Evangelism CommitteeThe Evangelism Committee at Hope Lutheran Church serves to reach out to the unchurched in the community, to invite them to worship with us at Hope, and therefore to hear God's Word of grace and love. We work to make sure that our visitors get a warm and friendly reception by anybody they encounter at Hope Lutheran Church. We are now working with the outreach committees of three Lutheran churches in our community to share ideas about how we can more effectively reach out to people in the community and bring them to church where they can hear God's Word.
We utilize a variety of ways to accomplish community outreach. A popular event sponsored by the Evangelism Committee is "Friendship Sunday". We held two Friendship Sundays this year, one in February and another in October. We asked the congregation to invite a friend, relative or neighbor to attend a Sunday worship service with them. Immediately following the 11:00 worship service, we had a nice reception lunch for everyone. In February, we combined the event with Christian Education's "Bring A Friend To Sunday School" campaign. In October, we combined the event with our annual "Parade of Pumpkins". The Sunday School children bring in their carved pumpkins which are entered into a contest. Both events were well attended by our congregation and we were pleased to see that we had many visitors too. We found this to be a good opportunity for Christian fellowship, as an added benefit.
We periodically conduct direct mail campaigns to reach out to new residents in the community. This year our campaign ran January through May. Each month we mailed a welcome letter and brochure to new residents in the five zip-code area surrounding our church. We invited new residents to attend worship services with us and informed them about our excellent Sunday School program and current activities at Hope.
We publish display ads in the "Dearborn Press and Guide" newspaper to advertise our holiday services and programs. We also reach out to the surrounding community by advertising church functions and events (such as concerts, Holiday Boutique, etc ) on a large sign in the front yard of the church.
In addition, we installed "visitor-friendly" signs in multiple locations around the church directing visitors to the office, the sanctuary, the elevator, etc. Our goal is to help visitors easily find their way around inside the church. We want visitors to easily become acclimated to the surroundings and to feel comfortable inside the church.
These are just some of the many ways Hope's Evangelism Committee works so that people in the community have opportunities to get to know all about us at Hope Lutheran Church and will feel welcome to come and worship with us anytime.