Invitation

July 16, 2025

A recent Lifeway Research study found some fascinating (and, some might argue, troubling) trends both in the broader Protestant church and more specifically in the Methodist church. Over half of unchurched people said they would attend church if asked by a friend, according to this study, but only about 20% of U.S. Protestant churchgoers have actually invited 3 or more people to church in the last six months. According to this study, there are a variety of reasons for this, from not knowing anyone to invite to being uncomfortable doing so to not believing it is their responsibility to invite others. Within these statistics, the numbers for those who identify as Methodist are concerning. Lifeway found that 28% of Methodists surveyed said they do not feel comfortable inviting others to church—that was the highest percentage of any denomination surveyed! Perhaps more concerning was this: of those most likely to say they don’t think it’s up to them to bring people to church, the largest group (23% of the group) identified as Methodists.

Here at Leeds First Methodist, we have just finished up a sermon series on the necessity of living life together and how we go about doing it. We will now turn our attention to how we go about inviting others into this life we're living in the Lord. 

Following the basic framework of Shane Bishop's book, That's Good News, in the coming weeks we're going to be doing a deep dive into this, in a sermon series I'm calling Invitation. I'm convicted, as a Methodist, about how as a faith group we have gotten so far away from the zeal we once had for introducing people to Christ, and I'm convinced of both the biblical insistence upon sharing the Good News and the desperate need for Christ's church to reclaim an invitational way of life.  

I want to personally invite you to join us this summer as we explore what it means for us to be an invitational people.