Why We Don't Invite

Tonight, our president will deliver his State of the Union Address. The Constitution of the United States mandates such an address in Article 2, Section 3:

“He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

A few weeks ago I delivered my annual State of the Church Address here at Grand. This is something I have done each year in my role as the lead pastor. The goal is very similar to the State of the Union Address to our nation, to provide information on how our church is doing and to make recommendations that I see as necessary and expedient for the future growth and health of the church.

This year at Grand we are focusing with laser-like intensity on developing a culture of “invite” among our friends and family, our co-workers and colleagues. We are calling this emphasis for 2011, My Jerusalem. Jesus said we should be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. We do a pretty good job with the national and global emphases at Grand but we can do better with the local emphasis, our Jerusalem.

In this vain, I wanted to get our people think about why “we” don’t invite others to church. By the way, I don’t think this is an issue isolated to my church, I think many, many churches fail when it comes to “invite.” There will be hundreds of churches that die this year in our country. There may be many reasons for their deaths but I can promise you that somewhere buried in the list will be a failure to invite.

Here is the list of reasons why we don’t invite:

1. Because that is what we pay the staff to do.

2. Because my church is embarrassing. This is the idea that I like my church for me but I don’t think my friends would like it.

3. Because we don’t care (apathy). If people go to hell. If people are blessed by God.

4. Because we are selfish. We don’t want new people because they will “mess” my church up.

5. Because we are afraid they will say “no.” The coward’s answer.

6. “I don’t want to go. So why would I invite anyone else?”

7. Because we just don’t think about it. We ASSUME the church will just grow.

What are others reasons that you can think of for why we don’t invite?