How to become an Inviter

Do you find it hard to invite your friends and family to church? Do you cringe at the thought of talking to people at work about your faith?

Marie Aitken, Head of Alpha England North and Midlands and Spring Harvest superfan is here to share some helpful tips on how to sharpen your inviter skills. She also talks about the power of personal testimony and how it can help you to become a great inviter.

I have never been good at keeping a guest list small. Birthday parties are always at maximum capacity, my wedding (although the sheer expense helped to curb that particular one) was packed, even Saturday BBQs with friends.

If my home isn’t bursting at the seams, there is always an ache that someone I love is missing. I enjoy sharing my life with others. To share experiences, memories and laughter with the people that bring me joy.

Friends become family and family become, well, less annoying when you choose to hang out with them outside of required occasions.

I believe and see this modelled throughout New Testament scripture, that we were created to live life in community. The Church, the body of believers, gathering around tables and in temples and like the early church, on the road, on the lookout to invite others to join us.

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Becoming an inviter doesn’t require a special set of skills. It is not a spiritual gift, it does not rely on you being a certain personality type, it simply is a mindset you choose to live out. You choose to include others. You choose to extend an invitation or withhold one. If where you are going is full of joy, life giving, dare I say life changing, what’s stopping you from inviting those you love to experience that to?

We see this at Alpha all the time. The best inviters are those who are also bringers. They don’t just share the opportunity to attend an Alpha, they go as well.

We know invitations aren’t always successful. You cannot guarantee an outcome. You can only be intentional with your choice to live out your life as someone who says “come and see.” 

One of my most recent favourite stories from an Alpha course leader in England has to be this one:

“One of the team had invited one of his colleagues to Alpha. They had been having deep conversations about life’s meaning and faith. He ended up coming to Alpha and on the first night when we ask ‘How did you end up coming to this Alpha?’ he simply replied, ‘I was just ready to give my life to Jesus’ and he did, there and then with the team. Since, he has served on every single Alpha that the church has run.”

This story for me encompasses everything about living a life open to others to join in. The inviter was sharing about his faith in the workplace. He was having conversations with colleagues, sharing his story and listening to theirs. He was already going to Alpha so knew he would be there to welcome those he invited, and when someone came from his workplace, Jesus had already been at work on his heart and he gave his life to Christ on the first night.

One thing that puts most people off sharing their faith or inviting others to Alpha is the anxiety they won’t have all the answers, but as you see here, you aren’t expected to.

In fact research Alpha have conducted along with several other partners, surveyed non-Christians who knew a practising Christian and have had a conversation with them about their faith. The top two responses they provided when remembering their conversations were:

1. They asked me what I believe
2. They shared a personal story about their faith

(Talking Jesus 2022 report, Page 28) 

The same principal of becoming an inviter applies to Spring Harvest. You are already coming in 2023, hopefully (if not it’s time to book in.) You know it’s a place full of joy, life giving, and dare I say life changing.

You don’t have to have all the answers, just share your experience, and simply say “come and see” and leave it up to Jesus to work on their hearts in the lead up. 

What’s stopping you from inviting those you love experiencing this too? Invite them into community. Invite them to sit around your table at Spring Harvest and experience ‘the temple’ as we gather together each day to worship collectively.

Why not invite your friends, family or small group to come with you to Spring Harvest 2023