The short answer: Personal Invitation from a Trusted friend.
Charles Arn has surveyed thousands of people: (Source: 3 Questions for Charles Arn)
In your research, have you found that there’s one specific reason that visitors come to church?
The friendship factor.
We’ve asked more than 50,000 people over the last 10 years why they came to church, and between [...]

Ed Stetzer was interviewed this week by Cathy Lynn Grossman for USA Today about Americans’ receptivity to evangelistic contacts and outreach from a church.
Lifeway Research and the North American Mission Board surveyed over 15,000 people (read more on this report via Lifeway Research) and they found that most people said they would be willing to [...]

What is evangelism if not for an invitation to follow Christ? 
This is the question on my mind today.
A Definition of Evangelism
In early 2007, I wrote a What is evangelism definition series.  (With the new template I’m using, all of my series are buried in the archives, have to fix that somehow)
Here is the one I [...]

What kind of impression do visitors get when they come into your church for the first time?  Every church thinks it’s friendly. 

But I and many others have experienced the fear factor of walking into an unknown place and knowing immediately that we don’t fit and are not really welcome to remain.  (Download: [...]

I attended Eric Hoey’s (photo to right, link goes to Eric’s Blog) workshop on Evangelism and Church growth at the Multi-Cultural Church Conference this past weekend in San Antonio. 
Among other things, Eric reminded our group about different styles of evangelism connected with your personality.  The material came from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and [...]

Check out this article about the impact a Maryland church is having in its community.
Church prays for passion for the lost.
McCready and 14 others began praying in January 2002 that God would give them a passion for the non-Christians in their community. In the ensuing six years, nearly 260 people have made professions of faith [...]

Some churches play hard to get!

Websites don’t list any contact information
Worship Service times are not on the telephone responder,
Service hours are not on on a sign near the front door or on the road.

Here is one low-cost idea that you can use to help advertise your church and raise awareness in the community.
Print up business [...]

I’ll join the bandwagon of many of the blogs I read and reveal to you the Ten most popular posts based on pageviews during 2007.

Conversion Stories in the NT: Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch  (Part of the Conversion in the NT Series)
Evangelism Oozing from our Pores (on motivations)
Define Evangelism Series
Take the Risk, Offer to [...]

I had the privilege this week of preaching at a church in Marietta Georgia.  It was a church in the Pentecostal stream of the Body of Christ.  It was ok with them my ordination is with the Presbyterian Church. 
I’m a Presbyterian that’s been "tampered with,"  meaning I don’t fit a stereo-typical Presbyterian pastor.
I enjoy [...]

Evangelism training is simply training that

Prepares Christian believers to assist pre-Christians (aka lost people, seekers, insert label here) on their spiritual journey towards Christ, AND
Gives them the confidence that they can do this.

I attended an evangelism training seminar several years ago that used this definition.  There is both content (#1) and practice [...]

From the traffic reports on this site, the 2007 Series on Hospitality has been the most searched after material.
I’ve complied the entire series here.

Back to Basics in Church Evangelism
Hospitality is a piece of evangelism
What’s your sign? (Do your signs help or hinder?)
Poor Word Choice (One sign that just doesn’t read right).
Hospitality and Evangelism (The story [...]

I’ve been doing some writing and thinking about helping the church become visitor friendly.
A list of related articles is below.
Hospitality is only a part of church based evangelism.
I just read a timely article about this in Net Results Magazine’s September/October 2007 Issue.
Bill Easum writes “Back to Basics,” calling on church leaders to get back to [...]