Image: Matthias Ripp | Flickr

Here’s a sincere question for my fellow pastors and other church leaders.

What if the members of our churches started sharing their faith, but it wasn’t in a way that brought more people to our specific church? Would we celebrate and encourage that?

If not, we may not be as much about kingdom growth as we think we are.

As people use social media to make new relationships and keep in touch with friends who have moved away, more aspects of our lives are happening without regard to geography. From crying with a friend going through a divorce, to celebrating the joy of childbirth, many of our most intimate moments are being lived through Facebook Live, Skype and FaceTime.

More people who share their faith are doing it online, too. Which means that the friends and family members they’re sharing it with are becoming less likely to be able to attend church together.

This has great potential for our church’s participation in kingdom growth, even if it doesn’t always result in the numerical growth of our local congregation.

Following Jesus To Another Church

In the western church world, we have become so used to tethering evangelism to our church’s programming and attendance that we can forget they're not the same thing.

What if the following conversation was a normal event in our churches?

“Hey pastor, thanks for encouraging me to share my faith! I actually led someone to Jesus this week!”

“That’s so great! Will they be coming to church with you on Sunday?”

“No. They live in another town.” Or even, “no, they used to attend a church down the street and they’ll be going back there this Sunday.”

What if a church was teaching and practicing evangelism in such a way that people shared their faith in Jesus at work, in their neighborhoods, with their families and online, not only as part of a church program, but as a natural outgrowth of their faith?

We must always remember that, while church attendance is a vital element in our spiritual growth, church attendance isn’t the goal of evangelism. Following Jesus is the goal – even if it means they attend a different church than ours.

Making Disciples Comes First

It’s great when a church member invites an unchurched friend or family member to come to church with them. Personal invitation is something our congregation is emphasizing right now, with wonderful results.

And even when an invitation is made that’s not directly attached to a church event, it’s normal for them to go to church together. After all, when a believer leads someone to become a follower of Jesus, it’s usually because they have a close relationship with each other. As long as they ive nearby, that is.

But we need to be just as happy when someone comes to Jesus and attends another good church as we are when they attend ours.

After all, we’re called to make disciples, not congregation members.

Plus, when we always tie conversion to our congregation’s events and programs it can sound and feel more like a sales pitch than a sincere desire for that person’s salvation.

People need to know we’re concerned about them more than our church’s bottom line. The kingdom of God is always bigger than our little corner of it.

“Come to church with me” is a great invitation. “Follow Jesus with me” is a better one.

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