Three Things You Can Do to Inspire Invitation
It’s Party Time
Imagine yourself hosting a big party. Before getting to the main event, you carefully think through who you will invite, what will inspire them to come, what will make it fun. Perhaps you style the invitation, or plan ahead for beautiful food. Maybe you will have live music or at least a good playlist. In all of these moments, you are seeking to put yourself in the shoes of the guest and think through what will make it a good experience. Yes, you are the host – what you wear matters, how you feel matters, YOU matter… but when those things are settled, it is easy to turn your energy and excitement toward your guests.
Creating an Invitational Culture
Similarly, when we think about what it looks like to grow and heal as a community, one important word comes to mind: Invitation. The Imago Dei process starts with building up the identity of the individual, but intentionally does not stop there: being confident in yourself gives you the confidence to also turn your focus outward. Instead of asking “where do I fit” or “who am I” you are able to turn toward others-centered thinking and consider “where do others fit”, “what are your gifts and talents”, or even “who could be at this table that we have not yet invited. Invitation is the beginning of belonging. The beautiful thing is that invitation is not a one-time thing, it can be that first ask to come and join, but it can also be a continual invitation deeper “in” to the family, the team, the leadership, etc.
But is it really my job to invite others? Shouldn’t they just come?
It’s natural to surround yourself with people who share similarities, whether it's food or culture, beliefs, or even artistic expression with the clothing or music you like best. YET this is where we experience the greatest opportunity for faith based churches – because true UNITY cannot exist within UNIFORMITY. Uniformity means people are changing themselves to become like one another, but UNITY inherently means that we are finding common ground in the midst of some beautiful differences. Right now, the church, especially in the United States has the opportunity (and very felt need) to manifest this true unity. It is not in spite of our differences, but in light of the beauty of our differences.
Three Ways to Inspire Invitation
But how? We have been on our own discovery process of what “works” or what produces the real fruit we hope to see. Since this can look different for every community, I’d like to offer something like a guide to inspire you on your invitation journey. Here are three things you can do to inspire invitation.
Get to Know your Community To be specific, I mean your broader, local community. This is beyond your friends and family, maybe even beyond your work or church community – for many, those spaces tend to look like, sound like or be like you. But a wide range of diverse people and characteristics may be much closer than you think. One way to get beyond that is to conduct demographic research of your city, you can also think about it anecdotally by thinking of who you may see in your local community center, library, public school, etc. Yes, we mean the obvious: racial or ethnic communities that may differ from yours –this is an important starting point, but to honor our first principle of “Identity” we will always be careful to allow people to be multi-dimensional. Maybe you will consider age demographics, socioeconomic differences, religious background, marital or family status, mental health, etc. (for more ideas to understand the Dimensions of Diversity, visit our website).
Get creative with how you invite.
Oftentimes we think that sending an email or sharing a flier is enough, but there are so many options out there! We have seen people get more creative with QR codes, links to follow or using social media. Yet, research shows that relational invites are still the most effective. Different outlets will reach different communities, and that is the beauty of it! QR codes may reach one community, but word-of-mouth may be better for another. Our encouragement is to use multiple, especially if you feel like God has highlighted a community that you can be more intentional towards.
This means personal invites to an event or service, relational recruiting for a position you need to hire (for example, reaching out to someone in a community that is different than yours to say “we are looking to fill this important position, I trust you, please let me know if you know anyone who may be a good fit). I appreciate this because it gives so much opportunity to demonstrate care, intentionality with how you invite others.
Design a good time! As you can imagine, our challenge at this point in the “invitation process” is to plan an experience that is good for those you’ve invited. Back to the opening story of planning a big party, when you know your audience, it is easier to plan food, music and activities that will be truly engaging. Hint: if you are planning an event for a community, you have had less interaction with, it is a game-changer to get support from someone who truly knows what you do not. The goal is to make it feel like the experience is not only for them, but by them. The more your planning team reflects the community you want to serve, the more authentically you can do this. If your team lacks representation, here are a few ideas to get you started: phone a friend, reach out to deacons or small group leaders, or start humble and reach out to a community leader to admit that you need help.
Invitation is the Beginning of Belonging
To close, I want to echo an earlier point: invitation is the beginning of belonging. We are so grateful you are here reading and considering “who can I reach out to” and “how can I reach them in a meaningful way”. As always, we suggest praying about this, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you to individuals and/or communities that you can invite more deeply in. Trust us… or test it out and see the fruit. When you start to activate principles like these, it is truly amazing to see the difference it will make!
