Grow Course: Three steps to inviting

Outline

Michael Harvey speaks about 3 steps to becoming an inviting church:

Step 1 – Vision: It is not enough to tell your congregation to invite others, they need to hear why. Set a vision of invitation, because we were invited. make it clear that this is for everyone to join in with. Pray & invite – that’s all. Some people will respond to an invitation, but many won’t. It is up to the Holy Spirit to do the work. Our part is to be obedient and share the invitation.

Step 2 – Model the vision: Who are the people that you are inviting? When we model what it looks like to invite, others can follow your example. Share stories about invitations – good & bad! Make invitation a normal part of life, rather than a special thing that only a few selected people do. It’s for everyone!

Step 3 – Cascading: The bystander effect means that 80% of the congregation will not invite others, because they think it’s not for them, but for others to do. This could be for a few reasons; fear, not wanting change, afraid to lose their own space… there can be many. But by encouraging people on a one-to-one basis, we can overcome barriers for other people to start inviting.

Exercise

1. Does your church vision include invitation? Maybe not in the mission statement, but in the outworking of it.

2. How are you modelling invitation in your church? Is the expectation that this is something everyone can do?

3. Who are the people you can encourage on a one-to-one basis? Do you have any people for whom invitation is easy? Consider making them an invitation champion and get them to encourage others.