A ‘culture of fear’ is preventing many churchgoers from inviting friends or relatives to services, a co-founder of the Back to Church Sunday campaign, Michael Harvey, says. Worshippers are frightened that an approach could lead to rejection, a lost friendship, or a damaged relationship, Mr Harvey says. He is the business consultant who, in 2004, helped launch the campaign, which has since expanded into the Season of Invitation. The survey group Christian Research found that 52 per cent of 1153 members of its Resonate panel showed ‘a deep-seated reluctance or resistance’ to inviting people to church. Disclosing early findings last week at Durham University, in a presentation, ‘Developing a Culture of Invitation’, Mr Harvey said: ‘Tellingly, although the question invited people to suggest what their church could do to help them invite people, most comments cited critical reasons why they would not invite anyone to their church’.