We all know that overall church attendance in America is in decline.  We see it.  We feel it. There are a number of reasons that people give for not attending church, but I heard a bit of statistics the other day which I found interesting.  Of those people who previously attended a weekly worship service but are currently not attending a weekly worship service, a whopping 51% said that they would return to church if someone personally invited them.  Stated another way, more than half of people who used to attend church would come back, if someone would just ask them to come.

The source for this was a podcast which I heard, and they went on to tell personal stories about friends, neighbors, and family members who returned to church after a personal invitation.  One such person said that he wasn’t sure if he would be welcome back in a church after his divorce.  Another said that she had become lazy and just needed encouragement from someone to come back to church.  Imagine that – people who actually want to come to church, they just need a little assurance from you.  They just want to hear that someone actually cares about them.

This is terrific news! It seems to indicate that God may be providing a spiritual harvest for us, if we will simply be faithful to engage others for the sake of the gospel – or in other words, be obedient.  Of course, attending church is not the same as salvation, and we do not want to confuse church attendance with saving faith. However, inviting people to church may very well be a key component which God uses for bringing a person to a saving faith.

I say all of this to encourage you.  Sharing the gospel can be difficult and intimidating.  But inviting someone to church is easy.  I encourage you to start inviting everyone you come into contact with to visit Lakewood.  Your invitation may be just the thing they were waiting for.

Blessings, 

Pastor Bruce