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September 3rd, 2007

Back of Church Sunday

back of church sunday

I had this idea for a special Sunday when people would be especially invited to the back of church.

There would be a big publicity campaign and we’d try to get lots of churches to run special events. There would be flags and stickers and a website with a FAQs page a bit like this:

Q: Does Back of Church Sunday work?
A: Feedback from participating churches since the first Back of Church Sunday suggests a consistent average of ten new people per back of each church. But ‘success’ isn’t a number or a percentage. If one person comes to the back of church because of the invitation of a friend, then it’s worked. As one Canon from Manchester Diocese says: “There are loads of people who used to go to the back of church, who moved pews or just stopped coming to the back for whatever reason. Back of Church Sunday is a simple way of reaching out to them again with a personal invitation to the back and a warm welcome at the back.”

Q: What about people who have never been to the back of church?
A: For some, Back of Church Sunday is a misnomer as they have never been to the back of church in the first place. But the idea is designed to reach those coming back and those who are curious about what happens at the back with a simple invitation and a warm welcome

You get the idea.

Link for back ground reading.



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 pm.

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16 Responses to “Back of Church Sunday”


  1. Dave says:

    PS Feel free to post this cartoon on your web log. If you can put a link here then that would be nice.

  2. MadPriest says:

    Marvelous, Dave.
    This is very funny.

  3. Andrew says:

    The back of church is where most British churchgoers choose to sit anyway!

  4. joe says:

    There are many more good, - yet strangely silly - ideas missing from the church calendar. For example:

    Back-off church sunday - where fit members of the local church take on the local bullies.

    Puck-off church sunday - the church does ice-hockey

    Baked church sunday - quiche driven evangelistic movement

    Buckled-my-shoe church sunday - the cumination of the 10 week course based on christian lessons from the nursery.

  5. Sarah B says:

    Back of Church Sunday… when we have time to tidy up all those boxes of random things that accumulate at the back off church?

    How about Back to Church Sundae - icecreams for all those coming back to church?

  6. NJTerry says:

    I don’t see what is funny about this at all. I sit at the back of church alone, where I can keep an eye on everyone. what do you think you are doing encouraging others to sit near me?

  7. Colin says:

    What a terrible idea. I sit at the back of church every week and there is no way we can get more than 2 people behind the AV console.

  8. Pete C says:

    genius parody.

    sad thing is, such an idea would probably work better than their current idea, if marketed with the same humour.

  9. Richard says:

    It’s not just the Church of England where people fill from the back.

    We went along to the Anglican Cathedral in Toronto whilst we were on holiday and sat about halfway down, and there were lots of spaces in front of us - wasn’t until the communion that we realised quite how many people were sat down the back!

    Actually when we went on a Church outing to see Amazing Grace at the cinema everybody filled from the back too…

  10. John Oliver says:

    I love the idea; it was in a back row that I finally sensed God’s love for me, that was about 50 years ago!! I preached at that church recently and seriously concerned that there was no-one in the back row.
    Appreciate your ideas Dave, and love the calender.

  11. episcopalooza says:

    I used to sit in the back of the church, with most everyone else, until I got elected to the vestry. It was only when I was made senior warden that I realized that that is where the leadership sits and so I moved to the front row and no one has ever bothered me again.

  12. Kate P says:

    Sarah B’s idea is a familiar one - I used to go to a church where we did that from time to time. We just called it Sundae Sunday

  13. Sarah B says:

    It’s going on my youth newsletter near the back to church sunday section :o ) thank you!

  14. Christopher says:

    I thought you were satirising a “Front of church Sunday” - my church staff tried to encourage everyone to move a row forward each week, because hardly anyone sits in the first four pews.

    Didn’t work.

  15. Chip Johnson+, cj says:

    This sounds familiar. I pastored in the Church of God for almost thirty years before ‘coming hime’ to the Episcopal Church, and now Anglican.

    My dream was to build a church facility with pews on a double chain. Everyone could then be seated on the back pew…but as soon as it was filled, it would move to the front and another one take it’s place.

    Still a rather good idea, I think…one of these days…

  16. Miss Dagurreotype says:

    I sit in the front pew on the left and I like it like that.