I'm convinced that invitation is a spiritual practice with enormous missional potential.
At the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, here is a definition: Invitation is an act of hospitality. It is articulating that our friend, family member, or colleague would be welcome at a particular event or activity.
In this article, I’ll be asserting that Jesus demonstrated invitation, that invitation is the best marketing tool imaginable, and that invitation leverages the trust that exists within a relationship.
In John chapter 1, we are with John the Baptist and two of his disciples. Jesus walks past, John makes a comment about Jesus being the Messiah, and the two disciples begin to follow Jesus. As in, like, literally following Jesus. Jesus turns around turns around and asks them what they want. Fair enough. “Where are you staying, Rabbi?” they ask. To which he replies, “Come and see for yourself”. And they do.
This seemingly awkward encounter is, in fact, the very beginning of the Christian church.
The next day, Jesus comes across Phillip and asks him to follow. Phillip tells his mate Nathaniel that Jesus is the real deal, to which Nathaniel retorts, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Phillip’s reply is stunning: “Come and see.”
This is almost word for word what Jesus said to the two men eight verses earlier.
A lot could be said from these verses. When it comes to invitations, though, two things are super clear. One, Jesus extended invitations. And two, from the very start, his disciples followed suit.
All marketers know that invitation – in marketing speak, “word-of-mouth promotion” – is the most potent form of advertising that exists. A little googling gave me the following stats:
It just makes sense that we would trust the people we know’s recommendations more than the million voices and suggestions to get from TV and the internet.
Charles Arn’s research into new church service promotion reckons that a personal invitation from one person to another (face-to-face or on the phone) had a 10-25% positive response rate.3 That meant that between one and ten and one and four people who were invited actually came to the new service.
In contrast, a public announcement (using either a newspaper ad, a radio or TV spot, posters, or a telemarketing campaign) had a less than 0.25- 2% positive response rate. Arn comments:
Suppose your goal is 100 people at your first new service. If you put all your eggs in the personal invitation basket, your strategy would be to extend the invitations to 400 to 1,000 personal invitations … If, however, you were to focus entirely on public advertising … your strategy would be to contact 5,000 to 40,000 people through public announcement.
The potency of invitation, in contrast with other forms of promotion, doesn't stop there.
Arn claims the following:
If there was any doubt left in Arn’s promotional preferences, he finishes the chapter saying:
Personal invitation … is cheaper than public announcements, it is less risky, it has a higher response rate, it involves more members, creates greater ownership, and results and a higher percentage of returning visitors.
Invitations to church-related activities work for the same reason that other forms of “word-of-mouth promotion” work: we trust our friends and family.
When a friend recommends a book, movie, or holiday destination, we tend to take these suggestions seriously. We take them “on trust”. This is true even when our friends' tastes differ from our own. When Auntie Flo raves about her most recent cheap thriller or cruise through the Pacific, we are able to separate preferences from trust. While we might not straight away Google “P&O”, we don’t doubt that Flo’s recommendation comes from a place of sincerity.
Of course, the same can’t be said for the company promoting the book, movie, or destination. In fact, the opposite is true: we don’t take them “on trust”. We have learned to be skeptical of such advertising.
Jesus modelled it, marketers know all about it, and it works because we trust our friends and family – even if our preferences differ.
1"Beyond martech: building trust with consumers and engaging where sentiment is high", Nielsen.com.
2"2021-Q3: The (Un)Expected Report", RRD.com.
3Charles Arn, How to Start a New Service: Your Church Can Reach New People, 1997.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, vol. 1, 2012.
Kayla Carmichael, "Word of Mouth Marketing: What It Is and How to Make It Work", Hubspot.com.
Thom Rainer, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them, 2001.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
I'm convinced that invitation is a spiritual practice with enormous missional potential.
At the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, here is a definition: Invitation is an act of hospitality. It is articulating that our friend, family member, or colleague would be welcome at a particular event or activity.
In this article, I’ll be asserting that Jesus demonstrated invitation, that invitation is the best marketing tool imaginable, and that invitation leverages the trust that exists within a relationship.
In John chapter 1, we are with John the Baptist and two of his disciples. Jesus walks past, John makes a comment about Jesus being the Messiah, and the two disciples begin to follow Jesus. As in, like, literally following Jesus. Jesus turns around turns around and asks them what they want. Fair enough. “Where are you staying, Rabbi?” they ask. To which he replies, “Come and see for yourself”. And they do.
This seemingly awkward encounter is, in fact, the very beginning of the Christian church.
The next day, Jesus comes across Phillip and asks him to follow. Phillip tells his mate Nathaniel that Jesus is the real deal, to which Nathaniel retorts, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Phillip’s reply is stunning: “Come and see.”
This is almost word for word what Jesus said to the two men eight verses earlier.
A lot could be said from these verses. When it comes to invitations, though, two things are super clear. One, Jesus extended invitations. And two, from the very start, his disciples followed suit.
All marketers know that invitation – in marketing speak, “word-of-mouth promotion” – is the most potent form of advertising that exists. A little googling gave me the following stats:
It just makes sense that we would trust the people we know’s recommendations more than the million voices and suggestions to get from TV and the internet.
Charles Arn’s research into new church service promotion reckons that a personal invitation from one person to another (face-to-face or on the phone) had a 10-25% positive response rate.3 That meant that between one and ten and one and four people who were invited actually came to the new service.
In contrast, a public announcement (using either a newspaper ad, a radio or TV spot, posters, or a telemarketing campaign) had a less than 0.25- 2% positive response rate. Arn comments:
Suppose your goal is 100 people at your first new service. If you put all your eggs in the personal invitation basket, your strategy would be to extend the invitations to 400 to 1,000 personal invitations … If, however, you were to focus entirely on public advertising … your strategy would be to contact 5,000 to 40,000 people through public announcement.
The potency of invitation, in contrast with other forms of promotion, doesn't stop there.
Arn claims the following:
If there was any doubt left in Arn’s promotional preferences, he finishes the chapter saying:
Personal invitation … is cheaper than public announcements, it is less risky, it has a higher response rate, it involves more members, creates greater ownership, and results and a higher percentage of returning visitors.
Invitations to church-related activities work for the same reason that other forms of “word-of-mouth promotion” work: we trust our friends and family.
When a friend recommends a book, movie, or holiday destination, we tend to take these suggestions seriously. We take them “on trust”. This is true even when our friends' tastes differ from our own. When Auntie Flo raves about her most recent cheap thriller or cruise through the Pacific, we are able to separate preferences from trust. While we might not straight away Google “P&O”, we don’t doubt that Flo’s recommendation comes from a place of sincerity.
Of course, the same can’t be said for the company promoting the book, movie, or destination. In fact, the opposite is true: we don’t take them “on trust”. We have learned to be skeptical of such advertising.
Jesus modelled it, marketers know all about it, and it works because we trust our friends and family – even if our preferences differ.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
