Chapter 14 – Attendance Ministry Team c. Sunday School Night—Enlist every Sunday School teacher to contact his or her class members and prospects. Assign departments to different areas of the worship center. Create an atmosphere of friendly competition. Recognize classes that have done an exemplary job. d. Deacon Family Ministry Night—Create excitement in your church by assigning each deacon to an area of the worship center and encouraging them to fill the areas with the members of their family ministry groups. If you do not have that ministry in place, divide the congregation alphabetically in equal size groups and assign them to your deacons to contact and fill their section.
Work with the Special Events Ministry Team to coordinate special evening attendance plans. Think creatively and you will come up with some great ideas for filling your worship center.
2. Plan the Hallelujah Service for the last revival service. Set high attendance goals for every Sunday school class and department. Goals should be high enough to be a challenge but low enough to be reachable. Here are some suggestions to make it a success. a. Chain Links—On the first Sunday of the revival service, at least 30 minutes before Sunday School, have a meeting of all teachers and officers. Give each teacher Sunday School enough paper strips to make paper chain links for each pupil enrolled in his or her classes. Encourage teachers and officers to sign up all the people in their classes who will be in attendance at the Hallelujah Service and continue signing them up throughout the week.
Before the revival meeting starts, posters should be made for each department—high school through adult—on large, poster-size cardboard. Write the name of the department and the number enrolled in large letters at the top of the poster. Put the names of the classes and the number enrolled on slanting lines at the bottom. Cut slots in the poster under each class name. These posters are to be given to the department directors on the first Sunday morning of the revival.
Teachers will sign their lists and give them to the department directors. They will place the chain links on the posters, under the respective names of the classes, and leave the posters in the departments. In the preschool and nursery departments it is suggested that departments, rather than classes, put up these posters. Prepare a poster for each department with the department name and the number enrolled at the top. Then, all links in that department are to be combined into one chain and put on the poster. They will be left in the department assembly rooms.
Sunday afternoon, the education director or Sunday School director will place all departmental posters in the main auditorium. At each service, attention should be called to the posters and an opportunity should be given for people who have not already done so to sign the chain links.
b. Fishers of Men—This idea is similar to the chain links. Cut out cardboard fish. Use different colors for the various departments. Ask each member on Sunday School to sign a fish–thus committing himself or herself to be present for the Hallelujah Service. Also, put the name of each person enlisted to be present at the service on a fish. These people should not be members of your Sunday School. The fish can be hung in departments or together in the auditorium. c. Use your imagination for other ways to promote the Hallelujah Service.
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