You have a great group. Your Bible study experience is stretching and enjoyable. Relationships are healthy. Why not invite worship guests to share your group experience?
Worship guests have already expressed interest in your church. They tend to be more open to invitations related to your church. Since most guests were invited by someone, worship guests tend to have prior relationships. This is true whether the guest connected in-person or online. So why not invite them?
How to Invite
There are many ways to invite worship guests to your group. There are 3 ways that are essential:
- Consistently. Develop a system to discover and pursue every worship guest that fits your group (gender, age group, affinity, etc.).
- Persistently. Develop a system to invite guests on an ongoing basis after they were in worship. In other words, one invitation will rarely be enough.
- Caringly. Focus on care. Ask questions. Listen. Look for opportunities to mobilize care for a need. Contact because you care!
Methods to Invite Worship Guests
Ideas here can be as varied as churches, people, and groups. Suggestions that follow are for post-pandemic (adapt for the current reality).
- Ask for the names and contact information of registered worship guests who fit your group.
- Develop a balanced strategy for contacting worship guests: mail, electronic, phone, and visits.
- Enlist someone in your group to take the lead in assigning group members to make contacts with worship guests.
- Train group members in how to connect with worship guests caringly, including praying together.
- Plan group events (meals, fellowships, and projects) frequently and invite worship guests to join you. Some of these could even take place immediately after the group meets and/or worship.
- Prepare a group welcome for guests with prime seats, ensuring no embarrassment (don’t force them to introduce themselves, read aloud, or answer questions). Instead introduce them to the class, and allow them to participate when they want.
- Discover and connect guests with members sharing affinities.
- Always listen for and seek opportunities to share Christ and His love.
- Continue to contact and invite because you care, even if they never come to the group.
Don’t be selfish with your great group experience. Invite worship guests to share it. Talk about lessons, meals, fellowships, projects, and relationships on social media. And be persistent in your care. Make disciples. Be revolutionary.
Photo by Max Andrey on Unsplash
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