Editor’s note: This article was initially written by Tony Morgan. Tony passed away in 2024, leaving behind a legacy of thought leadership, innovation, and a deep commitment to helping churches thrive. We continue to share his work in his honor.
The church plan for outreach used to be all about the invite. Everyone went to church whether they wanted to or not. It was a cultural expectation. All you had to do was invite someone, and there was a very good chance if your church had the right denominational sign on the building that whoever you invited would show up and get connected to the church. The invite worked; and then it didn’t.
The church plan for outreach used to be all about invest and invite.
Going to church was no longer a cultural expectation. We still had relationships from our workplace, neighborhood, social circles and families though. We learned that outreach was highly relational. We were challenged to invest and invite. If we invested in a relationship, eventually there would be enough trust established to invite our friend to church. At that point, the church would take over. All we had to do was get them to church where our friends would hear the Gospel message, get plugged into a small group and start serving. The invest and invite strategy worked…and then it didn’t.
The problem with the invest and invite strategy is that we expect “the church” to be responsible for discipleship. We, of course, forget that we are the church. And, I think we forget that when Jesus said “go and make disciples of all the nations,” this wasn’t direction for an institution — this was intended to be the mission for every Christ-follower. That’s you and me.
For too long, we’ve abdicated our responsibility for discipleship.
