The Big Invite – Is your church in?

The staff of New Providence Baptist Church in Smarr plan out steps through the Big Invite to reach a goal of 1,000 attendees. Seated left to right are Senior Pastor Brian Moore, Student Pastor Nathan Jackson, Greg Vinson, who oversees tech and media responsibilities, and Daniel McCoy, worship pastor. NPBC/Special

SMARR — Churches are being added daily to The Big Invite challenge. Georgia Baptist Convention President Thomas Hammond is urging Baptist churches throughout the state to join in the effort to visit one million homes in Georgia and invite the residents to their respective churches on Easter Sunday, April 16.

There have been more than 700 churches to sign up for The Big Invite so far and many others planning to be engaged, but that have not yet indicated their intention to participate.

Brian Moore, pastor of New Providence Baptist Church in Smarr, recently told Hammond that his church was “all in” concerning The Big Invite.

Moore recently told The Christian Index, “We are promoting the initiative at all gatherings of the church. We have ordered 5,000 invite cards to be handed out by our people.”

New Providence typically averages 425 in worship on Sunday, but last Easter had close to 600 in attendance. Moore stated, “We have set a goal this Easter of 1,000 people. We wanted to set a goal only God could achieve and we are going to depend on Him to do so with the efforts we are putting forth.”

Moored added, “Our people are excited that we are able to equip them with resources that will help them invite their family, friends, and neighbors.

“We have actually been telling our people for months about the effectiveness of someone being invited by someone they know. I believe this opportunity will help solidify that truth and show them how successful it can be to engage the relationships they already have and invite them to church and share the Gospel with them. We fully expect this Easter to have an lasting impact on the outreach participation of our congregation.”

Get ready

The New Providence worship facility will not sufficiently accommodate 1,000 people in one service, so the staff is stepping out in faith to resolve the potential space crunch.

Moore explained, “In staff meeting three weeks ago, we were discussing The Big Invite and my missions pastor said that if we expect our people to follow through with this and for the community to actually respond, then we need to ‘prepare for them.’

“So, we decided with much excitement to have two morning worship services of Easter Sunday and seek to fill the worship center up twice with 1,000 people that day. We will have a service at 9 a.m. and another at 11 a.m. Since we currently have only one service at 11 o’clock this is a step of faith, but we are expecting God to do great things.

“I think it is very helpful to put something in the hands of your people when engaging them in outreach. Our people are much more prone to follow through when they have a card or flier to hand their co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Don’t underestimate the power of a personal invitation. That is what’s going to reach this generation and this culture.”

It is still nine weeks until Easter, so there is plenty of time for your church to get involve in The Big Invite, but it would be good for you to make your plans to be involve now.