A couple of years ago I wrote a funny little post about 10 reasons NOT to invite someone to Easter. I also wrote a post about why you should invite people to Easter, but I wanted to rewrite some of the reasons. Some of them remain the same. And there are 12 reasons instead of 10. Yes I knew that, just in case you were worried I couldn’t count.
In case you didn’t know, Easter is right around the corner. It’s a pretty big deal for us as followers of Christ because it represents the day that Christ overcame the power of death, and it’s that event that gives us our hope for a future with Him. So, this is a great day to invite people to check out SixEight Church.
- 82% of people invited to an Easter Service will say likely attend (Dr. Thom Rainer – The Unchurched Next Door)
- Two words: Free Coffee
- Only 2% of church members invite an unchurched person to church (Dr. Thom Rainer – The Unchurched Next Door)
- When they come with you, it looks like you have groupies.
- 35% of people would be likely to attend a church if they knew people there “are like me.”
- You might be inviting them to the place they belong.
- 7 out of 10 unchurched people have never been invited to church. (Dr. Thom Rainer – The Unchurched Next Door)
- If you don’t invite them, who will?
- 2% of people who attend church will do so because of a church advertisement compared to 86% who attend because they were invited by someone they know. (The Inviting Church, pg. 44)
- You might be inviting them to the place they belong.
- They are looking for a church that is involved in the community.
- You inviting them to Easter could be the most important invitation they ever receive.
The truth of the matter is, there are A LOT of people who would come to church on Easter Sunday if they were simply invited. I know, from personal experience, how hard it can be to take that step and make the invitation. But, I also have to ask myself two questions: Do I really care about this person? Do I really believe in the Resurrected Christ?
If I really believe in the Resurrected Christ and if I really care about this person, how could I not invite them to hear the story that could change their life now and their forever too?
I think I understand why we don’t do it. It’s because it feels like we’re confronting them. If feels that by saying they need Jesus we can see things in their life that need to be fixed. If feels like we’re coming at them from a condescending point of view. It’s the same reason we don’t say something to someone we love when they’re dating someone that is bad for them. We don’t want to offend them.
But, isn’t it more offensive to let someone marry a person who is probably going to hurt them in some way? And isn’t it more offensive to know the truth that can set someone free from the bondage of sin and not share it? I think it is.
However, instead of being motivated by fear of missing out we should be motivated by love. Of course we don’t want them to miss out on the life of peace that Jesus offers them, and we don’t want them to miss out on an eternity with the King of kings. But, what if we are motivated by our love for them and our love of God?
Because we love God so much, we can’t not invite someone. Wouldn’t that be a complete change of perspective? Instead of inviting someone because we don’t want them to get the “bad stuff” that’s coming if they don’t, we invite because our love of God is so overwhelming that we can’t help but share it with the people around us. Instead of being motivated by guilt because the pastor is begging me to invite someone, I’m motivated by my love for the person I’m going to invite.
How we make the invitation is just as important as the fact that we actually make it. If we’re serious about inviting someone to Easter, if we believe they need Jesus, if we believe people need a place to belong, then we don’t want to waste our invitations. We don’t want to invite them in an unloving manner, flopping down an invitation on their desk while they’re going to the bathroom, sending out a mass email, etc. It’s not that those are bad things, and there’s no problem with doing that too, but that shouldn’t be the main way we invite the people we care about the most. We should invite them in a manner that matches the level of care we have for them. Making an invitation into a paper airplane might be a good way to break the ice, but please follow it up with a conversation too!
Bottom line, at SixEight Church, one of our core values is operating as the exception. We are above par when it comes to people who serve. We are above par when it comes to people who give. We want to be an exceptional church. If we are going to be exceptional, we must be exceptional in this area too. If 2% of church members invite someone to church over the course of the year, we need to be the church were 98% of our members invite someone to church. If we’re going to be exceptional, we have to be motivated by love instead of fear (Sounds like 1 John 4 doesn’t it?). If we’re going to be exceptional, we need prevail in making disciples – even if the environment around us is growing increasingly hostile towards Christianity.
This Easter, let’s all be the exception!
(Read http://backtochurch.com/participate/resources/statistics/ for more information about inviting people to church.)