AN INVITING CHURCH IS MADE BY INVITING PEOPLE

I once saw a book about man eating bugs.  I thought it was about giant mosquitoes sucking the blood out of us homosapiens.  Nope, it was about tribes that eat ants and beetles -- men who eat bugs!  So the title of this blog is like that.  It means that inviting churches are not made up of stinkers but rather winning kind of people, inviting people.  It also means that a friendly and inviting church doesn't come about by being really reserved and closed-mouthed but rather by being really overt in hospitality, by actually inviting others in. 

The truth is that a sign out front is good.  It invites, sort of.  Yellow pages are obsolete.  A newspaper ad can be okay.  But 75% of all people attend a church because of a personal invitation. 

Direct mail gets you a 1.5% response rate.  Send out a 100 cards in the mail and 1.5 people might come in response.  But personally inviting is so much more effective.  It has a 20% response rate.  Realistically, what that means is you may ask a person five times before they come.  It means that you may ask five people and one of the five comes.  But that's the way 70% come.  And it is way better than any other way.  It's also very Jesus-like.

Unless a church is in a high population growth corridor or moves its location to one, its members are going to need to invite.  You need to feel good about what you are inviting to, of course.  And Cocoa has a lot going for it.  If its members don't invite, the congregation shrinks and ages.  The mobility of the world is too much to think that our kids having babies is going to mean our church is here in the future.  They move away or go to other churches.  Or don't go at all.

Here's a general mathematical rule.  Congregations shrink by 10% a year due to transfer, death, or people becoming inactive.  Congregations generally net 10% of their visitors to become members.  So if you have 100 members, after a year you'll have 90.  If during the year you have 100 visitors and you try to win them to you, you'll keep ten.  If you don't try, good luck!  100 visitors over 52 weeks means you need about 2 first time, brand new visitors a week.  Or you shrink. 

Plain and simple, if a church is going to be here tomorrow, it needs to invite. 

Who wouldn't want to be a part of an inviting church?  One that loves people, shows a deliberate welcome, and loves people some more.  There's room here in our hearts.  There's room in God's heart. 

So YOU use a new sermon series, a pot luck, a mission activity .. as a chance to invite.  Invite your dentist, your neighbor, your bank teller, your mechanic, your golf buddy, you ... You invite.  Let's be an inviting church!

Turning Your Church Inside Out

I had my first session meeting last Sunday with the Cocoa active elders.  Boy, it was good.  One of the things that made it good, was not only their great attitudes and obvious hard work, but that I got to give out some books.  I love doing that. 

Question:  Why would a pastor have a dozen copies of a book?  Answer:  Because he thought it would be a good read for a session!  So as I unpacked my office I found a dozen copies of a book I hadn't gotten to use yet.  Guess what?  We're reading them as the Cocoa session!

Are you wondering what book that might be?  It is Walt Kallestad's Turn Your Church Inside Out.  Walt is a Lutheran pastor out in Phoenix.  His words stir excitement in me as he gets us to look beyond ourselves (getting eyes off of self is almost always an excellent idea).  Walt doesn't tell about this but a Native American tribe in the northwest illustrates this books theme very well.  When we gather in a circle and hold hands to pray we face inward.  They when they pray hold hands in a circle facing out. 

I have two more two more copies of this book.  If you go to Cocoa and want your cocoa stirred, and you are the first two to say to me, "I'll read that book if you give it to me," then my spare copies are your! 

Warming My Cocoa

Two Sundays into a new ministry at Cocoa.  It seems like the last two weeks has been boxes, boxes, and more boxes.  I moved from one house to another and at the same time unpacked into a new office.  One question keeps coming up.  "Where did I get all this stuff??"  I'm not a candidate for the tv show about hoarders but still.  I look at Queen Latifah's CD Travelin Light and think to myself, "Amen." 


Moving does have me thankful though.  I find myself paring down.  I find myself pondering how much I can do without.  I find myself needing to, and actually being, more flexible.  And patient. 


I bet there are a lot of us who are in some kind of transition -- between jobs, life stages, changing relationships with friends or partners.  Cocoa Pres is in transition too.  Whether it is our personal lives or our church life, I really do hope for all of us that there is a way for thankfulness and good changes to peek through.  May it be so.


Peace.