Do you recall the story of those three Hebrew boys who were thrown into the fiery furnace? The king made this huge statue and forced everyone to bow down and worship it, but these three boys refused. I wonder what would’ve happened if instead of three boys, there was only one. Would he have still been brave enough to deny the king and face death? Maybe so, but no doubt it would’ve been a much harder decision.

When culture is going one way, it’s really difficult to go the other, even when we know it’s the right decision.

Even when we know it’s what’s best for us, we struggle to do it.

Take diet and exercise for example, I want no part of it, even though I know it’s going to make me healthier.

But, I’m more likely to do it if I’m a part of a group that encourages me and holds me accountable.

At the church I serve, we have this saying “We’re not meant to do life alone.” We stole it from another church. It describes why you should be a part of a small group, but I’m starting to realize that it’s much bigger than that.

We’re not meant to do life alone because most of us are far too weak, myself included.

Let’s not kid ourselves and say we wouldn’t bow down to some statue if we were alone. We have enough trouble reading our Bibles, showing up to church, and tithing.

We need each other, and not just to keep us from doing the wrong things, we need each other to help us do the right things.

It’s this thought that has shaped several things we’re doing at the church I serve this year. Let me share three with you.

1. Bible Plans with Friends – The YouVersion Bible app is such an incredible resource. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s fantastic. And they just made it better. Now you can read the Bible with your friends and talk about it together all within the app. If you want people to grow closer to God and learn more about His Word, this is one of the best ways to do it. It’s as simple as picking a plan and inviting others to read with you.
2. In Service Invitations – One of our goals this year as a church is to encourage our congregation to invite more. We’ve tried sending them home with invite cards and similar things with limited success. This year we said, what if we asked them to send an invite within the service? Most people have plenty of contacts in their phones that aren’t attending church. We could just have them send a text. On other weekends we’ll ask them to share a Facebook post. Doing it within the service creates a kind of positive peer pressure because everyone around them is doing the same.
3. Thank You Center –We’ve been working with our ministry leaders to show more value to the volunteers they serve, but we hadn’t taken the necessary step to really resource them until now. The Thank You Center is a place leaders can go to get thank you cards, birthday cards, and envelopes, so they can better appreciate their
   volunteers. This
   is an idea I saw years ago at the Chick-Fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, and I’m just now putting into practice. I’ve included a picture at the bottom of this post to give you an idea of what that looks like.

These are just a few of the ideas we’re implementing this year. I’d love to hear yours. How are you using positive peer pressure in your church? Leave a comment and let us know, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to get tips on church growth, leadership, and more delivered to your inbox each week.