Michael Harvey is best known as the developer of Back to Church Sunday. This year he has been working with the URC North Western Synod on a remarkably non-terrifying and productive approach to evangelism, the ACORN practice.

Can you tell us about your background?

I was brought up in a one-parent family. Never lived with my mum, lived with my grandma. I was invited to church at the age of eight, and that invitation transformed my life because the youth leader there took an interest in me and started to believe in me before I started believing in myself.

I spent 20 years in business, then at the age of 40, I was having a cup of coffee with the Communications Director for the Bishop of Manchester and they had this idea about a ‘welcome Sunday’ what became known as Back to Church Sunday. And that changed my life again, because it allowed me to explore the invitation that I’d received as an eight-year-old and what it takes to make such an invitation. I was going back to where I’d started and to see if I could find another eight-year-old boy or anyone else who just needed an invitation. So for 20 years I’ve been researching, trying things out, getting it wrong over and over again, getting a few things right, perhaps.

Who invited you to church?

It was my mum. She lived around the corner, like you used to in those days. And one morning she knocked on the door and invited me to church. Well, actually, she said, ‘Get your coat, you’re coming.’ There was nothing I could do about it at all.

That’s a mother’s ‘invitation’, isn’t it?

Indeed. So that’s where it started. And because I never knew my father, until I was 39, I needed somebody who could help and guide, so finding Frank, the youth leader, he drew out of me what was there.

There’s something powerful about a personal invitation isn’t there?

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This is an extract from an article published in Issue 6 2025 edition of Reform

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