Day 21: Invite Your Three

On Day 13, you invited someone to church. I wish I were able to hear about the invitation you made. I’m curious: Were you nervous or uncertain? How did the person respond? Were they friendly? Did they seem offended by the invitation? How did you feel after you made the invitation? Are you more or less eager to invite someone again?

This time, you will invite three people. Again, the method of invitation is up to you. But don’t forget how powerful the simple act of inviting someone is. It shows you care. You are attempting to enhance a relationship. You will at least cause someone to think about connecting with a body of believers.

I wouldn’t be surprised that some of your invitees have already shown up for church. They are likely being exposed to the gospel in the preaching, teaching, and Christian fellowship—which could be eye-opening for them if they are not yet Christians. We have heard numerous stories about church members who intentionally invited people to church and soon saw those people become Christians.

Think about it for a moment. Your invitation is an act of eternal significance. It is so simple, yet so profound. Please don’t take today’s assignment lightly. Indeed, never take the act of inviting people to church lightly.

Again, I encourage you to pray before you send the invitations. Pray that God will use your words to prepare the person for your invitation.

You might already have three names in mind. But if you’re struggling about whom to invite, here are some suggestions.

CHECK YOUR EMAIL

You probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of emails you have sent or received. Or maybe you’re a task-oriented person like me, who feels compelled to empty your inbox every day. Even though I keep my inbox empty, I have thousands of emails in folders. Recently, just by looking at the names on my email folders (without looking into any of them), I got more than a dozen ideas of people I could invite to church. I was amazed by how many Great Commission opportunities I was able to find with just a glance. Perhaps you can leverage your email files in a similar way.

I specifically looked for names of people who are local, people I could invite to my church. I also looked for names of people that I am almost certain don’t attend a church. Even with those parameters, I still came away with many possibilities.

I can’t wait to invite three of them today.

CHECK YOUR PHONE ADDRESS BOOK

One look in my phone’s address book told me two things. First, I have a lot of contacts where I only know the other person’s phone number. Second, I am really hesitant to delete contacts.

In my address book, I found the names of several people I could invite. There is a videographer who dropped out of church for reasons unknown. There is a physician who was very active in church but stopped coming after a church conflict. There is the owner of the building where my wife has her studio. And that’s just scanning through names from A to F, and I probably missed a few.

What does your address book tell you? Do you have a number of possibilities in your phone contacts? Are there three you could call or text and invite right now?

Ask God to open your eyes to the people you should invite.

CHECK YOUR COWORKERS AND FELLOW STUDENTS

If you work in an office or attend school, you likely have contact with several people you could invite to church. Like a lot of people, during the pandemic I worked from home instead of my usual office suite. When the quarantine lifted, I made the decision to get an office in a coworking suite. Part of the reason was financial, but I also had a Great Commission motive.

By moving into a shared suite, I figured I would have the opportunity to get to know more people who aren’t believers. I was right! It is truly a great harvest field where I work. I praise God for putting me there.

You may have coworkers who are not Christians or who don’t have a church they attend. If we view the workplace as an evangelistic field, our entire perspective changes. Do you know of any coworkers you can invite to church?

If you’re in school, you may know several students you could invite to church. Don’t assume they’ll say no. We have been surprised in our studies of the unchurched to find out how many people would love to go to church with someone if they were invited.

Who among your fellow students could you invite?

CHECK YOUR MERCHANTS

If you live someplace for a while, you will inevitably get to know some of the merchants with whom you transact business on a regular basis. The people who take care of my lawn have been with me almost fifteen years. I have been to the same dry cleaner for those same fifteen years. Occasionally I will request a grocery delivery, and the same person always makes the deliveries because the algorithms matched us.

You likely have merchants you know well. You may not be certain whether they attend church, but it never hurts to ask, even if it turns out they are active in another church. You will never know unless you ask, and I have never known an active churchgoer to be offended when I’ve asked about church attendance.

Do you know merchants you could invite?

CHECK YOUR NEIGHBORS

I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t know many of my neighbors. I really have no excuse because I have lived in the same house more than fifteen years. I bet you are not as lax as I am. You probably know many of your neighbors, and you probably know many of them well.

Pray about those you know. Are there some who are not in church or who are not Christians? God may be leading you to invite them to church.

Do you know some neighbors you could invite?

A SIMPLE INVITATION

You may not need guidance on the best way to write an invitation to church via email or text. By all means, use whatever wording makes you most comfortable.

My invitations tend to be brief. Here’s an example of a text I sent just a week ago:

Hey, Kristen, I want to invite you and your husband to church this Sunday. Nellie Jo and I would love to take you both out to lunch after the service.

Kristen is a merchant I know. I haven’t yet met her husband, but I hope to soon. I would have told her the name of the church, the address, and the times of the services, but I gave her a card with that information the last time I saw her. She responded by letting me know she still had the card.

Okay, it’s time for you to invite your three people. Pray about it. Write the emails or texts. See what God will do.