In looking for a way to promote church attendance to non-church goers, the Outreach, Inc. and LifeWay Research have created an opportunity for churches to provide a way to rediscover God—Back to Church Sunday, to be held September 12.
In looking for a way to promote church attendance to non-church goers, the Outreach, Inc. and LifeWay Research have created an opportunity for churches to provide a way to rediscover God—Back to Church Sunday, to be held September 12.Outreach and Lifeway hatched the idea last year, with over 700,000 invitations sent for the first observance in 2009. To commemorate the day, everyone is asked to invite family members, friends and neighbors over the internet or through mail to attend church the second Sunday in September.
According to the Back to Church website, 3,477 churches had signed up as of August 30, 2010 and more than 1.2 million invitations had already been sent. However, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not one of them.
“It is a wonderful thing,” Kent Hugh, a professor of Religion at Utah Valley University, said about the Back to Church effort. But, he added, “I believe the Church is not involved in this campaign because we have this constant approach of reaching out to others on a daily basis.”
According to Rob Elzey, Area Director of Seminaries and Institutes, the church’s system employs a massive outreach effort from every organization in the church, from Primary, to Young Women and Young Men, to priesthood holders and the Relief Society. They all try to focus their activities with the members and nonmembers in mind. This year, Elzey said, religious education for young adults has especially been emphasized.
“[President] Thomas S. Monson . . . has been pushing a campaign this year for students to make institute a priority, taking religion classes wherever they are attending college. The students are encouraged to make institute a priority and be a part of the outreach by bringing a friend,” he said.
Utah Valley University institute students have even made t-shirts, and are promoting institute on campus by giving out the t-shirts and asking the students to wear them every Tuesday to remind everyone to be anxiously engaged.
LDS Church members are also anxiously engaged elsewhere. Kent Hugh attends the Timpanogos 9th ward, where the members get together once a quarter for a barbecue, where all the neighbors are invited to participate, whether of their faith or not, “they are all welcome and their friends.” He added. The people in his ward, Hugh said, are very involved in reaching out to neighbors—their young men have also an annual mother’s day celebration where they invite women ages 12 and up to come to a nice dinner and bring their friends.
“Sometimes our kids are sheltered religiously in our area,” Elzey said, “however, I try to teach my kids that reaching out to others, no matter who they are. [It] is what President Benson and President Monson talked about.”
He loves smelling tobacco in church, he said, adding, “it means to me that someone is striving to do what’s right. Wouldn’t it be great if every sin had a smell? We would be a group of smelly people worshipping together.”
Rob Elzey teaches the principle of reaching out in his home, “Just this morning,” he said, “we read in the ‘For the Strength of Youth’ pamphlet about inviting friends of other faiths to church meetings and activities.” They also talked about helping friends feel welcome and wanted and making a special effort to reach out by sharing testimony and being a good example.
Elzey sees the Back to Church outreach to non-church goers as a positive thing. “These and other activities that are basic daily things we do as members encompass, I think, what this reach-out from other denominations is trying to set in place,” he said. “A neighbor to neighbor reach-out, . . . doing anything to encourage people to seek God . . ., is a wonderful thing.”