How many?

You gotta love Lydia. A wife, mother, businesswoman and “worshipper of God,” she was hanging out with some girlfriends at the park when the Lord opened her heart. She responded, and became the first Christian on her street, in her city and even in all of Europe!

Lydia’s faith impacted her entire household and the next thing you know, she’s inviting people into her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house (Acts 16:15).” Her enthusiasm was contagious.

Are you ready to share your contagious

enthusiasm with your neighbors?

By now you have determined which day of the week your Neighborhood Café will meet, the time and the frequency. With this date you now have a goal as well as a deadline. Let’s start planning by figuring out how many people you should invite to your Neighborhood Café.

How many people can you seat UNcomfortably? Look around the room where you’ll gather. How many people can you seat uncomfortably? That’s right: UNcomfortably – three people to a sofa, two on a loveseat, pulling in your kitchen chairs and scooting things around. (Don’t look at the pile of magazines you’ve been meaning to sort or the coffee table you want to replace! We’ll talk about housekeeping tips later.)
Maximum size Even if your room will hold more, Jesus gave us an ideal number for a small group: 12. A group this size is large enough for variety and small enough for intimacy.
Allow for absences Take the number of people you can seat “UNcomfortably” (no more than 12) and add 25%, because on any given day one out of four of your regular attendees will have a sick child, a conflicting appointment, or simply forget to show up.
How many will come? About 20% of the neighbors you invite, or one in five, will respond to your invitation. I invited 79 women to my first Café, and 18 came. This number will be higher if you extend a personal invitation to friends you already know, or lower if you stuff mailboxes of people you haven’t met. Generally, expect between 15-25% participation.

Here is the formula for the number of people

to invite to your Neighborhood Café:

Number of people you can seat (12 max)	____________
+ 25% to allow for absences	x 1.25
Group Size	____________
Times 5	x 5
Number of people to invite	____________

If you can seat 7 people, invite 44. If you can seat 10 people, invite 63. These numbers are estimates, but they provide a good starting point for your planning and should help you establish an expectation. Don’t be disappointed if your neighbors don’t respond as you’d hoped, and don’t be overwhelmed if more people come than you expected. So long as you are acting in obedience to God’s direction, this is in His capable hands. Yes, God can count!

Did you know Jesus was a party planner? He gave specific instructions about how to invite guests to your home in Luke 14:12-14. Don’t just ask your friends, He said. Don’t rely on your relatives. Don’t seek the nice homes and skip the houses with peeling paint in need of a mow.

Here is how you can determine the number

of potential new friends in your neighborhood:

For a simple, accurate and low-tech solution, just walk around and count the number of houses!
Use Google Maps to zoom in on your neighborhood. If the satellite or street level view is available for your area, you can count each home in amazing detail.
Your county auditor or clerk of courts may maintain detailed online property records. Search for your address at their website then count the number of nearby homes.

The purpose of your Neighborhood Café is to magnify the name of Christ in every home. Don’t be intimidated, do not be afraid. You will be rewarded with friendships that last for eternity.