December 15th, 2009 
Jojo Agot 
Why don’t you invite people to church?
Most pastors would say this is because people are not very passionate about their relationship with God. I disagree. Why? Read on and see if you can agree with me.
Few years ago, I got these messages from college friends:
Jojo, don’t get me wrong but I’m just curious, why
didn’t you invite me to church when we were in
college? (text message from a college classmate)
…you only asked me if I was okay.
We never really talked about spiritual things.
I would have loved to talk about those kind of stuff…
(translated Friendster testimonial, Nov. 9, 2005)
Of course I was surprised at these messages but when I really thought about it, I came up with five LAME reasons why I didn’t invite them.
1. Our praise and worship was more of a cacophony than music. We had terrible sound system and very loud drums. What will my friends think?
2. My pastor might preach about money and the problems of the congregation. And he usually preaches at least an hour!
3. We didn’t have a nice church building. My friends might think I’m not cool because I go to that kind of church.
4. Someone in the congregation might suddenly cry and speak in tongues (we are Pentecostals). That might freak my friends out.
You see, I think I’m good at blaming other people why I failed to invite friends to church. I guess it’s just harder to admit I was the culprit. So how about you, what are your LAME excuses for not inviting people to church?
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Disclaimer: This was almost a decade ago. No harm intended to my former pastor.
Disclosure: I ended up pastoring that church for four wonderful years. I’ve had my fair share of terrible music and long, embarrassing sermons too.
Note: This entry is part of the Blog Carnival organized by Peter Pollock and Bridget Chumbley. To read more posts on the subject on CHURCH, click here.
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They came in droves this morning. A group of people representing a certain religious organization roamed around the neighborhood to distribute pamphlets and invitations for a big religious gathering this December. Unashamed, undaunted by the weird reactions of the onlookers, these people politely knocked on doors to issue out their invitations. You can’t help but be very nice to them because they are extremely polite and friendly.
