{"id":2794,"date":"2014-07-15T07:05:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T12:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=2794"},"modified":"2014-07-15T07:05:48","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T12:05:48","slug":"church-members-dont-invite-others-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/church-members-dont-invite-others-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Church Members Don&#8217;t Invite Others to Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Chuck Lawless<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Several years ago, <a href=\"http:\/\/backtochurch.com\/participate\/resources\/statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than one study<\/a> showed large percentages of unchurched would consider attending a church if someone simply invited them. The problem is not the attitude of the unchurched; rather, it is often the failure of church members to invite others. When my church consulting teams have asked church members about their reticence to invite others to church, here are ten responses we have often heard (listed in no particular order):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>\u201cI just don\u2019t think about it.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Many church members have contact with the unchurched every week, if not every day. They go to school with them, work with them, live beside them \u2013 and sometimes live <em>with<\/em> them. What church folks don\u2019t do, though, is see the unchurched as \u201csheep without a shepherd\u201d (Matt. 9:36), as spiritual beings in need of redemption and a church family.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cI\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll be rejected.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Nobody likes to be turned down, especially after taking the risk to invite somebody to church. It\u2019s just easier to avoid that possibility by not inviting anyone at all (interestingly, church members could tell us times when others said \u201cno,\u201d but few could tell us of times when they were rudely or unkindly rejected).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThe music isn\u2019t that good.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Some may argue the worship wars are over, but the battles seem to be ongoing. Our teams continue to hear refrains like, \u201cit\u2019s too loud,\u201d \u201cit\u2019s too boring,\u201d \u00a0\u201cwe sing it over and over again,\u201d and \u201cnobody knows the songs.\u201d Church members who themselves don\u2019t enjoy the music don\u2019t readily invite others to join them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThe preaching isn\u2019t strong.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 This response was seemingly the most painful one to admit. Church members who love their pastors do not want to hurt them, but they spoke honestly to our consulting teams. When the preaching is poor, invitations to the unchurched decrease.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve got too many church problems right now.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Church members don\u2019t always know all the issues facing a congregation, but they frequently recognize when something \u201cjust isn\u2019t right.\u201d They see the attendance decreasing, or they hear of internal conflict. Simply stated, they do not invite their friends onto a battleground.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cOur church is already too crowded.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 This issue is particularly an American one, as Americans protect our personal space. We don\u2019t like being cramped, even in church. Moreover, we don\u2019t want to have to search for a parking space before entering that already crowded building. One way to avoid more crowding is to stop inviting anyone.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cNobody ever challenged me to invite anyone.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 This reason is related to the first one on this list. Some church members never think about inviting others because no one has challenged them to do so. This response is especially tragic if many unchurched would respond affirmatively to an invitation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cI don\u2019t know how to start the conversation.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 Simply inviting somebody to church would seem easy, but that\u2019s not the case for many church members. In a culture where discussing religion or politics is almost forbidden, even long-term Christians struggle with initiating an invitation to church.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s the Spirit\u2019s job\u2014not mine\u2014to bring people to church.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 To be fair, we have heard this response primarily from congregations seeking to avoid any \u201cman-centered\u201d approach to evangelism. In their zeal to keep their focus on God, they walk cautiously when considering their role in evangelism \u2013 including simply inviting others to church.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s too far for people to come.\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 We live in a mobile culture that promotes church attendance sometimes quite far from where we live. Our teams have learned, however, that church members who drive a long distance are less willing to invite others to drive that same distance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>What reasons would you add to this list? What steps have you taken to address these responses?<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary.<\/em>\u00a0<em>You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/clawlessjr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CLawless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sebts.edu\/phd\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/PhD_ThomRainer.png\" alt=\"PhD_ThomRainer\" width=\"628\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When my church consulting teams have asked church members about their reticence to invite others to church, here are ten responses we have often heard:","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Church Members Don&#039;t Invite Others to Church | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When my church consulting teams have asked church members about their reticence to invite others to church, here are ten 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