Becoming Invitational the Scientific Method
After the seminars some people say “we’ll see if it works”. What they may be really saying is that they don’t yet believ in the method of invitation. Why don’t we take the Scientific method approach to Invitation. What is the Scientific Method? Ask a Question, do background research, construct a hypothesis, test the hypothesis by doing an experiment, analyze your data and draw a conclusion, and then communicate your results
All scientists know that not every aspect will work first time in a lab so maybe we as the church should think how it should be done in theory then do the experiment then anaylse the results then improve the method by tweaking the method rectify where it has gone wrong. I have found some different ways churches have tweaked their invitational experiment around the world, here are some ideas below
Church leader setting a vision of invitation
Church leader modelling the vision by inviting someone
Church leader personally asking each church member to invite
A whole service dedicated to talking to the congregation about invitation (length of time of the subject shows the importance)
Get people to put name of person to invite on paper in the service
Congregational member to tell someone close to them who you they will invite
After they have done the service promoting invitation the church leader sends out a personal note asking the question who will invite?
A day or two before the Invitation Sunday the church leader writes again saying I am praying for us all that God will give many of us someone to invite (This is about reinforcement without pressure)