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:
How do unchurched people find their way into a church?
It usually starts because a friend invites them.
[Read more…]
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 process.
But in our busy culture, it might take months of repeated invitations before a person accepts and attends.
Why is that? [Read more…]
As I finished out my chapter through chapter re-read of the book of Acts, I see believers and non-believers in various settings:
The biblical DESCRIPTION of what happened in the NT church involved these elements. It gets mighty confusing to look at the book of Acts and to say
What is obvious is that people were being regularly and daily saved. This no basis to say that these conversions were occurring within or outside of the gatherings.
Acts merely describes what was happening.
It does not define a how the church will function following this particular era.
The church as a gathering PLACE is in development.
The earliest glimpses in Acts shows groups of people meeting in synagogues, public squares, and in houses. Today’s PLACES of gathering is very different than the gatherings in the book of Acts. Most of us meet in a dedicated space or building set apart for church meetings.
The church as a gathered PEOPLE is still a theological concept in development.
It is later spelled out in Paul’s letters.
The church gathered for the PURPOSE of a particular expression of worship is not the same.
It does not look like the weekly gathering of God’s people for worship as we know it in nearly any form today.
To ask the book of Acts for evidence about inviting non-believers to a church is ultimately a practice that will fail.
As the remaining passages deal with the missionary expansion of the early Christians there were no “churches” in these towns for the gathering of the saints They were being created as the apostles went forth, so looking at these passages for evidence of church practices may be pointless.
As I’ve discussed this with people, I’ve encountered a few uses of Scripture and examples that attempt to prove the point that we should not invite unbelievers to church.
I want to touch a few of those points below.
2 Corinthians 6:14 reads:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
I’m not convinced that applies to inviting a unsaved person to church hear the gospel message. Inviting a unsaved friend to church is not spiritually uniting with them. It is not asking them into membership. It is not offering them a leadership position. Instead it is inviting them to come and hear the word of God proclaimed, where they can evaluate the message for themselves.
The underlying imagery from the OT is two different animals walking together.
I see this passage applying to marriage, business partnerships, church leadership and other places where two would walk together in close unity. I’m not sure Paul talks specifically about church gatherings, but a lifestyle.
In terms of church life, I’d see it applying to membership, church leadership positions, pastors etc.
They are the leaders of the church. Members who have joined a church should of course profess faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We do not have atheists as church members, unsaved as elders, etc.
I don’t think this “yoking” or spiritual mixing occurs when we invite a non-believer to hear the word of God proclaimed in our worship services. If I invite a non-believer into a leadership position – to help me lead the church in some way – THEN that line is crossed.
1 Corinthians 14:22-25
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
Paul challenges the Corinthian church to be sensitive to visitors. At this point in the development of the church meetings as a gathering of people, unbelievers are in their midst.
This passage ASSUMES their presence, but doesn’t indicate the manner in which the non-believer arrived. The verb is simply “COMES IN” but gives no indication of the manner: by invitation, by curiosity, by advertising, nothing.
I’ve seen this passage used to share that the presence of such visitor was RARE. That assumes facts not in evidence. The one clear mention of a non believer being present doesn’t mean it was rare. It is an unprovable assertion. Paul’s point is addressing the misuse of tongues, not church invitations. Likewise, I cannot prove from the texts that it was a COMMON practice. I’d have to assume facts not in evidence.
One cannot say the practice was RARE or COMMON without assuming facts. What we can say is that Paul does not prohibit the presence of non-believers in the midst of the assembly, nor does Paul specifically command that we give invitations.
The point of this passage is that the Corinthian church should be sensitive to the non-believing visitors in their midst. I believe this should be part of every church’s DNA, whether you speak in tongues or not. You want your unsaved visitors to declare that God is in your midst.
The assertion that I’ve seen is that Jesus did not have a non-believer in his group of 12, then we shouldn’t have them as well in our churches.
However, the particular question we are discussing – can we invite the unsaved to our church services – does not seem to be answered by Jesus as an example. This is a straw man, I think, for this discussion.
There was no church to invite people to. He lived in a different time than an organized church.
Of course he didn’t yoke himself with a non-believing sinner who advocated for things not of the Lord. But he did hangout with people who needed him. He clearly hung out with people, welcomed people who sought him out etc.
I don’t see him rejecting people who don’t yet believe based on a meeting place or specific type of gathering.
Let me ask you this:
For what reasons SHOULD we invite our non-Christian friends to church? Answer in the comment field. . .
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 pattern of inclusion or exclusion, or if it is even possible to make a definitive conclusion.
Now that I’m at Part 5 and into the missionary expansion of the church, Luke is even less helpful in answering the question that I want a clear answer to. My question was not Luke’s question. After these passages, I will stop this particular review from the book of Acts, even though I’m 10 chapters from the end. [Read more…]
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 far, what is clear so far there is no pattern of inclusion or exclusion, or if it is even possible to make a conclusion.
Particularly starting in this next section, it starts to get confusing to say “that’s a church meeting” and “that is not a church meeting.”
They are gatherings where the word of God is proclaimed, gifts of the Spirit are manifested, and elders are set apart with fasting and prayer. The only hints of locations are a few references to the synagogue.
In today’s section, I’ll continue in Acts as I watch the church develop in various cities as the gospel goes forth.
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them . . . . So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. . . . . he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark,where many people had gathered and were praying.
Luke uses the word church to identify the disciples, not to speak of a specific gathering for worship. The use in verse 5 may refer to a specific meeting in the house of Mary that is described in verse 12.
It is likely that this gathering for a prayer meeting was made up only of known disciples, but that is a a likely inference rather than a clear statement.
It doesn’t address the question about inviting the unsaved to our church meetings to hear the proclamation of the word of God.
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
Luke’s use of the word church refers to disciples in Antioch. Was it the one church meeting (specific event), or a general description of the church as disciples with various meetings in various parts of the city? Verse 2 moves us to a specific meeting for the setting apart of Barnabas and Paul.
This passage shows only believers (prophets and teachers) by name.
But this verse doesn’t address the question – are unbelievers present or excluded? It’s not Luke’s point.
As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. . . . When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. . . The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.
Paul had been teaching in the synagogue in Psidian Antioch. He preached a simple message and people believed. He was invited to return and it is said almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
I think it is very likely that unbelievers and believers were in this mix. They had come to hear the word of God. Some believed after hearing.
What is clear is that this is a gathering of people. If one holds that unbelievers are not to be invited to church, then this meeting must not be church.
No specific gathering is mentioned, other than Paul teaching in the synagogue. A great number of Jews and Greeks believed. Verse 3 adds:
So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.
There is no mention of a place where this occurs other than the synagogue.
I would imagine that the believers and non-believers continued to mix at gatherings to hear the word of God taught during that considerable time there. Luke doesn’t record any kind of division or separation into “believer only group” and mixed group.
They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
Luke gives generalized statements about people coming to faith in various cities, the appointment of elders, prayer and fasting.
There are no details here to suggest a “believers only” worship gathering, except maybe in the final sentence.
“they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
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I invite my unsaved friends to church.
I invite them to
While they cannot become members until they place their faith in Christ and can confess that they believe Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, they are invited to attend our weekly gatherings, get involved in home based small groups, and even volunteer in the community outreach programs to serve along side with us.
In essence, we give non-believers the space and time to explore who we are as Christians, get to know us as the body of Christ, and examine for themselves the claims that following Jesus would place upon their life.
Do we see this pattern in the book of Acts?
In this series (part 1 covers Acts 1-5, part 2 covers Acts 6-9) I’m reading through Acts to see if there is a pattern of inclusion or exclusion, or if it is even possible to make a conclusion.
Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers
Luke uses the word “church” not as a particular meeting of people. I see this use as an identifier of a group, not as a gathering of believers for a meeting to hear the word, worship, or pray.
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
This gathering is not called a church meeting. It is a mixed gathering of believers and non-believers. Peter and six disciples (11:12) met with Cornelius who had gathered many of his family together to listen to Peter share about the good news of Jesus. Peter preached, the Holy Spirit fell on them, they received baptism.
Peter meets the the disciples in Jerusalem. He had been criticized for mixing with uncircumcised people. Peter shared the story of what happened and persuaded them that the Holy Spirit had come upon the Gentiles.
This gathering of believers is to deal with the issue of the expansion of the gospel. It reflects the tension that is growing over the issue of circumcision. It begins to reveal how the disciples dealt with old barriers that the gospel was crossing.
It is a gathering of leaders in the church who are debating and discerning what God is doing, much like a church leadership board would meet today to discern what God is doing in the local church. This gathering in this passage doesn’t address the question I’m asking.
So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Luke uses the term church as an identifier for the believers or disciples. For the whole year, they met with the church in Anticoh. Was it one gathering of all the disciples in one place, or where there multiple meeting points throughout the city where individual church gatherings were happening? There is no hint here. Luke simply gives a summary statement of what happened that year.
This verse doesn’t answer the question I’m asking. It simply reveals the pattern of gathering regularly to receive teaching from Barnabas and Paul.
Luke gives us a specific event that provokes the gathering of offerings. A prophet named Agabus prophesies a famine. The disciples decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea, each according to his own ability. (v. 29)
One can assume that the disciples were meeting together as was their custom when Agabus shared that prophesy.
This passage shows the believers meeting together, but doesn’t address the question of the presence of invited non-believers. That’s not the point or pertinent detail for Luke’s story telling. Luke’s desire is to show how the Antioch Christians obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit to provide for the believers in Jerusalem.
For reasons of length, I’m breaking my analysis up into various posts.
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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 biblical evidence in support or rejection of this practice.
My point in this series is to look at the gatherings of the early church in the book of Acts to see if there is any clear evidence one way or the other. Knowing that Acts is not written to answer my question, I have to draw conclusions from interpretations. Part 1 of this list is here. All Scriptures cited are from the NIV.
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 the gatherings to see if reasonable conclusions can be drawn about whether or not unbelievers are present in some of the assemblies of believers, no matter where they meet.
I recognize that Acts tells the stories of the gospel expansion, and Luke’s purpose is not to give us a definitive answer to the question I ask. The church is an organization that is in development in the book of Acts, where people meet in homes, in the public square, in the market place.
Meeting in a church building is not a development in the history of the church until much later. The church now has developed from house gatherings of believers we see in Acts, to organized gatherings for the worship of God and the proclamation of the gospel, sometimes in buildings dedicated to that purpose. In some sense, it is an apples to oranges comparison.
The word church – as used in Acts – refers to the assembly of believers. As the writings of Paul come forth, the term develops a theological significance about the body of Christ. As systematic theology comes upon reflections on the entire NT, there is a distinction between the Invisible Church and the Visible Church.
The invisible church is the church as God sees it – made up of every believer, every where. The visible church is a local expression of the body of Christ. Augustine referred to the church as a mixed body, a visible people, but this people has both tares and wheat, as described by Jesus.
Since I don’t see a prohibition against inviting unbelievers to the gatherings, nor do I see a command to invite people to church, I realize that conclusions I draw are based on observations of how the early church might have done it, and then wonder if such patterns are prescriptive for all time, or descriptive of their time and place.
I invite your commentary on these passages (save commentary on the future passages for future posts as I work through it).
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
On the day of Pentecost, the believers had gathered. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, non-believers heard and saw it. This lead to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, upon with many people got saved.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The first several sentences give a general overview of the practices of the Christian believers. They met together in the temple courts (public spaces), and in homes (more intimate gatherings). They enjoyed the favor of the people (visible evidence). The Lord kept adding to their numbers. What is not clear is whether or not those who are being added are already participating or not with Christians in their fellowship, meeting spaces, homes, as they come into salvation.
On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
After Peter and John were released, they returned to “their own people” and gave testimony. They then participated in a prayer meeting. Acts 4:31 reports “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” This prayer meeting may or may not have been one of the assemblies, but it is a prayer meeting.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Once again, Luke gives a summary of the gatherings and describes on aspect of how the Lord is working in the midst of them. The question I ask – are unbelievers present – is not an issue in this text.
Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Luke reports what happens when Ananias and Sapphira experience the judgment of God. It is also the first use of the word church to describe the growing group of believers. There is no evidence to the presence or absence of non-believers in this gathering.
The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
The believers would gather together in a public place – Solomon’s colonnade. People would bring their sick and receive healing and deliverance. A couple of points here come to mind.
It seems to me that people were being invited to the gatherings in Solomon’s Colonnade in order to receive healing and deliverance.
For reasons of length, I’ll break this post into a few sections. Be sure you have signed up for our weekly evangelism newsletter to get the followup sections automatically each and every week (on Friday’s for now)
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:
It’s not my point here to drift into a full theology of the nature of the church, but to focus on the vocabulary of the question: what do I mean when I use the word church in this question?
I mean the gathered assembly, whether it meets in a high school gym, music hall, or a beautiful church building with stain glass windows and movable chairs.
I invite my unsaved friends.
I’ve been inviting my unsaved friends to church for so long that it is part of my teaching. I teach on
Many of our church hospitality practices are based on the assumption that unsaved persons will be in our church, no matter how that visitor got there. I’ve never questioned it.
I know many people who came to Christ because a friend invited them to church. Here is one story. After a few weeks of hearing the preaching of the word, my friend surrendered his life to Christ. It is possible that without that invitation, he may have remained lost. It is possible that God could have brought him salvation by some other method. My friend was invited to church and came to faith in Christ.
If the church is responsible for evangelism, then it seems that some of it’s meetings will be intentionally evangelistic.
It also seems to me that the church would teach and train church members for evangelism where they live.
There is not one shred of evidence or any command or prohibition in either direction. We don’t see the command to invite the unsaved, nor do we see a prohibition against inviting the nonbeliever.
We do not see the apostles inviting people to the assembly.
Is it possible that the early Christians invited people to the local assembly? Sure.
Is it plausible that they invited people? Sure. There are plenty of gatherings in the New Testament that suggest unsaved people are in their midst. People came to faith in those gatherings, so they must have arrived as an non-believer.
No matter where we stand on inviting the unsaved, we are having to make the argument from plausible assumptions.
We see Paul’s concern for the unbeliever in the midst of the assembly.
First Corinthians 14:23 Paul wants the assembly of the church to be sensitive to the unbeliever in their midst:
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” – 1 Corinthians 14:22-25
Paul assumes that there exists a possibility of unbelievers in the midst of the assembly.
There is no indication of how that unbeliever got there, nor is that the point of text.
That unbeliever could have
In this passage, Paul doesn’t preach against inviting unbelievers to church. He acknowledges the reality of their presence, no matter by what means or reason they come.
Paul had been in synagogues preaching the gospel for about three months (v.8), when it became too disruptive to continue there. So Paul gathers the disciples in a different location for the next 2 years (v.10)
But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them.
He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. – Acts 19:9-10
The end result was people hearing the Word of God. The circle of the gospel’s expansion started from taking “disciples with him” to “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Asia.”
This suggests some form of evangelistic activity.
This form of evangelism cannot be ruled out.
The text doesn’t give an indication of exclusion or inclusion of non-believers listening to Paul in the lecture hall.
Answer this question in the comments below.
For what reasons should we invite the unsaved to our church?
Keep it civil.
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