A repeated theme flows from my preaching and teaching: the importance of inviting guests to worship.
A few years ago, Christianity Today and Pew Research suggested that approximately 80% of people who are personally invited to church by a friend will say “yes.” That is remarkable. Yet, despite those encouraging odds, we still struggle to become a truly church-inviting culture. Too often, we assume people are disinterested, too busy, or simply uninterested in what happens inside a church building.
But perhaps we need to think more deeply about what we are inviting people to experience.
One way to do that is to examine the biblical story of the Temple.
From Solomon through the time of Jesus, the Temple stood at the center of Jewish worship. It was a place of sacrifice, prayer, gathering, and the visible reminder of God’s presence among His people. Even the early church continued to gather in the Temple courts (Acts 2:46).
Yet the Temple’s story was not without tragedy. This magnificent structure was repeatedly tainted by corruption, conflict, and political power. It was destroyed, rebuilt, and eventually destroyed again. Jesus Himself foretold the Temple’s destruction, and in AD 70, the Romans burned it to the ground.
But something remarkable happens in the New Testament. The language of “temple” begins to take on a new and deeply personal meaning.
Paul writes to the believers in Corinth: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6: 19, NIV)
The presence of God was no longer associated primarily with a particular building or location. God’s Spirit now dwelled in His people everywhere.
What an extraordinary shift.
The Temple was no longer simply somewhere you went. God’s temple was someone you carried.
And that should change the way we think about inviting people to worship.
When we invite someone to worship, we want them to walk through the doors of a beautiful building. We want them to experience uplifting praise, biblical preaching, genuine hospitality, and a welcoming environment. But more than anything, we want them to encounter the living God through His people.
I am still a strong advocate for inviting guests to worship at the local gathered church. And no, I am not suggesting that churches should sell their buildings or liquidate their physical properties because believers are “temples of the Holy Spirit.”
I am simply suggesting that when we invite someone to worship, we should want them to witness temples more than walking into a temple.
We want them to see people who are guided by the Holy Spirit. People who are strengthened by the Holy Spirit. People who are comforted by the Holy Spirit. People whose marriages, families, friendships, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and everyday lives demonstrate what it looks like for God to dwell within His people.
A guest can walk into the nicest, newest church building in town, but a building cannot love them. A building cannot pray for them. A building cannot listen to their story. A building cannot forgive them. A building cannot show them what a life transformed by Jesus looks like. People can.
The building may be where they enter, but the people are what they remember.
So, let’s keep inviting. Invite your neighbor. Invite your coworker. Invite your friend. Invite a person who hasn’t been to church in years. Invite the person who thinks God is finished with them. Invite the person who is searching for hope.
Invite them into the building, yes. But, even more importantly, invite them into the presence of God manifested in His people.
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