Effective Cell Leadership 8- Inviting People

Cells don't just grow themselves.

People will not come to your group unless you open the way for them to come.

There are two key steps in this.

Firstly, run regular social or outreach events so that people can invite their friends to something less formal and meet other members of the group. It is a lot easier to say "yes" to an invitation when you know who is coming and if you have some kind of friendship with them.

Secondly, someone actually has to say the words "Would you like to come to my group and discover more about Jesus?" That's the scary step which we find very difficult.

Someone has described this as a numbers game, which is some senses is true. If you invite 0 people then 0 will come. If you invite many people, some may come.

I think that this needs to be led by the Holy Spirit. We need to pray for people to be open to the gospel and open to joining our group. It takes regular prayer, and frequent prayer. It takes faith also to hear the Holy Spirit and then to take the bold step of issuing an invitation when God says "Go."

Having a Prayer List or a "Blessing List" of people whom we are planning to invite is another important strategy. As the group prays regularly for specific people, then the chance of them responding positively increases.

Inviting people to join the group is a task for all members, and we need to develop a habit of looking out for people to bring into the group.