categories: global church
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10 Reasons to Invite People to Follow Christ Every Week At Church
- Someone may be at church only once.
- The Holy Spirit may have been working on them for months or years.
- Even some churched people don’t understand the gospel.
- Many trust in the church for salvation instead of trusting Christ.
- Seeing others saved gives believers another reason to worship and motivation to witness.
- New Christians can “light a church on fire.”
- Angels in heaven get to party when one person meets Christ.
- Hell is a real place.
- You care deeply about people.
- Families, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities, and generations could be different when one person meets Christ.
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I think number 10 is my fav. I am a chain breaker in my family. Meaning that generations of divorce, alcoholism, physical and verbal abuse, and general disfunction have been broken in Jesus name as I received Christ at the age of 19. My kids enjoy a life that could only come through Jesus and the power of salvation. Our son is also pastoring like myself and our daughter is an on fire Bible college student. We would do well to print the list and carry it close to our hearts! Thanks Craig!
Craig: It is interesting that you should write this because it flies in the face of current trends. But I am glad to see it! To my shame, I have taken the “invitation time” sort of haphazardly until recently and have become more passionate with the offer of salvation. Thanks for reinforcing this “age old” practice that should have never become part of the endangered species list.
I like your choice of wording!
I think its important that we remember the invitation is following Christ, and not just going to church!
I had a conversation about this very thing just the other day. Someone I know in another state is looking for a church. They visited one that didn’t give people the opportunity to receive Christ in their service. This person wondered what I thought about that. I said the challenge for me was two-fold: one -would people invite their friends to church expecting there to be a moment when their friend can respond to the message and give their life to Jesus? two - if the people never see others asking Jesus into their life where else are they going to see a passion for evangelism modeled? I’m not a fan of every ‘form’ of a call to Christ but I wouldn’t lead a church without some clear and compelling challenge to give your life to Christ every week.
I’m with Lori…print this list out…my fav is #1…
Lori, Thanks for sharing part of your story! Congrats on being a chain breaker through Christ!
Bill, Glad to know it made a difference. It may go against some current trends, but I’m seeing a ton of people who are becoming passionate about evangelism!
Thanks, People of Thunder.
Scott, You raised some good points. Thanks.
When you tie the Gospel message into the day’s theme, that unique angle to presenting the Good News just might what helps people finally “get it.”
I used to be naive enough to think that most churches did this every week… over the years I realized that wasn’t the case.
Offering people the oppurtunity to follow Christ is the highlight of my weekend, every weekend!
Great list and thanks for leading our church in this manner!
That’s IT, Craig. As always praying… even more so now. I hear IT calling… gotta go write that post I warned my readers about now.
Craig, Trends are meant to be broken!
I am so glad to see this happening at Lifechurch.tv
I posted an article today on the loss of personal love in our churches and among pastors. My heart is hurting! God has used you to move me in the direction of relying more on Him to do the calling as long as I do the work of an evangelist! Thanks for the Word!
IF we are not doing this we are losing our focus for people. We create an environment where it’s only understandable to believers. We have this great gift, but we won’t share it.
I would say that every church in America has at least one person each week who doesn’t know Christ in a personal real way. To not share the gift of salavtion is greedy on our part.
We need to keep making Him famous and sharing His love, grace and mercy so many come to know Him.
Thanks Craig!
#11– By reciting different versions of these prayers (we say it all together) and hearing the explanation and lead-up to the call, I feel much more confident and equipped to lead others to Christ when I’m by myself. It’s like witnessing practice. I’ve heard others at LC.tv say this too.
Great Insight. Why would we ever want to take the freedom of accepting God in to ones heart away. So many times the name of Jesus is preached and there is not a chance for people to even understand how to receive it.
One thing that frustrates me is when people say “if it feels right we will have an altar call or invite people today to raise their hands today.” It just doesn’t seem like God ever shuts down for something like that.
Thanks Craig for your leadership and insight at leading people closer to God.
Hi Craig.
When Bobby came to Brisbane Australia he talked about how you guys go about doing this, and I really thought it was great.
I would be willing to do it, but have one question…
IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT SO MANY PEOPLE MISUNDERSTAND THE GOSPEL, HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE THAT THE GOSPEL PRESENTATION YOU PRESENT IS CLEAR WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE A COUPLE OF MINUTES?
When we call for a response, it is usually after an entire sermon on the gospel. or at the end of a 4 week series on the gospel. But my fear is that in presenting the gospel in 3 minutes at the end of the service, and then calling for response, that people may somehow believe that they are making a commitment to be a better person, or make Jesus a priority etc. Rather than trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross to save them.
This is a hard question to ask in such a short space, but my fear is that people could falsly think that they are saved, when all they did was promise to obey, make a commitment etc. Yet they still haven’t got their sin paid for.
Mark
Ps. Just written about how we have worked hard to make the gospel clear in our church: http://www.neoleader.org/node/745
I agree with Scott W. and Unfortunately weekly “invitations to know Christ” are EXTREMELY rare for churches and I have NEVER understood this. I have been to many differnt faith denomination services and 99% of the time they never talk about making a decision to have LIFE.
Most churches have quaterly or bi-yearly “revivals” or “alter calls” and to me it is like the “national sales meeting” syndrome…it becomes more of a production.
Craig why do you think this is the case and why are churches so afraid to have a weekly invitation? Is it reputation, fear, laziness or something else? To me it is confusing….
Just yesterday I challenged our people with this in the Morning Service. I challenged them to invite people every week and I promised that every week the gospel would be presented by whomever was in the pulpit on Sunday morning. No matter who it is that stands in our pulpit on a sunday morning we make it a requirment here is that the gospel is presented. We do not ask people to come forward but to fill out a form in the bulletin that eveyone fills out and they mark it that they made a decision for Christ. I then follow up with them.
Time is short, urgency is needed!
Eternal Perspective is a must….DAILY
John 9:4
Jenn asked, “Craig why do you think this is the case and why are churches so afraid to have a weekly invitation? Is it reputation, fear, laziness or something else? To me it is confusing…”
I wrote a post for tomorrow with reasons “not to invite people to follow Christ.” It may come off a bit sarcastic… I hope not.
At the first church I served at, we simply didn’t think about calling people to Christ. We (wrongly) believed that almost all people who came to church were Christians. Over time, our church became much more evangelistic.
More tomorrow.
Much to ponder here - thanks
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One great post Craig!
Always invite….Always leave the results to God.
I’ve preached messages when no one was saved, and I’ve preached messages I thought were sub par where many were saved.
I would question whether #8 of the “Reasons To” list belongs there. I would hate to be the one who led someone away from Christ rather than toward him.
Beliefs have consequences. Fear provides the wrong motivation for accepting Christ. Love is the key. I don’t believe it is in my god’s (Yahweh) character to torture people forever. I don’t believe he asks us to forgive and then rejects his own advice.
Hell was a pagan concept that predated Christianity and the gospel may have been corrupted by it. Can we please just set that disturbing little doctrine aside and show his love to the world?
I’m not a Pastor of a church, but I do teach a Women’s Bible Study at my mega church. We have about 20-30 women per week. I am going to print this off to remind me to invite people to Christ every week, especially as we embark on a 10 week study of “Acts.”
I know this sounds stupid, but how would you work an invitational into a weekly Bible study? We’re essentially a small church, and I plan on following the structure of Acts to teach the Gospel and encourage evangelism. But how do I bring this back to the Gospel every week and not to assume everyone there is saved.
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Thank you! Simple, to the point, refreshing to find someone of your postion so passionate about inviting people to become followers of Christ! I am a lead pastor and am grateful for your helps. Thank you again!
I am not from a tradition where we do alter calls. How do you invite people to come to Christ? What kind of approachable words do people use?
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