388. The Ministry of Invitation
When I was a youth I remember what helped me make the bold next step to join praise team was an invitation from a friend. They said, “hey, let’s join together.” That sparked my journey into praise team, and eventually I found myself leading praise for over five years. Who would have known? Looking back, that small invitation to join praise definitely changed the direction of my life for the better.
I’ve been very encouraged to see a culture of invitation happen among our youth and adults over the last several years regarding church-wide events like Daniel fast and 10 Day early morning prayer.
As we have ministry month approaching next month—I hope many of our adult members could leverage the power of invitation to invite our youth to serve in Sunday Team ministries. I want to encourage this for three reasons:
1. Simply by inviting someone, they feel seen and cared for.
The very act of inviting someone is a caring act. Invitation feels like acceptance. As adults we might wonder how we can care for our youth in an intergenerational congregation. One way is to encourage them to take next steps, through personal invitation. Even if they decline, they will appreciate the very fact that they were invited.
2. Inviting gives someone a gentle push in good directions.
Many youth are very capable and willing, but I believe it just takes a gentle invitation to help encourage them to take that next step. Joining a ministry can feel very overwhelming and nerve-racking, but personal invitation helps replace those feelings with courage. I was intimidated to join praise team as a youth, but through personal invitation it gave me the courage I needed to make the next step. And I’m glad I did.
3. Invitation creates a culture of more invitation
The more inviting our culture is the more members feel safe to invite each other. This can lead to a positive feedback loop where our one invite sparks a chain reaction of many other invites. The impact of our invitation might be greater than we think. We thought we were inviting one person, but if the one person we invited invites another, our invitation goes way beyond us.
Instead of waiting for youth to graduate, let’s foster invitational hearts this year. Make it your goal to invite one youth to join a ministry with you or an event. Imagine if each adult at the seed made it their mission to invite one youth to a ministry or an event. I think our church would look and feel very intergenerational indeed.
