate dessert with us that night.

A few weeks later, we invited another couple over. We played cards, we laughed, we ate dessert, we had a good time. Guess what? After a few weeks, they joined the church and became very active in the group. They too would tell you they were not living the disciple's life before we played cards with them.

After six months of this, I did a little research. I discovered that forty-five couples visited the church during that time. We were able to have ten couples to our house to play cards. Nine out of these ten joined the church and became involved in the class. Out of the remaining thirty-five, only three had joined. I don't know of any method more effective in assimilating visitors than this hospitality ministry.

So have your friends over. Play cards. Eat dessert. Tell jokes. Laugh. Have a good time. But most of all, include a guest couple. Ministry has never been so much fun.

Adapted from Josh Hunt's "You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less" (Group, 1997). A former pastor, Hunt has authored several books on church growth and is also an independent conference speaker, consultant, Webmaster, and freelance writer. For more information, contact www.joshhunt.com.