I've been thinking about what it means to invite someone to church this week. Partly because we've given out over 800 invites to our Christmas events and there have been some surprising responses.
Our default assumption is if I've given you an invite to something you are welcome at the event. However, what we've been finding is that invites through a door aren't enough, in fact they don't seem to be taken as saying that at all. Lots of people in the community have then messaged people in church to ask if they are "allowed to come". Do you see the unspoken assumption in that question - general invites aren't for everyone even if you give them to everyone. Whereas personally reassuring people that of course they are invited and not only are they allowed to come but that we'd love to see them works without question or confusion.
It makes me question again the value of flyering. It proves the value of real face to face contact in our invitations so people can see the invitation and welcome in our actions and faces that you can't see in a flyer posted through a letter box. A personal invite says I want you to come along. Does that mean next year we need to knock on doors with the invitation, maybe, its certainly something we need to think about?
At the time when we celebrate God's incarnation, his coming to us personally with the greatest invite of all, I'm glad he didn't just post an invite through my door. Perhaps its not so surprising that we need to invite people to celebrate the incarnation in the way God invited us, incarnate!
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