Power Of The Invitation

I serve at a church that is a little less than two years old, and we have a 79% connection rate in groups. We also have less than 100 people attending on the weekend. I wanted to write this article geared more towards that smaller church leader. Whenever I talk with a new group leader I always tell them to not rely on the sign-ups that we do in the lobby. There are several reasons why those may or may not be accurate. Our church is not in a place right now to do any large scale connection events. Those are great, and I am praying we will be there one day. Here are the three things I tell my new leaders:

1. It is all about relationships. When we start new groups, I am not asking my leaders to give up the friends they have. If they have two or three friends that are interested in joining them in their group, I am fine with that. I only ask that two of three things happen for it to be considered a group. Spend time in Worship, Spend time in the Word or Spend time in Prayer.

2. It is all about a personal invitation. I do not want new group leaders to think that I will fill the group for them. I will do what I can, and point people towards their group that fit, but I want my leaders to assume the responsibility. I have found, even with groups my wife and I have led, there is nothing more powerful than personally inviting someone to join you.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Screen Shot 2017-04-04 at 10.54.52 AM

 

Are you a member of our Facebook Group? Benefits include connecting with other small group ministry leaders world-wide, sharing ideas, asking questions and receiving insightful resources! To join this amazing community, click HERE

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

3. It is all about the open chair. I encourage my groups to continue the mindset of personal invitation even after the group begins meeting. We should always be looking for that person that crosses our path that made need what we have to offer. I was serving at Passion 2017 in January in Atlanta when I was talking with another leader that was walking through a difficult family situation. A situation similar to what I had been through. We were able to talk and just relate with one another. This only opens when we are open and paying attention to what is around us.

So, as we close, I just want to encourage you to continue making relationships, inviting people you know, and looking for those that you don’t know, but who need what you have. Some of my greatest times in ministry have come when I least expected too.

Author

Have a question or an insight? Leave it below!

Upcoming Events

Feb 2025

Feb 18-20: The LOBBY Gathering SoCal
Learn More

Related

Follow Us

Sign up for our Newsletter

Daniel Thomas

Connections Director

423-534-9321

daniel@smallgroupnetwork.com

Daniel serves as Executive Pastor at Community Church of Mountain City, TN.  Daniel and his family are on a mission to establish roots within their community, fight for peace and serve well.  He serves as our Connections Director in laying the groundwork for Circles. He loves great coffee and traveling with his wife Tia and two children, Deklan and Aden

ACCELERATE! Hawaii

Pricing: 

Individual Registration – $209.00

Team of 2 Registration (price per person) – $199.00

Team of 3 or more Registration (price per person) – $189.00

*Registration ends on Nov 8th, 2021. Walk-in registrations are not available.