Friends double worship crowd at Oak Meadow

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
One Southwest Texas congregation saw worship attendance swell by 50 percent April 2—Bring a Friend Sunday.
The 122-member Oak Meadow UMC, San Antonio, counted 17 guests on the day when United Methodists across the region were encouraged to bring unchurched friends to worship.
Oak Meadow averages about 50 people in worship each week. The count approached 80 April 2.
The Rev. Larry Scharmann, Oak Meadow pastor, attributed some of the response to a nuance in language. Oak Meadow called the day “Friendship Sunday.”
“We were trying to get them (visitors) to see this is not a ‘program,’ Scharmann said. “We didn’t want the people who came to feel we had a special drive to bring a friend.
“We didn’t want it to seem so apparent, even though it was a special effort. We wanted them to know that friendship here is natural.”
The success of Friendship Sunday came, Scharmann said, from three things that motivated church members: prayer, communication and working together. He said he had been talking to people and praying about having such a focused Sunday since he began serving the church three years ago.
The time seemed right this year, he said, because of where the church was spiritually.
Scharmann said he built support for Friendship Sunday by talking to the administrative board, then talking about it every Sunday during worship.
“We have cards with the whole Lent and Easter worship schedule, even Bible classes,” he said. “We kept putting the cards in the bulletins and asking people to hand them out. They could use them as an avenue to get a conversation started.”
Prayer was a major part of the day’s success, Scharmann said.
“For weeks before, I asked everybody to pray about it,” he said. “I said even if you can’t be here, that doesn’t stop you from praying.”
Scharmann said he had been praying for 80 people and that lives should be changed.
“Everybody should bring somebody to church,” he said. “Bring five or six—but at least bring one.”
Oak Meadow would have some kind of Friendship Sunday two or three more times this year, but definitely before Christmas, Scharmann said.
“The greatest thing a friend can do is bring someone to Jesus,” Scharmann said. “Jesus said there is no greater gift you can give a friend than to lay down your life.”
He said talking to friends and bringing them to church obviously isn’t a literal translation of the scripture, but it’s a sacrifice nonetheless because “you give your time and you don’t get that back.”