{"id":31900,"date":"2022-09-10T15:48:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/6-qualities-of-a-healthy-church-that-motivate-people-to-invite-others\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:48:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:48:26","slug":"6-qualities-of-a-healthy-church-that-motivate-people-to-invite-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/6-qualities-of-a-healthy-church-that-motivate-people-to-invite-others\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Qualities of a Healthy Church That Motivate People to Invite Others"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Joy Allmond<\/em><\/p>\n

What kind of church culture is necessary to reach those on the outside?<\/p>\n

On a recent Rainer on Leadership podcast of the Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network, Rainer discussed six qualities of a healthy church culture that can spur a congregation to invite the unchurched people in their lives to a worship service.<\/p>\n

1. Invitations are natural and desired.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

People can sense when there\u2019s a lack of enthusiasm and genuine joy. And if a church\u2019s congregation\u2014whether it\u2019s the people in the pews, the door greeters, parking lot attendants, or welcome desk workers\u2014aren\u2019t projecting a natural posture of welcoming, this could deter church members from inviting others.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s a joyous spirit among the first people guests encounter at a church, its members will want to share that experience with unchurched people in their community.<\/p>\n

While the posture of the congregation is key to promoting personal invitations to church, Rainer says invitation tools, such as an invitation card with details, can better empower congregation members to invite friends and neighbors to attend church with them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019ll be much more likely to do it,\u201d he adds. \u201cA tool like a card to hand them can make it feel more natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. First time guests become inviters. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Mary Beth is a member of the church Rainer attends. At the time of her first visit, she had recently relocated with her family and was seeking a new church home.<\/p>\n

Even after her first visit, Rainer says, \u201cShe loved the atmosphere and started inviting people.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a healthy congregation is in place, Rainer says people like Mary Beth come and sense the healthy culture. They then, in turn, start inviting others, because they want them to experience the church culture for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m not talking about a specific worship style or aesthetics,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have a cool, hip, contemporary worship style.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. The welcome team loves their ministry. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cA welcome team is a worthless team if it\u2019s not a joyous team,\u201d says Rainer. \u201cAnd when a team is joyous, it means it\u2019s genuine. If you have a healthy culture, your welcoming team will truly<\/em> be welcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will break out of their holy huddles \u2026 and welcome people genuinely.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. The pastor is naturally inclined to encourage invitations to the church. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

While it\u2019s helpful to provide information cards and other tools for a congregation to use when inviting others to church, Rainer says a crucial ingredient to a culture of invitation is a pastor who encourages people to bring their unchurched neighbors to worship with them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe [the pastor] loves the church and loves the people,\u201d says Rainer. \u201cAnd he reminds them that harvest is plentiful and workers are few.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s one thing to talk about inviting others to church\u2014and another thing to actually do it. Rainer explains it\u2019s important for a pastor to lead by example.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the pastor is naturally inclined to [invite others], it will be contagious,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

5. The worship spirit is strong.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Rainer is cautious to point out the difference between worship style and worship spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a sense because there\u2019s so much joy in the church\u2014a healthy culture\u2014you bring it into corporate worship,\u201d Rainer says.<\/p>\n

Rainer points out worship isn\u2019t the sum of the music and preaching\u2014it\u2019s a reflection of the heart of the people. And when a congregation senses this kind of worship spirit, they\u2019ll be more inclined to invite guests to church.<\/p>\n

6. Energy and time are expended on the things that really matter. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A healthy church is outwardly focused, Rainer says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means you\u2019re focusing on something other than yourself,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means it\u2019s gospel-centered. When those things begin to happen, a church will spend energy and time on things that really matter\u2014like reaching people, helping people, [and providing] gospel-centered messages and ministry in the community. All these things are a result of a healthy church culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rainer says the outcome of these outward-focused activities is often more people are inclined to extend invitations to church.<\/p>\n

Church size doesn\u2019t equal health.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to Rainer, two-thirds of all churches have an attendance of 150 or fewer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means there are a lot of small churches,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be in a small church, but the opportunities are really out there. There\u2019s a lot of hope for the small church. Leaders of these churches should understand your church can have a healthy culture which leads to the congregation inviting people to church\u2014which can lead to inviting others to Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

JOY ALLMOND (@joyallmond)<\/strong> is managing editor of<\/em> Facts & Trends.<\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Becoming a Welcoming Church<\/h2>\n

Thom S. Rainer<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community 5 Signs a Pastor Is Emotionally Unhealthy <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash By Joy Allmond What kind of church culture is necessary to reach those on the outside? On a recent Rainer on Leadership podcast of the Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network, Rainer discussed six qualities of a healthy church culture that can spur a congregation to invite the unchurched people in … Continue reading “6 Qualities of a Healthy Church That Motivate People to Invite Others”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}