Our Tough Love promo cards came in this Friday. We handed them out to our attenders this Sunday. The two major catalysts for our growth thus far has been personal invitations and promo cards/flyers. Yesterday, I asked, “How many people started attending The Bridge because someone invited you, raise your hands.” More than half of the room raised theirs hands. When I attended Drive Conference at North Point Church in 2006, Andy Stanley challenged us to rethink our systems. As a result, we’ve actually created an invite system. This way, we aren’t just hoping our attenders will invite others, but helping them to do so. Our invite system is not ground breaking, but it help us to be intentional. Here it is for what it’s worth:
1) Promo Cards: We do one for each series and have a general invitation card about The Bridge. The general invitation card is for people to have at any time. The series promo cards is to create a sense of urgency that doesn’t come from the general card. The general card says, “Hey, if you ever want to check us out, here is our information.” The series card says, “Hey, if you don’t come at this particular time, you will miss something.” They aren’t cheap, but you can’t let them leave empty handed. Don’t start a new series without putting something in their hands. Keep your eyes out for those who walk away with stacks of promo cards. Those are your sneezers, according to Seth Godin. See Purple Cow for more details. 
2) E-vite: We have an e-vite function on our website that enables our attenders to send information directly to their friends e-mail inbox.
3) Culture: We are making it part of our church culture. We talk about it. We encourage it. We tell our people to invest in relationships and invite them to our Sunday morning gatherings. It’s engrained in our core value, “Relevance to culture is essential.” Thus far, I’ve done two messages encouraging our people to invest and invite.
