A few weeks ago I was on Glasgow University campus with a team from Glasgow Vineyard inviting students to participate in the student worldview survey. I came across a student who said she didn’t know anything about Jesus and church, however she said she had many Christian friends but they’d never told her why they're Christians. I then asked her, ‘would you like them to tell you why?’ She replied ‘of course but I don’t think they want to tell me about Jesus. It’s a personal thing, right?’. We both left that conversation feeling challenged. She felt challenged to go and ask her friends about why they are Christians and I left feeling challenged about how to help the student generation in our churches with the confidence to invite!
On the flip side, a student joined the Cardiff CU’s coffee crawl in freshers week. She said she’d never had a Christian friend and the reason she’d joined the coffee crawl was to meet some Christians and find out more about their faith. Since then, she’s regularly been to church and CU events and is hungry to learn more and more about Jesus and make Christian friends.
Isn’t it interesting that we often already say our friends' NO for them and assume they don’t want to know anything about our faith? We often set so many barriers for ourselves that make us stop inviting our pals or even strangers to church and tell them about why we’ve chosen Jesus to be our Friend, our Lord and our Saviour. People are searching and hungry. They thirst for purpose, for hope and for believing that there’s something greater and more than what the world offers us. And trust me, the best thing you can do for your friends and the best gift you could ever give them, is possibly introducing them to your friend, Jesus. He is good news for you and I, and everyone else.
What barriers hold you back from inviting your friends to church? What stops you from telling them why you’re a Christian? Your friends are more hungry and open than you think. Take courage and invite them - it might be the best risk you’ve ever taken that would change their lives.
