My uncle, Father Uncle Richard (he’s a retired Catholic priest, for real) taught me a lot about reaching people. He was a missionary in Japan for most of my growing up days, so I saw him when he visited every year or so. We went to a Baptist church, which in those days hinted if not implied if not taught that Catholics were not too close on most of their theology, and so I had a kind of self-righteous pity for him… “Too bad he’s going to hell, he’s such a nice uncle.” I didn’t know enough to debate with him, so I just listened. I also noticed that every day he spent a lot of time praying and reading the Bible, and he was very consistent about it, more consistent than almost anyone I’d ever met. Some people would suggest that he was bound by legalism, now I realize he loved Jesus way more than I did. Father Uncle Richard explained to me that he spent a lot of time getting to know the people in Japan before he even mentioned anything about Jesus. And he did a lot to help them with their physical needs too, (food, clothing, vocational training). He said Jesus taught about taking care of people’s physical needs as well as their spiritual needs, and that it wasn’t respectful to just try to “convert” someone, it was important to love them. Outward actions that are motivated by real love is the most important thing. Not just trying to increase the number of people in your church, or trying to feel good about yourself by doing X number of cold calls. By the way, I eventually revised my myopic opinion of “Catholics” and other flavors of Christianity realizing that there is much to learn from each other and that we probably should quit emphasizing our differences and major on the majors.

I learned a lot from Father Uncle Richard, and with that in mind I’d like to suggest we use his method to invite people to church. The method… love people, be normal. The truth is many people who are not used to church or church people have some funny ideas about it all. Not a big deal. And I realize it may be a little embarrassing to be on the same basic team as the televangelists, the Ted Haggards, the Knights Templar, and the rest. (However, before we get too smug let’s remember that we all have the same basic sin problem, we just don’t have it as the lead story on CNN.) And if someone finds out that we “go to church” they might jump to any one of a million bad conclusions. Here’s the word….relax. Our job is not to try to change anybody’s mind about “Christians” (that may happen in time). Our job is not to worry or even try to compete with all the BAD examples…our job is to do what Jesus said, “Let your light shine.” There is no way we can fix the bad things that have been done in the name of religion…but what we can do is help someone to feel accepted and loved right now. So the pressure’s off.

Back to the method: Love people; be normal. Invite someone.

I know that some of us have the fear that if we invite someone to church, then that opens up the door for them to ask us every impossible theological question, as if having Jesus as a friend suddenly makes me Stephen Hawking! I say, “Don’t worry.” That’s why people write books. There are legitimate answers to most of the big questions (The Case For Christ, The Case For Faith, Letters From a Skeptic, Evidence Demands a Verdict, etc.) and at the same time there will probably always be some disagreements among good Christians about some details…until we get to heaven and get it all sorted out. Does God really care if we dunk or sprinkle? The point is we don’t need to stress about answering every possible question.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in John 9, the story of the healing of the man who was born blind. Here we have someone who had an encounter with Jesus, whose life was forever changed, and who was subjected to some very disrespectful grilling by the religious muckymucks. Do yourself a favor and carefully read the whole chapter.

You’ll find someone who simply told his experience without needing to explain or defend it. The enemies of Jesus were trying to discredit and discount him, and to use him to make Jesus look bad…it didn’t work.

He simply stood his ground and told them what happened to him.
Here are some sound bites.
…They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” (note: he just told his experience.)
…Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them. Then the Pharisees again questioned the man who had been blind and demanded, “What’s your opinion about this man who healed you?” The man replied, “I think he must be a prophet.” (note: ya think?)

… “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.” “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
(note: he didn’t get pulled into a theological argument, he just told his experience.)

Another way to put it is, “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.” (D.T. Niles)
How to do it? Love people, be normal and simply tell your experience.

So if you’re nervous about inviting someone to church, consider this:
1) The stakes are high.
If you had the cure for cancer wouldn’t you at least let someone know? It would be inconceivable that you wouldn’t try to help those who needed it. In fact, it would be incredibly selfish to just use the cure for yourself. Your bare minimum responsibility would be to let people know it’s available…that’s all you can do. You can’t make someone go to the doctor, but you can tell them what your experience has been, and that there is hope. A simple invitation could make all the difference.

2) We’re inviting, not selling.
Jesus invited people to follow him, he didn’t manipulate or try to talk people into it. In fact, he played a little hard to get. He cautioned people to think about it before jumping in… “Count the cost.” All we need to do is let people know that we are here and we care. But let’s get real, it’s not like you’re inviting someone to a boring, painful, embarrassing, weird experience. You’re inviting someone to a relaxed, casual, relatively short (about 80 minutes), positive, inspiring, and well-done church service. We just want to let other people know that there is a place they can come to where they can worship, get taught about God’s plan for us, and feel accepted no matter where they are on their spiritual journey.

3) God is always at work, and he wants to use you!
You never know how God might use you. Let’s say you invite someone to church, they don’t come but they start watching you. They notice you are loving, real, considerate of others, flawed but honest about admitting it, not hyper religious….and you call yourself a follower of Jesus. The odds just went up that they might be open to more information about following Jesus. It might be you, it might be someone else in the future, but God used you to plant a seed. All this because you took the risk to invite someone to church. Imagine this: Fast forward into the future. Wouldn’t it be cool if someday when we all get to heaven someone came up to you and said, “You don’t know me, but you invited my friend to church. She didn’t want to go alone so she asked me to go with her. It all began to make sense and I became a follower of Jesus! And if you hadn’t invited my friend to church, it may never have happened.” You never know how important an invitation can be.

4) You are the best missionary in your world.
In your circle of friends and acquaintances God can uniquely use you because you know the language, the culture, and he can use you to communicate His message just by being yourself. God custom-made you, and he threw away the mold. You don’t have to be someone else…they already exist. God wants to use you with your personality, your unique take on life, and your ability to reach people…so relax. Pray about it, go for it.

Here’s a question: What if I invite someone to church and then later I do or say something that is a little embarrassing or not exactly real “Christian”? What if the person I invited to church finds out that Christians have flaws, aren’t perfect, or sometimes don’t behave like Jesus?

Answer: No problem. First of all, by inviting someone to church you are simply saying, “Come check out something that means a lot to me.” Not, “Look at me, I’m perfect!” Secondly, even though we try to act like God sometimes, He’s the only one who’s perfect! The coolest thing a Christian can do if he makes a mistake in front of someone is…apologize. Own it. Admit it. That delivers a good message, “I’m trying, but I’m not there yet, I still need God’s help.” Humility is a good thing. Of course, the goal in the Christian life is not necessarily to achieve total perfection, we want to experience a real, authentic relationship with God, that is reflected in our love for others.

Remember, “The hope of the “world” is not on your shoulders, the hope of someone is.”

Invite someone to church, you might make a huge difference in their life.

Blessings,
Gerry Limpic