Have you ever felt hesitant to invite a friend to church? Asking someone to join you can be awkward. And that feeling can be even more real when it’s someone you don’t know well. It feels this way sometimes, which is weird, because church means a lot. It’s where we know friends and find community. Church is full of people who have walked with us through good times and bad times, and who offer support and guidance when needed. And we want all of that for other people, but we find ourselves rarely reaching out because of the risk that it will feel awkward.

We all want our church family to participate in the important Kingdom work of inviting people to church and sharing the love of Jesus with them. But, this doesn’t always happen automatically — it takes intentional effort.

For most people it’s easier to welcome people to church once they arrive, rather than going out of our way to invite people. This is understandable — these days, it can feel pretty intimidating to directly invite people to church. You might need a little extra encouragement to take a bold step and extend a personal invitation to someone, so we have a few tips to help get you ready.

1. Ask. A personal invitation is perhaps the best way to invite someone to church because there’s an existing connection for the invitee. People will typically feel much more comfortable attending a new church when they already know someone there. It can help take away the anxiety of having to navigate around on their own, or the fear of sitting by themselves. Plus, when they visit church because of a personal invitation from someone they know, they already have a point person to answer any questions they may have (and someone to soothe any worries or concerns).
2. Who. Consider who you can seek out in your existing circle of friends and family. It might be a neighbor, coworker, cousin.
3. Have courage. Working up the courage to extend a personal invitation is tough but worth it in the end.

You can do this! Now all you need to do is invite someone. You can do that the old fashioned way and physically knock on someone’s door. You can also use social media or technology to make it a little less intimidating. You can do this by sharing posts from the church, or tagging the church in your own posts. This will help your online friends associate you with St. Andrew’s. You never know what kind of digital connection will help give someone the courage to seek out a community of believers.

And texting hits the low intimidation scale too. You can text an invite. What’s the worst you’ll get? Crickets? Just remember, nobody’s nerfect.