The spiritual practice of invitation. part 1
My next couple of posts will explore the simple act of extending an invitation. I'm convinced that invitation is a spiritual practice with enormous missional potential.
Today’s post explores the remarkable potency of invitation. Next month, I’ll look at the surprising number of things church leaders need to get right before the people in the pews begin to seriously consider offering an invitation to their mates. The post after that will address the question, “To what should we be inviting people?”
At the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, here is a definition: Invitation is an act of hospitality. It is articulating that our friend, family member, or colleague would be welcome at a particular event or activity. Invitation becomes a spiritual practice when we prayerfully invite unchurched people into some form of Christian community.
In this post, I’ll be asserting that Jesus demonstrated invitation; that invitation is the best marketing tool imaginable; (which is because) invitation leverages the trust that exists within a relationship.
Jesus demonstrated invitation
In John chapter 1, verse 35, we are with John the Baptist and two of his disciples. Jesus walks past; John makes a comment about Jesus being the Messiah, and the two disciples begin to follow Jesus. As in, like, literally following Jesus. Jesus turns around turns around and asks them what they want. Fair enough. “Where are you staying, Rabbi?” they ask (v38). To which he replies, “Come and see for yourself” (v39). And they do.
This seemingly awkward encounter is, in fact, the very beginning of the Christian church. There was a moment when the global body of Christ consisted of two lurkers. And it begins with an invitation from Jesus.
The next day, Jesus comes across Phillip and asks him to follow (v.43). Phillip tells his mate Nathaniel that Jesus is the real deal, to which Nathaniel retorts, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (46). Phillip’s reply is stunning: “Come and see.” This is almost word for word what Jesus said to the two men eight verses earlier.
A lot could be said from these verses. When it comes to invitations, though, two things are super clear. One, Jesus extended invitations. And two, from the very start, his disciples followed suit.
2. Invitation is the best promotional tool imaginable
All marketers know that invitation, in marketing speak, ‘word-of-mouth promotion’ is the most potent form of advertising that exists. A little Googling gave me the following stats:
92% of consumers believe their friends and family over any kind of advertising
55% of customers learn about products through word of mouth. 40% made purchases based on those recommendations. 28% would rather use word of mouth than any other form of discovery
It just makes sense that we would trust the people we know’s recommendations more than the million voices and suggestions to get from TV and the internet.
Charles Arn’s research into new church service promotion reckons that a personal invitation from one person to another (face-to-face or on the phone) had a 10-25% positive response rate. That meant that between one and ten and one and four people who were invited actually came to the new service.
In contrast, a public announcement (using either a newspaper ad, a radio or TV spot, posters, or a telemarketing campaign) had a less than .25- 2% positive response rate. Arn comments
“Suppose your goal is 100 people at your first new service. If you put all your eggs in the personal invitation basket, your strategy would be to extend the invitations to 400 to 1000 personal invitations… If, however, you were to focus entirely on public advertising… your strategy would be to contact 5000 to 40,000 people through public announcement.”
The potency of invitation, in contrast with other forms of promotion, doesn't stop there. Arn claims
There will be a significantly higher visitor return rate among those who attend the new service because of the invitation of a friend
People invited by a friend are more likely to invite a friend of their own
You will see fewer dropouts among those who originally began attending because of a personal invitation
Invitations are much more cost-effective critical means of reaching your critical mass
Personal invitations evolve existing members in the outreach process and help them grow in their spiritual lives
If there was any doubt left in Arn’s promotional preferences, he finishes the chapter, “Personal invitation… is cheaper than public announcements, it is less risky, it has a higher response rate, it involves more members, creates greater ownership, and results and a higher percentage of returning visitors.”
3. Invitations work because they leverage the trust present in relationships
Invitations to church-related activities work for the same reason that other forms of ‘word of mouth promotion’ work: we trust our friends and family.
When a friend recommends a book, movie, or holiday destination, we tend to take these suggestions seriously. We take them ‘on trust’. This is true even when our friends' tastes differ from our own. When Auntie Flo raves about her most recent cheap thriller or cruise through the Pacific, we are able to separate preferences from trust. While we might not straight away Google ‘P&O,’ we don’t doubt that Flo’s recommendation comes from a place of sincerity.
Of course, the same can’t be said for the company promoting the book, movie, or destination. In fact, the opposite is true; we don’t take them ‘on trust.’ We have learned to be skeptical of such advertising.
In this post, I’ve been arguing that invitation is a remarkably potent act. Jesus modeled it; marketers know all about it, and it works because we trust our friends and family (even if our preferences differ).
If this is all true, you might wonder why our churches don’t usually generate a lot of invitational activity. If it's so potent, why aren’t we seeing it happen? Good question. Next month, we’ll examine what we need to do right in order for the people in the pews to take invitation seriously.
Sources: Expository thoughts of the Gospels: John vol 1, J.C. Ryle; https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/how-online-word-of-mouth-marketing-is-changing; How to start a new service: Your church can reach new people, Charles Arn; Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, Thom Rainer;