An eye-popping statistic

Here's an amazing statistic from Thom Rainer, president of Lifeway:

• 82 percent—the number of un-churched people who are receptive to attending church if invited and escorted by a friend.

• 21 percent—the number of church-going Christians who invited someone to church in 2006.

Frankly, I find this frustrating. We spend all this time and energy trying to figure out why most churches aren't growing, then we read a statistic like this: Only two out of ten churchgoers even invited one person to attend worship with them last year...and more than eight out of ten unchurched people might have given church a chance, heard the Gospel presented, if someone had only invited them! There are other great findings in the original article, which you can read here.

On the other hand, it's encouraging to know that perhaps the most effective thing we can do to help people come to Christ is also one of the easiest: Just invite them to church!