Therefore go…and invite all your friends to church?

Since when did “therefore go and make disciples of all nations” turn into, “go to all your friends and invite them to church.”  Now don’t get me wrong, inviting people to church is not a bad thing (I do it), nor is it bad that churches and ministries encourage people to invite their friends.  The problem is that when this becomes the focus and extent of our reaching out (which for many it is) then we’ve missed it.  Jesus never said to his disciples, go bring the lost into the temple so that they receive some good teaching and maybe be around good righteous people for a little bit.  No he told his disciples to, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give” (Matthew 10:8).  And he said therefore GO…(Matthew 28:19).  In other words what YOU receive (perhaps in church) YOU go out to the lost and give it to them.  I think a big reason we struggle with this is that we struggle with the issue of us actually telling someone about Christ, actually letting God use OUR hands to heal someone, or God speaking to US maybe by giving us a word of knowledge or a prophetic word.  If we can just bring someone to church then we don’t have to do anything, that’s what the pastor is for.  And while sometimes our role is to bring someone to church and have them be impacted by a service, a worship team, or a pastor, the fact remains that God wants to use us to reach the world in the world, not just in church. 

I bring this up because I hear this more and more often in churches at various meetings.  Invite your friends!  Sometimes I’m like no I don’t want to bring my friends here they’d be bored out of their minds (no offense to the church but sometimes we make God pretty boring, not sure how since he’s the most exciting being in the universe but somehow we do it).  Very rarely do I hear, now go out and heal the sick this week, ask someone if you can pray for them this week, try to get a prophetic word for someone and encourage them this week.  I think if we did a better job of encouraging and doing these things, then after they encounter God in the world, people will see that God is not contained to a building or a service, yet at the same time they will be more willing and desiring to come to our meetings.