A troubling thought

when i was a kid in high school, i lived two lives.  one was my church life. the other was everything else.

don’t take this the wrong way.  i was pretty much the same guy in both places.  i didn’t live some kind of horrible hooligan lifestyle away from church.  i was still me in both places.  i was a nice, likable guy wherever i went.

it’s just that those two worlds didn’t overlap.  i had a set of friends and acquaintances at church…and a whole other group elsewhere.

and the thing is, i didn’t want them to overlap.  i didn’t want my friends at school and on my teams and in my neighborhood to see my church world.  too weird.  too much to explain.  too dysfunctional.

me inviting my non-church friends to walk into my church world,  would have been like you inviting friends to come to your family christmas dinner at aunt mabel’s house.

they would have to meet uncle eddie.  they would have to walk through a house of chaos…and eat your grandmother’s fruit cake.  they would see your mom and her sisters telling secret jokes in the kitchen.  they would have to listen to your father snoring in the recliner and your cousins fighting over the new toys.  and we’re not even going to bring up hector, your aunt eunice’s new boyfriend…

way too much to explain.  some things are just better off remaining in the family.  and honestly, that’s pretty much how i felt about inviting my friends to church.  i worked really hard to build and maintain a reputation of normal with my friends and neighbors.  i wasn’t about to risk what little cool i had managed to earn in their eyes, by showing them my closet.

you may think i’m shallow, but that’s the way it was for me back in those days.  i wonder if it’s not much different for most church people these days?

here are a couple of facts that should blow you away if you care about people:

according to a recent study, 73% of people who don’t attend church have never been invited.

better yet, 82% of people say they would probably go to a church with a friend,  if they were invited.

worse yet, only 2% of regular church goers are actively inviting friends to join them at their church.

so what do you think?  are you inviting?  if you are, what kind of people are you inviting?  the hurt and disillusioned and needy and broken…or are you inviting people who already attend somewhere else?

if you are not inviting, why not?  i mean…this is a serious question that deserves some dialogue.  i’m really interested in your response…

#church #evangelism #invitation #pastor