How to Invite Your Friends to Church, Pt.2

So, once we are convinced that inviting people to Jesus through the local church is what Jesus has called us to, HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE INVITE:

1. Pray: if we don’t pray for people to meet Jesus, then our hearts won’t ever be broken enough to actually share Christ with them and invite them to experience Christ in and through His Church.  Also, if we don’t pray for boldness and courage during these times we won’t act, and that could mean someone’s eternity just went up in flames.
2. Study: look to the Scriptures for your example.
   1. Peter provides one way of “invitation” – Peter was very in your face, sort of confrontational. Peter was great at working with “churched” people or the religious Jews (which is why he stayed in Jerusalem).
   2. Paul was much more strategic and intellectual – He was also skilled with the unchurched (the Gentiles). Paul knew how to become all things to all men so that some would be saved.  Paul was the ultimate servant and a great multiplier of leaders.
   3. Stephen was the “truth teller”.  Stephen got to preach one sermon then he was killed, not sure I want that evangelistic style!  But Stephen also knew how to speak the truth, even when it hurt (what a great lesson we can learn from this amazing man of God).
   4. Philip was the “conversationist”; he was able to “slide into any conversation” and turn it towards Jesus.  In this case, he meets an Ethiopian Eunuch who is reading an OT prophet and he finds a way to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ.
   5. James, the half brother of Jesus, was definitely a man of “faith and prayer” (He wrote a lot about in his book, James).  James talks about confessing your faults to one another and praying for one another.  James knew the importance of being authentic and real about your struggles if you are ever going to win this world to Jesus.
   6. John was the “lover”.  In the gospel he wrote, he quotes Jesus saying, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” Wow!
   7. So, you see there are different ways to invite people onto this journey with God…BUT THEY ALL COME BACK TO JESUS – YOU AND I CAN’T GET TO GOD EXCEPT THROUGH JESUS.  Make sure your invite is ALL ABOUT LEADING PEOPLE TO JESUS.  Maybe you use your intellect, maybe you find ways to serve their needs, maybe you have long caffeinated talks at Starbucks, maybe you work on projects together, maybe you have to confront and have some tough love talks – but ultimately your invite has to be all about leading people to Jesus – because only Jesus can change them, only Jesus can heal them, only Jesus can revolutionize their life and this world!
3. Speak: I am all for “acts of kindness” but at some point we must attach them to a larger strategy (or intentional plan) of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people and by that I mean SPEAKING THE GOSPEL INTO THIS UNCHURCHED CULTURE. “Random acts of kindness” (which I am for as well) without the expressed purpose of inviting people to hear the gospel, interface with the gospel, meet people of the gospel, or get a gift that ultimately leads them to the gospel is simply “too random” and not really that kind at all. At the end of the day, people who die without Jesus Christ really do go to hell.  And our mission as the local church is to make it hard to go to hell from Manchester (in fact, its to make it hard to go to hell from all of New England because our heart is to reach new england with the gospel of Jesus Christ).
4. Do: As the church we MUST feed the poor, we MUST clothe the naked, we MUST care for the fatherless and widows, BUT if we don’t ever open our mouths and SPEAK THE WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST into people’s lives then we are really doing them a disservice, because people with a fully belly still go to hell without Jesus, friends with a full wardrobe still go to hell without Jesus, families with a home still go to hell without Jesus.  So, let’s not be incomplete in our spiritual mission of sharing Christ – WE MUST DO ACTS OF KINDNESS WITH THE EXPRESSED PURPOSE OF SHARING THE LIFE-ALTERING REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!

Tomorrow, I will share 10 PRACTICAL WAYS TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO CHURCH…