The holiday season is right around the corner with the weather starting to cool down and Christmas movies slowly filling our streaming services. For Kayla and I, this is the time of year when we go all out for our home decorations, filling our home with fake pine branches and building the best gingerbread houses you have ever seen. This is also the best season to invite your friends and family to a church service. Did you know that 80% of the people who are asked to come to a church service with you would say yes? Lifeway Research did a study back in 2021 showing that most people who are asked to come to church would go if invited by someone they knew. However, less than 30% of people are willing to extend an invitation to a friend or family member to come to their church. And let’s be honest, that number is probably generous.
So why don’t we invite more people to church? It may be because we have forgotten the power that a good invite has had on our life. Can you think back to the last good invitation you received and you said yes? For me, it was going out to lunch downtown with a few friends from church that I hadn’t sat down with for months. Afterward, I felt rested, better known, and my relational bucket was filled. All things that we long for in our lives because we know what it’s like when we are busy, lonely, and exhausted. And if I am being honest, the latter three are much easier to find myself in during the holiday season than the prior. The same is probably true for your friends and family but that doesn’t have to be the case because this year you can choose to give them a meaningful invitation.
Inviting our friends and family to church can be intimidating. We have probably been told multiple times that we should be inviting people to church and it sounds good in theory. But practicing it is a whole different thing because ‘you don’t know how my family is’ or ‘I have tried bringing up faith before and it did not go as planned.’ Often, these moments of courage can become discouraging because rejection is hard, and we long for them to experience the hope, healing, and purpose that we have experienced. My encouragement to you is that your good invitation is not wasted and there is hope for your invite this holiday season. This may be the invite that changes their life for the better. By inviting your friends and family to a church service you are giving them an opportunity to know Jesus and to be known. All you need to do is ask and then show up.
If you want my advice, don’t overthink it. Send that text message, make that phone call today, and ask God to open up opportunities for them to say yes. The holidays are the perfect time for someone to come to the church for the first time as churches are anticipating loads of new people and are planning ahead. I would even go as far as to say that your friends and family are expecting an invite from you to a holiday service. So, who are you going to invite this year?
Works Cited: Earls, Aaron. “Christians Don’t Share Faith with Unchurched Friends – Lifeway Research.” Research.lifeway.com, 9 Sept. 2021, research.lifeway.com/2021/09/09/christians-dont-share-faith-with-unchurched-friends/.
Check out our website for more information. We always welcome new friends to worship with us. Find a location that’s close to you!
You can learn more about our beliefs and visit our video library to explore more topics like this one. You can also check out our events page to find out what fun new things we’re doing this season.
