On Inviting Someone to Church

An underrated practice?

The practice of asking someone to come with you to a worship service can sometimes be denigrated as “not real evangelism.” To be honest, I’ve said that myself. In hindsight, that claim needs some serious revision.

No, it isn’t a full preaching of the Good News, as the Word “evangelism” implies. But it can be a great first step.

Thankfully, Forest Antemesaris recently wrote a piece entitled ‘In Defense of Inviting People to Church.’ It’s a good read, and I fully agree with the case he lays out. It’s especially cool to see the part a simple invitation played in bringing him to Christ.

Before publishing it, Forest graciously reached out to say he wasn’t attempting to give a rebuttal of my piece, ‘Worship Isn’t For Visitors.’ And, I didn’t take it that way.

Worship Isn't For Visitors

In fact, I believe the ideas actually go together hand-in-hand.

Making our worship less geared toward visitors would actually make invitations more effective.

My caution has been against a reverse-John 6 mentality. In that chapter, Jesus whittled His following down to the true seekers, those who were there not for the bread, but the Bread of Life. Making worship too accommodating of visitors is often an attempt to keep giving them bread in hopes that they’ll get a taste for the Bread of Life along the way.

Church Is Supposed to Be Weird

But when the Bread of Life is served, they see something different than what they can get anywhere else. Inviting someone to an experience they can find from the comfort of their couch doesn’t move the needle. Inviting someone to come to the foot of the mountain of the Lord does, though.

Much has been made of the “smells and bells” appeal of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, where the rich pageantry gives a feel of holiness that many find compelling.

We don’t need all of that, though. We just need to take ourselves seriously.

Strong, passionate singing with songs grounded in the Scriptures, maybe even a Psalm or two.
Deep preaching for the members that isn’t watered down for the uninitiated or aimed at converting them.
Sharp dress.
Well-prepared worship leaders.
Avoidance of being too jokey.

Give people the sense that the stakes are enormous and we mean every word that we say.

I’ll keep this brief so you can take a minute to read Forest’s piece. But don’t hesitate to extend the invitation as the opportunity arises. And, if you have any say in it, make sure the outsider is coming in to something foreign to anything they’re going to take part in any other time in their week.

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