Easter is approaching quickly and on April 12 we’ll be celebrating as a church Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  This is a great opportunity to take a big step outside your comfort zone and invite a friend to church.  As the Outreach Director for our Lakeview and Lincoln Park locations I’ve been tracking our information that we receive from guests as they come to visit.  I’ve seen an overwhelming response that many of the guests that we receive on Sunday mornings have been invited by a friend or family member.  They came because they were invited!

The church does a great job of letting people know we’re in their community through different forms of outreach like postcards, newspaper articles, banners, promotional items that are handed out, evangelism and many other ways.  What we’re finding is that even though these forms of outreach can be effective still the most effective form of outreach involves a personal invitation from a friend or family member to come with them to church.  If this is the case, we need to all take the ownership to invite our friends and family members to church.  This is one of the most effective ways to reach people that are far from Christ.

Research backs these claim up too.  Recently there was a survey conducted by Lifeway Research.  Lifeway asked 15,000 people various questions regarding their openness to outreach from churches.  The research indicated that the highest amount of return for someone to visit a church was through a personal invitation from a friend or family member.  In fact, 63% of people that were surveyed said that they were somewhat likely or very likely to visit the church if a friend invited them and that percentage increased to 67% of people being somewhat likely or very likely to visit when a family member invited them.  These were the two largest percentages that the survey revealed.  Lifeway also asked what celebration people would be most open to visiting and considering matters of faith.  Easter came in second behind Christmas as the service that people would most likely attend if invited. 

Here’s my challenge to you.  If over 60% of people would come to church if they were personally invited let’s keep our eyes open for an opportunity to be an inviter.  Research has shown us that people would visit church if they were personally invited and that Easter is the second most likely weekend people would come to church and be open to considering matters of faith.  This Easter, take a big step outside of your comfort zone and reach out to a friend, family member, coworker or even a neighbor and invite them to a place where God is moving and people are growing Spiritually.  Each of us can be an inviter; we just need to take the chance and trust that God can use us to bring others to church.