Dillon Schupp
One of the things I’ve learned more over the years is that it truly is a greater blessing when we GIVE than when we RECEIVE. There are few things that bring greater joy to my heart at Christmas than when I can genuinely surprise my wife with a Christmas present. Her joy makes me happy!
For followers of Jesus,  all of us have a gift to GIVE at Christmas (and all throughout the year)- the gift we’ve been given through Jesus. What He has given to us we are commanded to give to others (see Matthew 28:18-20). We are called to give other people the opportunity someone gave us: to hear and respond to the Gospel. And I can tell you from experience that there is no other feeling in the world like seeing someone YOU initiated a conversation with or invited to church responding to the Gospel. That NEVER gets old!!!
Christmas-time is one of the most practical times we can give that gift to others, and one of the simplest ways to do this is by inviting someone to our Christmas Experiences. We are going to have a great evening, it will be a ton of fun, but most importantly, we are going to share the Good News of Jesus and give people a chance to accept the gift of salvation He offers. If you’ve never invited someone to church or you have been thinking about inviting someone, NOW is the time to do so, and here’s why:
#1- We are commanded to help others follow Jesus.
In Matthew 28,  Jesus commanded His disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” The first step in that is simply giving people a chance to respond to the Gospel- which requires that they hear it. Inviting someone to our Christmas Experience means that if they attend, they will absolutely get an opportunity to not only hear the Gospel- but respond to it.
#2- An invitation IS evangelism.
There’s sometimes much (unnecessary) debate about whether inviting someone to church constitutes evangelism. But consider what we see take place in John 1:43-46:

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

Don’t miss what happened here: Jesus found Philip and commanded Philip to follow him. The next thing Philip did was to go to his friend Nathanael and- when faced with skepticism- simply invited him to come to the place Jesus was so he could meet Jesus.

“Come and see” is the essence of an invitation to church as long as the Gospel is presented and people have a chance to respond. You won’t always have the answers (in fact, there are many times we will not have the answers), but you can always say “I am not sure how to answer that, but you just need to ‘come and see’ for yourself this weekend.”

An invitation to a church gathering is evangelism, and consider this:

#3- A significant number of people in your life are waiting for you to ask! 

According to a LifeWay Research study from earlier this decade, roughly 67% of Americans ” say a personal invitation from a family member would be very or somewhat effective in getting them to visit a church.”

Not only that, “63% of Americans say a personal invitation from a friend or neighbor would be very or somewhat effective in getting them to visit a church.”

That’s nearly 2/3 of Americans who say that if someone invited them to church, they would be open…or even VERY open to saying “yes”! 

One of the biggest mistakes we can often make is assuming people will say no. But that ignores what Jesus said in Matthew 9:37; He said the harvest was plentiful! There are far more people than we realize who have a need they may not even know how to explain, and they are seeking something to meet that need. What they are seeking, though they don’t realize it, is not a “what” but a “who”- they are seeking Jesus, and we often hold the key to giving them the chance to meet him.

But too often we say “no” for them by never extending an invitation.

Let’s give them the opportunity- and multiple opportunities, in fact- to say “Yes”!

#4- People far from God are more likely to attend church at Christmas than any other time of the year. 

Thom Rainer makes that point in this article. More than Easter or any other time, people that do not typically go to  church are more likely to go at Christmas. That makes this time the PERFECT time to invite someone who has not yet attended.

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So, who’s the person or people in your life that you know needs the gift of salvation? God has put them in your life for this very reason- that you could give them the opportunity to follow Jesus, and one of the ways we can do that is by inviting them to church. Let’s be bold and do so, and believe if we do that, we’ll see Jesus do what only He can do- save souls and change lives!