How do you force someone to come to church?

Why would you want to? Let people come to religion, or not, on their own.
I am a Christian answering this question.

Um…gunpoint?

You don’t.

Indoctrinate from birth?

It depends: What’s your endgame?

“Forcing” anyone to do anything against their will rarely ends well. It also strikes me as pretty un -religious

http://taliban.com/tips has some good pointers.

Nobody should be forced to go. Anymore than someone should be forced to leave.

Tell a bunch of parents the priest has their missing children hidden there?

I’m trying to think why anyone would want to FORCE someone to go to church. Sort of kills the idea of free will, doesn’t it?

It’s not clear why you would want to and why you would think forcing them to come to church is the way to go.

In the days of the pilgrims there were laws mandating people to attend church.

There are parents who force their children to attend church or other religious study.

Other than that, for adults, I don’t know why you’d want to.

How about not forcing but giving them incentives to go to church? Such as money/privileges/promises.

Even if you could somehow force someone to go (blackmail perhaps?), you can’t force them to believe. And, after using force upon them, they may be even more reluctant to listen. Then, how can you verify they do actually believe even if they say they do? Can you believe a person whom you have put under duress? They will rightly tell you whatever you want to hear just to get you off their back. You used force. You broke the rules. Now you’ve put yourself in a position where there are no rules.

Why do you need to force someone to go to church?

Forcing them to go will probably have the opposite effect. As soon as they’re independent enough to get away, they’ll remember that you did that and stay as far away as possible. Shoving religion on unwilling people, especially kids, creates adults who hate religion.

Attraction, not promotion, is a good rule of thumb. If others see that you’re a good person leading a happy and fulfilling life, they might get interested and ask how you do that. Then you can invite (not force) them to come with you.

I know a church that prayed that bad things would happen to people so that they would join the church.

You don’t. Trying to force them to go only drives them further away. They themselves have to want to go. So if you’re the one trying to do the forcing, give it up!

Offer a meet and greet potluck.

It’s just a bad idea because it will accomplish nothing positive. And once there is no force compelling them, they’ll likely rebel altogether.

Spirituality is a matter of the heart. Without that church attendance is meaningless.

If they are under 18 and they your children, I guess you can threaten to punish them in some way if they don’t do what’s expected of them. I don’t think that will be a good way for them to care about their religion, but it might work until they are 18 and you are providing shelter, clothing, and feeding them.

(Was this a hit and run?)