We Must Stop Inviting People To Church!
“We have to stop inviting people to church.” Those are probably words you never thought you’d hear from a preacher. Let me add to your conundrum: “We have to stop inviting people to church… if we ever want to see the church of our Lord truly grow.” How is that even remotely possible you ask? Let me explain.
How are you inviting others to Christ?
First off, anyone can invite anybody anywhere. Chances are that if you have a friend you’re considering inviting to ‘church,’ several others have already invited them to ‘their church’ as well – if, indeed, they don’t have ‘their own church’ already. And so, because your friend, not knowing the Scriptures (and hence, not knowing anything about the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the Lord’s one New Testament church as seen in those Scriptures, as opposed to all of the man-made denominations all around them), simply therefore views your invitation as nothing more than only one of many different offers to attend only slightly differing religious organizations which will all accomplish the same thing (at least in their mind), they have no real and reasonable reason to choose attending ‘your church’ over any of their other friends’ ‘churches.’ And then, when they additionally discover that the other groups have bands, light shows, contests, and allow both sexes to be involved in church leadership and are therefore much more “progressive,” exciting, and entertaining… well, is it any wonder we lose out and they go elsewhere to “church” with their other friends? We have (in their minds) become just one dull, archaic offer amongst many more intriguing, exciting, and otherwise much more entertaining options.
But wait a minute you say! We have to preach and teach the truth of God’s word exclusively! That’s what makes us completely unique in today’s religious landscape! We are not only constantly ‘in the word,’ we’re actually ‘in the word’ (Romans 16:16)! This isn’t about entertainment; this is about almighty God’s eternal grace, truth, and love, and our subsequent love for, and loyalty to, God, through our faithful obedience to His word! This is about growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord; about rightly dividing the word; and about learning, knowing, and obeying the truth that will set people free! Yes, I know all that – but they don’t. Satan has the whole world completely convinced and deceived (1 John 5:19-20) into believing that ‘all churches are the same,’ and that one only need ‘attend the church of their choice’ because any ‘one church is as good as another.’ Yours and my biblically uninformed and denominational friends and neighbors haven’t got a clue about the scriptural Jesus; the gospel plan of salvation; spirit and truth versus vain worship (John 4:23-24; Mark 7:1-13); or the essentiality, exclusivity, or eternality of the Lord’s one, New Testament church (Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:4-6) – or else they’d be members of it! And they’re not going to get a clue either unless God’s people use the proper approach in getting these truths of God to them. Instead, those friends and family we claim to love are going to become just another ‘Christian entertainment casualty’ at the casually dressed, culturally addressed, ear-tickling and people pleasing contemporary denomination down on the corner unless we alter our approach (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Galatians 1:10). AND PLEASE NOTE: It is NOT our Spirit and truth worship patterns and practices that make us the kind of worshippers the Father is seeking (John 4:23-24) which need to be changed; it is our practice and approach at getting these vital, biblical truths to others that needs to be changed! And so, the question is, how?
Well, we see ourselves as the church in the Bible, right? Right! We claim to want to restore first-century Christianity in the modern world, correct? Correct! We ‘pride’ ourselves on ‘calling bible things by bible names,’ and ‘doing bible things in bible ways,’ don’t we? We do! So how about going back to the bible and honestly examining exactly how the church grew so fast in the first century, as opposed to how it’s NOT, now?
And the number one thing I DON’T see? Anyone inviting anyone to church. That’s right. Re-read every New Testament conversion account you can find. And the one thing you won’t find? Anyone inviting anyone to church! Invitations to church by congregation members are as absent from the biblical text as the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” for salvation sake! (So… quick question here…. How can we have such a problem with the latter as being completely and blatantly unscriptural, and yet practice the former as universally and unquestioningly as we do?) And yet, the church grew on a daily basis (Acts 2:47). Why? Because instead of inviting the lost to come to church on Sunday and giving them time to come up with a myriad of weak excuses as to why they couldn’t, they taught them Jesus right then and there. Because instead of inviting them to come to church on Sunday in hopes the preacher would convert them (After all, that’s what he gets paid for, correct – to do the evangelistic work that is biblically speaking, every Christian’s responsibility?), they taught them Jesus right then and there… and lost souls were saved by the thousands!
So why don’t we do it that way? Why, instead of taking the time and personally putting in the effort to teach the lost the truth the same way these first century saints did at every opportunity they had, do we invite them to church in hopes the preacher can reach our friends better than we, their friends, can? Because Satan has given us way too many convenient-sounding and self-justifying excuses to not even try to evangelize as effectively as God’s word shows us they did and we should. We say we don’t have time when we all have all there is (See: Matthew 6:19-34). We tell ourselves we don’t have knowledge enough as “lay-people” to teach the lost. To begin with, “lay-people” isn’t biblical, it’s Catholic. If we are “in Christ” (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27), we are all a part of His royal priesthood (2 Peter 2:9-11). And as such, each and every one of us as individual Christians are summarily commanded to “sanctify the Lord God in [our] hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [us] a reason for the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15). If we are not capable of doing that, then what on earth have we been doing (2 Peter 1:1-11)?
The first missionary (chronologically speaking) that Jesus ever sent anywhere, was one who had known of or about Him but for only a few hours at best (cf. Mark 5:1-20). He was told to: “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (Mark 5:19-20). Can you do that much? If you are a ‘saved by the blood of Christ’ New Testament Christian, can you tell – are you capable of telling – others “what great things the Lord has done for you?” That’s all the Lord requires. Notice Jesus never said “Go home to your friends… and invite them to come out to hear Myself or John the Baptist preach this coming Sabbath!”
What about the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4)? She had just one meeting with Jesus, realized Who He was, and then went back and talked to her whole hometown about Him. She told anyone and everone who would listen about what Jesus had said and done… and caused them enough curiosity so that they all came out to see – and came to believe in – Him! Can you do that? If not, why not? One reason: Because Satan has us wrongfully convinced that we can’t do that. (By the way, is Philippians 4:13 still in your bible? Please take a moment right now to check and see, if you would.) Satan has us convinced (despite the lip-service we sometimes pay to one of our favorite slogans), that instead of truly ‘doing bible things in bible ways’ with every Christian personally bible studying with all their lost friends and neighbors at any and every opportunity, the same exact way they did in the first century when the Lord’s church was growing and spreading like wildfire, the best way to evangelize is to maybe invite our lost friends to church – if we can somehow gather up the courage to do even that much – then just and have the preacher convert them like we pay him to do. And of course when the numbers continue to decline because we are not truly, personally, individually or congregationally following the Lord’s infallible New Testament pattern for evangelism by spreading His word one on one, with everyone, everywhere we go (Acts 8:1-5), we can always blame and then terminate the preacher, and try to find another, better one, who will hopefully do a better job of converting our friends and family and growing the church, while we fully and fatally continue to convince ourselves that we’ve certainly, personally done our part. After all, don’t we put part of the preacher’s salary into the offering plate… and occasionally even maybe invite somebody to church when it’s not too inconvenient or uncomfortable to take a second or two to do so?