At Stone Church, we say
all the time, "invite someone to one of our Sunday morning services (or
small groups)."
There are two specific
Sunday morning events that we encourage you to invite a non-churched person to during the
month of April.
April 13th - Friend Day. We would ask you to invite a non-Christian
friend to church that morning for one of our Worship Services. There will be a special emphasis on welcoming
new people as well as an altar call for salvation that morning.
April 20th - Easter.
If you and I can't get excited about Easter than our "wood is
wet!" We need the spark of the Holy
Spirit in our lives. Easter is a great
time to invite a friend to church.
Why is inviting someone
to church so important?
You and I both know
that statistics can be boring, but listen to these.
When
asked, "what brought you to this church?"
2% responded -
advertisement
6% responded - an invitation
by the pastor
6% responded - an
organized evangelistic outreach program
86%
responded - an invitation by a friend or family member.
Dr. Thom Rainer writes,
"82% of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if
invited, but only 2% of church members
invite an unchurched person to church.
98% of church-goers never extend an invitation in a given year."
That is very, very
challenging to all of us.
Why don't we invite
people to come to church?
You desire people to
come to know God.
You know that people
are lost without God and are choosing eternity in hell if they don't connect to
Jesus.
You want your neighbors
and your friends to come to God.
People want to be
invited to church, and they will come if you do, and yet, you are not doing it.
Then
why don't you invite them?
The
number one reason is fear.
Survivor Eva Hart
remembers the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet
to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a
300-foot gash in the starboard side:
"I saw all the
horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning
people."
Although twenty
life-boats and rafts were launched-too few and only partly filled-most of the
passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited
a safe distance away.
Lifeboat No. 14 did row
back to the scene after the unsinkable ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.m.
Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few.
Incredibly, no other boat joined it.
Some were already
overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their
half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost.
Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually
swamping it.
"I came to seek
and to save the lost," our Savior said. And he commissioned us to do the
same.
But
we face a large obstacle: fear. While people drown in
the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain
no one rocks the boat.
We might have someone
who could be totally up for it right in front of us, practically beckoning us
to invite them, and instead we hesitate and hem and haw and sometimes don't
even get the words out of our mouths.
We are afraid of what
they will think of us for going, fearful of what they might think of our
church, fearful of what they will think of us if they come and don't like
it.
And - if we were candid
with each other - some of those fears might come to pass - but it is still a
fear of man, and that is not a valid reason for you and I to deny an
opportunity to fulfill the mission God has called us to.
8
tips to get around the fear that prohibits you from inviting someone:
Number one: Ask
God for His heart for the lost.
This coming Easter, we
will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus - and remember the death of Christ on
the cross. This shows us God's heart for
the lost in his selfless sacrifice for you and I.
If your heart has
become so hardened that you no longer care that your neighbor is estranged from
Christ, ask for forgiveness. Pray that God
would give you a powerful love for those who do not know him. Trust that he will give you that love through
the Holy Spirit. Put your words into
action.
Many
times we can begin to feel that our ministry participation in church relieves
us from the responsibility that we all have as believers to bring them to
Christ. Everyone is
called to invite.
Number two: Pray
for the boldness and courage of the Holy Spirit.
That fear that you are experiencing
(the fear of inviting someone to church) is the work of the enemy. Pray for deliverance from fear, pray for
courage, and pray for boldness. The Holy
Spirit will meet your there.
Number three: Pray
for specific people.
Pray that God would put
five people on your heart to invite. When
he does, trust that he will give you the courage you just prayed for to be faithful
in reaching out to people He put on your
heart.
Number four: Remember
your own calling.
Instead of focusing on your
fear - focus on your faith and the grace of God in your life. The more you focus on what God has done for
you - you will want to share that with
others. Listen to the stories of how God
saved other Christians in your church and pray that God would give you the gift
of watching those stories unfold in the lives of the five people you invite.
Number five: Remember
the gospel.
What is the primary way
that people connect to Christ? A verbal proclamation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. People
need to hear the gospel explained to believe.
How can they believe is they do not hear? The
goal of inviting someone to church is incredibly simple: through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, God will open blind eyes and a dead heart to believe.
Number six: Trust
in God's power to save.
I have seen God change
people that I thought (in the natural) were unchangeable. I have seen people changed by God in their
darkest moments. Please note: If
your non-Christian friend seems to have little interest in Christ that is not a
sign that they never will.
Number seven: Know
that sharing the hope of eternity is the most loving thing you can do.
Inviting non-Christians
to hear the gospel can challenge some of the lies they have built a false hope
on. It may feel wrong or awkward to
challenge some of their beliefs, but it is the most loving thing you can do. Loving
someone means caring about their eternal future, not just that one moment of
awkwardness.
Number eight:
Know that it is not about you.
Nothing about God
saving your non-Christian friend depends
on you. Salvation is of the Lord, not
the result of your clever arguments. If
you know that the Holy Spirit is the one who does all the work of awakening a
dead heart, it takes the pressure off your abilities to get the words or the
timing just right. Our role is simply to
be faithful.
As I write, I am
reminded of Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well in John 4. It didn't take long for the woman to realize
that the man she was talking to was no ordinary Jewish teacher. His prophetic insights and authoritative
answers convinced her of His claim to be the Messiah.
So what did she
do? She immediately went to her town and
brought a bunch of people to the well to hear Jesus for themselves. This simple invitation resulted in His
staying in their town for two days. Many
of the woman's friends declared in John 4:42, "Now we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
That is the power of an
invitation. She didn't lecture on 12
reasons to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
She just said,
"Come and see."
There are tons of ways
to invite people to church. Depending on
your style, your personality, your age, your connections, your community, the possibilities
are endless. So, to get the ball
rolling, I'm not too concerned about how
you invite, I desire that you being inviting.
Will you join me in
this God given mission?
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