I happen to catch a listen on the radio this week of how author and apologist Lee Strobel became a Christian. Part of his journey to faith was accepting an invitation to church. At church, he heard Christianity explained to him with such clarity that it started his thorough investigation into the Christian faith. I found myself thinking: . . .
Has this happened to you?
You invite a friend to church because you are excited about a new sermon series.
They are polite, but continue to dismiss your invitation with "Some day."
The timing of your church invitation just doesn't resonate with them.
How can you change that?
As much as I believe in giving personal invitations to church, I can’t say that I personally know that many people who sit at home just hoping someone would invite them to church. Statistics show that some people will respond to an invitation to church, and that such invitations are often part of the conversion …
As I finished out my chapter through chapter re-read of the book of Acts, I see believers and non-believers in various settings: hearing the word of God proclaimed, gifts of the Spirit are manifested, elders are chosen, people getting saved, etc. The biblical DESCRIPTION of what happened in the NT church involved these elements. It …
Should we invite non-believers to our church services? The question came up in a discussion group I am a part of, so I’ve chosen to examine the early church patterns from the book of Acts. As I have looked at the gatherings of the disciples so far, what is clear so far there is no …
Should we invite non-believers to our church services? So far through the three parts of rereading the book of Acts (part 1 covers Acts 1-5, part 2 covers Acts 6-9, part 3 covers Acts 10-11), I don’t see a clear answer to the question. As I have looked at the gatherings of the disciples so …
I invite my unsaved friends to church. I invite them to hear the proclamation of the word of God, to learn about a Christian community, and to explore for themselves who Jesus is. While they cannot become members until they place their faith in Christ and can confess that they believe Jesus Christ is Savior …
As I continue to look in Acts, I want to see what I can find that can help me answer the question: Should we invite the unsaved to church? Since I practice church invitations as a tool in my personal evangelism habits to help people discover the grace of Christ, I want to examine the …
The church developed in the book of Acts as the gospel spread throughout the regions. As a follow-up to yesterday’s post – should we invite unsaved friends to church? – I want to examine the gatherings of the assemblies in the book of Acts over the next few posts. It is important to look at …
I posted this question to the EvangelismCoach.org Facebook page. “Should we invite unsaved friends to church?” Give a Yes or No, and then give a reason. The answers were pretty divided between Yes and No, with some strong opinions: Yes, the church is on an evangelistic mission. No, the church is for believers only to …
I really like this church invitation video. I’ve used it several times in various conferences. Always gets a great laugh when the punch line is revealed. While it’s free on YouTube, you should really buy the rights to use it from SermonSpice, like I did. Honor the creators of this video with buying it. Feed …
A lifeway study also asked how many times respondents have personally, “invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at your church?” Nearly half (48 percent) of church attendees responded, “zero.” We need to change this. Download this video at BeamerFilms.com. Use this mini-move to help encourage your congregation to …
Recently, I was asked via Ask EvangelismCoach about ways to increase the number of invitations to church that members give to their network of friends. Review these posts to get on board with some of the answers More church invitations: Friends and Family Get More Church Invitations: Prayer I want you to come to my …
Helping church members invite their friends is one of the side effects of an engaged church, as Albert Winesman wrote Growing an Engaged Church. The basic question of his book is addressed on the jacket: What would a church look like if members of its congregation were 13 times more likely to have invited someone to …
Recently, I’ve been asked via Ask EvangelismCoach about ways to increase the number of invitations to church that members give to their network of friends. Review these posts to get on board with some of the answers More church invitations: Friends and Family Get More Church Invitations: Prayer Today, I add number 3 3. Church …
LifeWay Research did a study and asked how many times they have personally, “invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at your church?” 48% of church attendees responded, “zero.” 33% percent of people say they’ve personally invited someone one or two times. 19% say they’ve done so on three or more …
In the previous article in the series of giving more invitations to church, I focused on prayer. As I continue to look at various ways to increase the number of personal invitations to church that your church members give, today’s article is focused on the number of personal friends who are unchurched. Again, the statistics show …
Check out this video on giving an invitation to church (Feed Readers may need to click through to see the video). Notice what the fellow does at the end. You can give your church members something similar to help them make that personal invitation to church Church Invitation Card that I used a few years …
In this series on getting more church invitations and visitor traffic, I’m looking at various ways to increase the number of personal invitations to church that your church members give. The statistics show that a personal invitation from a friend is the best way to get church visitors. I’m going to look at 6 different …
During a recent coaching appointment, a pastor expressed a frustration that members are not inviting guests to church. The church had reached a plateau in attendance and had been stuck there for nearly 2 years. The pastor had tried various tactics to remind people about the importance of making personal invitations, such as regular announcements, …
Every weekend, we challenge our church members to invite someone to the next sermon series. Each week, we call our church members to invite someone to small group. You probably do it to. In fact, many people would rather give a church invitation than personally share the gospel. Have you seen that happen? I have. …
The Institute For American Church Growth asked over 10,000 people this question: “What was responsible for your coming to Christ and this church?” Their replies were: I had a special need – 3% I just walked in – 3% I liked the minister – 6% I visited there – 1% I liked the Bible classes – …
This article on using Facebook events is reprinted with persmission from Christian Webtrends (blog.ourchurch.com) to edit for Christmas. It was originally aimed for Easter, but it’s just as true for Christmas. The images refer to an Easter service, but you get the idea. The original article appeared in 2011, and Facebook may have changed the …
A regular question I get is "How do you grow a small church?" "How do I grow small church numbers?" We were a small church, made up primarily of immigrants from other countries. Here are 5 steps we are implementing to grow that total number to 70.
