We've decided to quit being a welcoming church. No kidding. We're giving it up.

Like so many congregations, we've sunk an astonishing amount of time and energy into becoming a welcoming church. We changed worship styles, trained greeters and ushers, wore proper name tags, brewed coffee, went to workshops on hospitality and put our friendliest people in the most prominent places on Sunday mornings.

My congregation realized that we had been misplacing our emphasis. Welcoming, from a missional perspective, is passive. It denotes waiting for visitors and guests to driblet by.

Inviting is different. Inviting is agile. Beingness an inviting church means that we go out the comfort of Sunday morning worship and seek out our neighbors. Existence an inviting church starts with who God has called us to exist as church and mandates joining God at work in the earth.

Each congregation has a purpose inside God's mission. Each has detail gifts. No congregation is everything to everyone. But every congregation is something to someone. Who tin can know God through your worship style? Who tin can experience forgiveness and grace through your congregational customs? Who needs the gifts y'all have to offer? Who can offering gifts you lot demand?

Only when nosotros are centered in this purpose can we get an inviting church. What does this look like in activeness? Something similar this ….

While in conversation over the backyard fence, you invite a neighbour who is in pain after losing a loved one to your congregation's grief support grouping.

When in the lunchroom chatting most the pressures of work, yous invite a co-worker to your Bible report.

While waiting for your kids to get out of schoolhouse, y'all talk with a friend well-nigh the struggles of parenting and invite their family to your congregation's upcoming family picnic.

Existence an inviting congregation involves sharing God'due south specific gifts—fabricated real in your congregation—with people exterior the walls of the church building. Possibly y'all already practise this, or maybe you need this push to step exterior your comfort zone.

Information technology tin be terrifying to step exterior comfort zones and found a blueprint of inviting friends to attend worship. What if he laughs at me or thinks less of me? What if she labels me as a narrow-minded, judgmental, hypocritical Bible-thumper? Or what if they actually come up? So what?

Being invitational seems too big, likewise audacious, likewise frightening, so we but don't exercise information technology. How most breaking it downwardly into bite-size chunks that people actually can practise?

Here are a few exercises my congregation has tried. See if something like this works for you.

CHALLENGE 1

"Just go two blocks past my church and you'll run across the grocery shop."

Try using the phrase "my church" in a conversation with one person each week. Information technology'due south as simple as talking with just one person i fourth dimension each calendar week during the month.

CHALLENGE 2

"School violence? My church building is hosting a forum about that adjacent month."
Consider ane word or phrase that describes your congregation well, and so apply that word to finish the phrase: "My church is _____."  Endeavour doing this in conversation with i person per week during the month. When yous start looking for opportunities to bring up your congregation in conversation, it'south astonishing how oftentimes they arise.


Challenge iii

"My church building is actually skilful at music."
Think well-nigh one thing your congregation does very well. Possibly it'south children's ministry, pedagogy, music, social activism or making the parking lot available for ride-sharing. Utilize that to stop the phrase: "My church is really good at _____." Over again, try this one time per calendar week with one person in a conversation. Past now you might be getting the hang of this.


Challenge 4

"Check out my church's volunteer day at the food pantry."
Invite one person to bank check out something in which your congregation is involved. This should be done in appropriate conversations when an opening naturally presents itself—information technology should not feel forced or manipulated. By now, hopefully this feels more comfortable and y'all are more attuned to ways to bring church into your everyday conversations.


Challenge 5

"Would you lot like to join me at church this Sun?"
Invite someone you know to come to worship with yous.
This seems to be the nearly frightening invitation for many to make. Remember, the footing of our identity every bit people of God is our new life given to usa in Jesus Christ. When nosotros quit pushing that on others and but be that through caring relationships, we reveal the dearest of God. And who knows? The neighbor you invited to church might just reveal something about God that y'all didn't know before.

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