You want to start running Alpha. You are ready to open your home as a place to do mission. But you're stuck on one question—who can I invite if all my friends are from my parish?
Often when we decide to do an evangelization program, we invite members of our church. It’s where our friends are and where we spend our time. But what about all the people outside our parish? How do we proclaim Jesus to a group of people who we don’t interact with?
It’s easy to discount the people we briefly interact with in our everyday. The people in our in-between moments; the ones we regularly cross paths with but maybe don’t seek out.
Here are some ideas of people you could invite:
Colleagues and coworkers
Neighbours down the street
Siblings, cousins, and relatives
Parents you see when picking the kids up from school
Regulars you see at the gym, community centre, etc.
Members of your sports team
Staff at your local coffee shop
Friends on Facebook
People you’ve fallen out of touch with and have been meaning to reconnect with
People in a similar state of life to you (eg. young moms; law students; entrepreneurs; etc)
The vast majority of these people never get that invitation to even discover God.
Of course, it’s scary to invite people who you don’t know well. What if they say no? What if it’s awkward at times? But evangelization is an exercise of faith. It’s about being willing to step out and be vulnerable so someone else gets the chance to meet Christ.
One of the best ways to ease that fear is making the invite as natural as possible for you.
Some find it easier to invite people when they have a physical invitation, taking away the pressure to “make a perfect pitch”.
Others just need a more concise and simple statement like, “Hey, I’m running this program for people who want to have discussions about faith from a Christian perspective. I was wondering if you might like to come join us? It’s on Tuesdays and dinner is provided.”
Once we try it a few times, and begin to look for new opportunities, invitation actually becomes kind of fun.
Which of these places or people resonate with you? Who would you make your first invitation to as you gear up for your Alpha or Discovery series?
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into this topic of invitation, there is a fantastic new small group series created by Alpha Canada called Life.Shared. You can also jump right in and register below to host an Alpha.
