From my earliest days inviting people to church was understood. It was a way of life and it was as assumed as breathing. Inviting people to church was the way we did everything. When my dad planted a church we did door to door canvassing inviting people to come to our new church. It was the same for VBS, Sunday School campaigns, Easter to Pentecost attendance contests, youth rallies, and the bus ministry. I can vividly remember the ‘fill your pew’ campaign, invitation to concerts, and revivals. Growing up in the ministry in the 1960’s and 70’s this was the ministry form I lived and learned.
Toward the end of the 70’s and in the 80’s the Seeker Sensitive and Seeker Driven models of Church Growth did much the same thing, but on a grander and more sophisticated scale. While the methods were more hip and cool, (drama trumps a “Be one of the bunch” paper banana campaign) the principle was the same. Non-believers were invited to come to a church building to hear the Gospel or at least the advantages of being a Christian. While this marked a new phase in the American church, the difference was purely stylistic, not substantive. Church planters no longer went door to door and placed display ads in the local newspaper. They developed demographically targeted, multi-item, direct mail campaigns. Outreach is about getting people to come to the building, be it a cool mens’ “Beast Feast” with a speaker, or Mrs. Thundermuffin’s Sunday School class. Slice it anyway you like, the principle remains the same, invite people to come to a church building.
While I am not opposed in principle to the invitation, we may need to rethink things. I am planning some invitations for Christians who are either disconnected from a church or new in town. I do not doubt the value of the invitation to the church building and service. However, I think there are several reasons to reconsider this model that has not fundamentally changed in living memory.
Here are several that hover near the top of my consciousness:
The internet: Suppose you make contact with a spiritually-seeking person. They decide to investigate Christianity. They can get up, get dressed, go to a strange place, meet strange people and run the risk and anxiety associated with going to church for the first time. Or they can open up their laptop and while sitting in their pajamas choose from tens of thousands of highly polished and entertaining preachers.
Covid: Like it or not covid-19 has had a profound impact on the likelihood of non-believers going to church. Perhaps it is a genuine concern over the risk of infection or maybe it's just a convenient excuse. But the fact of the matter is, sitting in a confined space for an hour and a half with strangers in close proximity who may be infected tends to discourage visiting church for the first time.
It's Not Biblical: Nowhere in the New Testament do we find where unbelievers are directed to go to church. Nor do we find anywhere in the New Testament a command for Christians to invite people to go to a church building or event. While church buildings and invitations are not specifically anti-biblical or anti-christian they are clearly extra-biblical; they might be helpful or they might not be. As with any pragmatic tool the measurement needs to be its end usefulness and effectiveness.
Effectiveness: That brings us to the final point. How are we doing? It would appear that we are getting a smaller and smaller return on our investment. So much so, that some Churches don't even try to invite people anymore, having given up any hope. Other churches are doing the same old thing and growing more discouraged with such small returns. In a post-Christian, internet-connected, secular mindset culture the invitation to come to an event at a church building is not unlike an invitation to learn how to program your VCR.
What did the early church do? Perhaps the way forward is the way back.
No comments:
Post a Comment