To Build Life Chain Attendance: Use the Pastoral Letter

How Coordinators announce their Life Chain can increase attendance dramatically, by several hundred percent or even more. Please announce your Chain through a Pastoral Letter (below), with "Lead Pastors' signatures" (see the setup on p. 32 of the Life Chain Manual but use the letter copy below). The Pastoral Letter requires effort but ultimately saves much Coordinator time and greatly increases Coordinator success and joy.

To prepare your Pastoral Letter, simply adapt the draft below to your locale and then recruit 7, 12, or 24 influential "Lead Pastors" to sign the letter. Include their church names, phone numbers, and signatures, as shown in the Life Chain Manual. Then duplicate the letter and signatures and deliver a copy to each of the other pastors in your area. Hand delivery tells pastors you care deeply about your Chain's mission and that you are asking them to care deeply, also. The same Pastoral Letter may be delivered a second and third time to reach unconfirmed clergy during the months preceding your Chain.

Do not omit the Pastoral Letter. Catholic Coordinators who struggle to win Protestants will find a letter signed by Protestant pastors to be of enormous help, and the same is true for Protestants who struggle with Catholic attendance. "Lead Pastors" who sign the letter pledge their participation, and they will inspire other pastors to lead their congregations and parishes to your local sidewalks on October 3. Omission of a Pastoral Letter is a primary reason for low Life Chain attendance. Your letter for 2010 is as follows:

Dear Pastor Simms:  (Adapt the letter to your local city or town)

We the undersigned pastors of Little Rock write with eminent awareness of the tens of millions of unborn Americans (or Canadians) slain by abortionists' cruel instruments or deadly chemicals, and we are also aware of the accountability that bloodguilt imposes on a community, state, and nation. God does not ignore the innocent shed blood of voiceless victims. Both biblical and secular history confirms that.

How should we respond to the powers sustaining America's Holocaust (or Canada's Holocaust)? Among our resources, we believe and are confident you agree that prayer is a vital weapon; and we respectfully ask you and your fellow worshipers to join us on October 3, from 2:00 -- 3:30 p.m., when National Life Chain Sunday 2010 calls our nation to 90 minutes of intercession and witness on local sidewalks. Please, if you will, mark that date on your church calendar and help us build a devout prayer vigil that God can use to change hearts and to save lives and families in our local area.

Life Chain is not a calloused public demonstration, with frivolous conversation and errant interaction with motorists. To the contrary, we must first allow God to minister to us the Church in the true spirit of 2 Chronicles 7:14, and then we must humbly ask Him to anoint and minister through our solemn public witness. To that end, let us as pastors prepare our church families for sincere prayer and self-assessment during a critical period in our state and nation's history. The attachments will be of help, and additional materials will be available for participating churches.

Regarding our pastoral duty and the lack of substantial reduction in abortions since their legalization, Afro-American pastor Clenard Childress reminded us in his sturdy little book No Shepherds Cry that "The pew cannot do what the pulpit is suppose to do." A key for us is to look beyond the "abortion issue" to the unborn child's humanity, where its likeness to Jewish humanity of 70 years ago speaks forcefully to the Church in our day. The need for our leadership is urgent because God does not see local Preborns as statistical non-persons.

Kindly direct your reply to Life Chain Coordinator ___________________________, (address) ___________________________________ (phone) _____________ and (Email) ___________________________). The Coordinator will remain alert to our questions, concerns, and needs. Also feel free to contact any pastor whose signature appears below. Meanwhile, friend in Christ, we pray for God's abundant blessing on you and your ministry.

Your fellow servants in Christ,

(Enter the Lead Pastors' Signatures and Churches)

Before delivery, attach to each Pastoral Letter a quality piece of pro-life literature and "Seven Reasons Why Christians Should Attend a Local Life Chain" (which is available at www.NationalLifeChain.org).  A few days after delivery, call your local pastors to make sure they have identified with your letter and to answer any questions or concerns they may have. If need be, deliver to them immediately another copy of the Pastoral Letter.

Pray for God's guidance and favor.

For help with your Pastoral Letter, email Royce@NationalLifeChain.org or call
530-674-5068.

Royce Dunn, Director of Life Chain