Are All Your Friends in Church, Leaving No One to Invite?

By Deborah Bruce

In a fascinating talk at a new church development conference, I recently heard church planter, Dan Kimball, comment that the number of non-Christian people that worshipers hang out with decreases the longer they have been Christians. He suggests the trend might look like this:

Kimball said that this phenomena influences how likely people are to invite others to church. If you don’t know many non-Christians, who would you invite?

Friends at church. The U.S. Congregational Life Survey asked about friends and acquaintances who also attend the congregation. Compared to long-time members, more worshipers who are new to their congregation say they have little contact outside of worship with others who attend there. But as the years pass, this changes. Worshipers get to know one another and build strong bonds with other worshipers. Very few of the people attending a church for more than 20 years say they have no contact with other worshipers.

All my friends are here. Dan Kimball’s argument would suggest that worshipers attending a church for many years would have few friends outside the church. We found that long-term worshipers have more friends in the church. But even among worshipers attending their church for more than 20 years, most have at least some friends outside their church.

Inviting. Finally, let’s test Kimball’s theory that having most of your friends at your church decreases inviting. In fact—no! People with more friends at church are more likely to have invited someone to worship there than others. Worshipers invite others to share in the connections they enjoy and the caring relationships worshipers provide for one another.

Implications. We can’t directly answer the question about the types of people Christians come in contact with, so Dan Kimball might be right on that account. But these findings point to the positive impact of having friendships within the congregation. Not only do those friends provide the love and care that we all need, they also appear to strengthen bonds to the church. And people who are connected to their church are more likely to invite others to come experience the same.

Learn more about church planter, Dan Kimball.

 

Comments

[Maried invite]

Actually many of my friends are in atheism process, which is badly enough if it wasn`t a Jewish state.

[Uggs Boots]

Kimball might be right on that account. But these findings point to the positive impact of having friendships within the congregation. Not only do those friends provide the love and care that we all need, they also appear to strengthen bonds to the church. And people who are connected to their church are more likely to invite others to come experience