Beyond Sunday
Beyond Sunday is a podcast where we dive into what our Church is up to, what's happening in society, go deeper into topics from Sunday mornings, and hear leadership talks and coffee break theology from Pastor Greg Griffith. This is a podcast of King of Kings Church in Omaha & Fremont, Nebraska. Learn more at kingofkings.org.
Beyond Sunday
Multisite Update: Invitation on Both Sides
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In the final episode of the multisite podcast, Peter Baye and Kate Solberg discuss the importance of inviting to both campuses. We've seen each campus grow in recent months, and that's because of your invitations! Hear how impactful these invitations have been and learn some new ways to invite people to church.
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The Power of Personal Invitations
Speaker 1Hey there , king and Kings family , welcome into another episode of the King and Kings multi-site podcast . Sadly for now at least , the last episode of the multi-site podcast we've launched another campus and we did it and it's thriving and it's living . And here to talk about it with me are campus director Peter Bay and associate campus director Kate Solberg . Welcome guys , thank you for having us . So it's it's crazy to think the reason that we started this podcast , where 18 episodes in this podcast is over a year old , the reason that we started it was to kind of talk about , you know , to get the word out about our Northwest Campus podcast and talk about just the different aspects that were required to get a campus off the ground .
Speaker 1When we started that podcast we didn't have a location , we didn't have a staff , we didn't have a Kate . Yet I mean , it has been a long time coming and now you look at where we are and we've got a thriving second campus . That is several months in and it's growing . You guys baptized people for the first time a couple of weeks ago . That was super exciting , I know it's . It's been such a whirlwind and there's been so , so much that you guys have had to do . But have you had a chance to just kind of step back and be like wow , like thinking back to the beginning of all this ? We , we did it . It's here .
Speaker 2Yeah , so with the first , first podcast did I have my role already ?
Speaker 1Probably you . You were in your role . You were not on that first podcast , it was just me and Julie , but yes , you had been assigned as a campus director .
Speaker 2Yeah , and so it's wild to think that in the summer of 2021 is when I was coming up with names to invite people to be on the core team .
Speaker 3Wow .
Speaker 2The summer of 2021 and we launched in the fall of 2023 . And we met with that core team for the entire 21 , 22 , no , it was 22 , 23 year , but it's just , it's been a long time coming . There was so much preparation and the team we were just talking about it yesterday . We're only two months into this and it feels like we've been doing this for a year now . It's kind of kind of wild . But to answer the question , yes , but I've had to be intentional to do it . I don't think I would have done it if not for other people being like asking that question of have you just sat back and realized what God has done which has caused me to do that , and then be marveled and grateful and then all of God's faithfulness . But it's been busy and challenging and wonderful and , yeah , it wasn't my natural inclination to just sit back and marvel . I needed help .
Speaker 3Yeah , this past Sunday I feel like for the first time I was like everything's running smoothly , for this moment at least , and it was a great feeling . It was great . So , yeah , reason to celebrate .
Speaker 1It's almost like a great feeling and an eerie feeling . It's like , wait , is everything just working ? I should be doing some , I should be putting out a fire somewhere , but there are no fires .
Speaker 1This is kind of nice . Everything's working like it should Okay . So specifically in today's episode , I want to talk about inviting and the power of the invite , which is something that we touched on briefly in a previous episode . But I think we can dive a little bit deeper today , especially because now we have two campuses to be inviting to . So I want to start with just kind of looking at the opening of the Northwest campus . I mean we did a lot of promotion , we sent out flyers , we had signs , we put out social media posts . I mean we were shouting it from the rooftops that there's a new campus opening and this is going to be really exciting and really fun . But I think more impactful than all of those things is just the personal invite . What is the power of the personal invite ?
Speaker 3I would agree . There's nothing else that compares to it , because it's rooted in your relationship with another person and someone who knows you to some degree , and to invite someone takes courage , but also I feel like you're obeying God's command . He tells us in his word to let your light shine , and I feel like that's what we're trying to do at Northwest . We're trying to be a place that shows love to our community , but also were encouraging the people there to think about who they interact with daily , who they have relationships with , who they know doesn't have a church home , and to invite them not once , but possibly multiple times , in love genuinely , and also to be transparent why it's an important part of their life .
Speaker 2Yeah , there's a lot of ways to invite , as you mentioned , and I think each of them had their place . Oh sure , I mean we had people who came simply because they got the postcard . I had a young man to reach out and contacted me and we met for coffee and he talked about some of his church challenges and because of the postcard and the events that we had , those were really great at just getting all kinds of folks who didn't have any connection with King of Kings to come and hear our name and those are great . Now , if those are our primary tool for invitation , they're not going to be as effective because , just what you said , they're not rooted in relationship . So they're worth doing .
Speaker 2But the best way to invite someone , whether it's to serve to coach , to a conversation , to whatever it is , is through relationships and personal invitation . So we've absolutely seen that you said . Sometimes it's more than one . Actually , statistics say seven times Seven invites before someone shows up for the first time , and for a lot of folks it doesn't take seven , but for some they never will . So that's how the number seven gets there , and so inviting to all different types of things , but yeah , the biggest one is like I have a friend . We've been friends for a long time and I think this would be really awesome for them . I invite them and they actually know oh , you care about me , we're friends , we've done life together , so this invitation has higher value .
Speaker 1How have you seen invites grow the Northwest campus even in such a short amount of time ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean we've been really blessed . Our core and our launch team have been really courageous to invite , because that's the biggest thing is kids carrying an invitational spirit . And then , as we get older , we get beaten down by life .
Speaker 2We go through tough things and we start to realize that the people around us are also going through tough things and don't necessarily care as much as we thought they did when we were kids about us , and that's really bleak , right . The kids are kind of like hey , you want to come to my thing ? Like , I get invited to kids birthday party . Hey , you want to come to my birthday party ? It's like what's your birthday ? And it's like like six months away . You know , kids just love inviting .
Speaker 2I worked in kids ministry , that's why , so don't be weirded out Whereas you get older and you're just like do they really want to come ? And so it's a prayer to be courageous that what we're inviting them into is something bigger than our own agenda . It's something that is ordained by God and where the Holy Spirit is like we can trust that it's doing work . And so having the courage has been huge , and we've seen that by our core team . I'm just so encouraged when I hear a core team members say I've been talking to my neighbor , I've invited them to come , I think they're going to come to church , and then when they actually come and we celebrate that well , then it can kind of build on itself a bit too .
Speaker 1Peter , something I know that you wanted to talk about coming into this podcast was yeah , obviously we have to invite people to the Northwest campus . It's brand new . We're trying to grow it If we want to grow it . Yeah , we got to tell people about it , but we got to invite people to I street too , and that's something that we've always encouraged . But now you see that a little bit more , because there are a lot of people who used to attend I street who are now at Northwest . There are extra seats available on a Sunday now , so that added importance is there . How important is it for not only our new people at Northwest , but also the people who have been coming to I street for , whether it's six months or 20 years ? They got to be on the invite trail too .
Speaker 2Right , well , I mean , how important is eternal salvation ?
Speaker 1That's fairly important , fairly important .
Inviting Others to Church
Speaker 2So I think here's what happened to me in month one of having a multi site is I got caught up . And who was coming on this particular Sunday ? How many seats did we have open ? Did we feel full ? Did we feel empty ? And that in a lot of those things were outside my control , and so I got caught up in the roller coaster of the week to week number game .
Speaker 2And when we think about things that way like , oh well , there's just a lot more open seats and that makes me sad , well , yeah , but what is in our control ? And let's think of the why behind it first , like what God did through his son , jesus , and what Jesus did through his death and resurrection is brought us back to the father and the Holy Spirit is working faith and we trust that . And so this is the best news that anyone can ever have . That's a great . Why to invite someone ?
Speaker 2And then focus less on oh , there's a lot of open seats and more on what if I invite one ? Invite one , and we all can have a role in that . So then it's less about like , oh , our church feels different because my friends went to a different campus , and more of like but who can I invite to be part of this , because we all have circles of influence around us and our neighborhood , at our jobs and our groups . There are people who don't have Christ in their lives and so invite one . And if we all were building relationships and inviting one , tom Tom , we're all going to have a role in it and we're going to see a difference .
Speaker 1So you just addressed something that I want to talk about , peter , and in some cases it might seem obvious and in some cases Maybe not so obvious . So to spark some thought like who are people in our lives , in our circles of influence , that we can and should be thinking about inviting ?
Speaker 3If you're not sure who to invite , I would say the first thing you should do is is to pray and just ask God like reveal to me , who do I cross paths with that I Could extend an invitation to , and I feel like there's certain prayers when you ask the Lord like he will answer it and that's something I feel like that the Lord's gonna put it on your heart . But Begin to look around . You know who do I interact with ? Who ? Who of my friends do I know does not have a church home or who's going through something difficult , who could benefit Hearing about good news and hope and something in an ever-changing world that does not change , and so I feel like once you start to think about those things like names and faces are gonna pop into your mind .
Speaker 3For me , one of the things I love about Northwest is the music is just Dynamic every week , and I just kept thinking about the music teacher who I where I used to teach .
Speaker 3She's a beautiful musician and I remember hearing little things she would say like , oh , I used to go to church or I've been there long ago , and I really didn't acknowledge it or ask her to elaborate , but I feel like the Lord's been bringing her to my heart like this is someone you could invite , and I just said to her I Think of you every time I admire the musicians on Sunday morning and I would love for you to come and give me your opinion . Maybe I'm crazy , maybe I don't think I'm crazy , the music good , but that's just what I said to her . Now she might say no , and that's okay . You know , if she says no , she says no . She knows I still love her . As my friend and , like Peter said , maybe I need to invite her six more times before she comes , but I've opened the door for her to know that there's a place I go that I love , that I would love to see her out there too . So that's all we can do right .
Speaker 2Well , and I love . I love the part that you brought up of like , who's someone around you who's in a time of need , or and and Don't reach out to them with the goal of inviting them to church . Reach out to them because , like , that's what we ought to do right , we ought to love and so and so that might be someone who is already attending church , your church or different church . It might be someone who Used to attend at a church and doesn't have one . It might be someone who doesn't have any faith walk at all . But who are the people around me that I can encourage , as only God has made me to encourage and have confidence in that .
Speaker 2God has created you uniquely With something to give . And you may be like , yeah , but I don't write good notes to people , then don't write . Like , then write bad notes , or don't write a note , make a phone call , make them a pie , like , just do something and in and doing so that's like an act of worship . By loving the people around us , we are Worshiping and loving God , and then the more we do that and the more we look to To show love to the people around us , I think the more doors open also to just relationship and input and then , when the time is right , and invite into something much bigger than any of Ourselves .
Speaker 2And the reason we do that is because we go and we are like this has been official for me , right . That's why I keep going as I hear a message that I'm like holy smokes , I needed to hear this . And then I trust that the Holy Spirit's gonna do that for each person in the room , uniquely to them , and so , yeah , so I think it really starts . I love that answer . Begin with prayer and then God's gonna let you know . And don't expect necessarily it'll be like Kate , like reach out to Sarah , you don't like that . Likely maybe that'll happen to you , but likely won't .
Speaker 3Right .
Speaker 2But if you run into someone at the grocery store , if God puts someone on your mind , like if you just start thinking about huh , I wonder how my cousins do it . I haven't talked to them Like these . I truly believe those are ways that the Holy Spirit just prompts us and then , when we're prompted , reach out , send a text , check how they're doing , Cause it started , make it easy .
Speaker 1Obviously , this changes based on the relationship , based on the context , but what are maybe some best practices in the how of making that invite ? I think you provided a great example , kate , where you are almost like , hey , I actually want your opinion on something . It's not come with me to church , but I value you . I know that you know something that I don't have as much expertise in . You could help me if you came here and you know , maybe she comes and she's like , hey , this is kind of cool , I'm gonna keep coming back . What are some other examples or best practices that you guys can think of ?
Speaker 3I think for sure , saying I'd love to meet you there , I'd love to sit together . I know a lot of times people will invite someone to church and say can I take you to lunch afterwards ? All of those are genuine things you can do to say I'm not worried about my church's attendance , but I'm more concerned about you as a human , as my friend , which is the ultimate priority , I think .
Speaker 2Yeah , people may be looking for a friendly church . They may like that , but really much deeper , they're looking for friends at church . They wanna go to a church where it's like there's people there who care about them and they are excited to see them . And so those are great steps of saying like , yeah , come , and what time could you come ? We have 9.15 and 11 . Oh , 11 , great , I'll be there , I'll be waiting for you , I'll help you check in your kids and I'll sit by you during worship , Like those things are huge .
Speaker 2There's a church planting group called ARC and they did a study . This was a few years back , so the numbers may have changed a little bit , but they found that about 30-ish percent of people attend their church because and they contribute that we really like the messages . 30 percent about 30-ish percent say I like going to my church , I really like the worship , and then 87 percent said I go because the relationships . And so for us to lean into that like , yep , there's gonna be a great message , yep , there's gonna be great worship , yep , there's gonna be great kids programming and we get to take communion and we may see baptisms , and at the end of the day those are all huge . But for people who don't know that yet , really for them it's about relationships .
Speaker 2Is there someone there that I feel comfortable seeing in an unknown uncomfortable space . So making ourselves available to them and not just like inviting and hoping , but inviting and then being part of that process .
Speaker 1Are there any wrong ways to invite or maybe some things to avoid as we're inviting people ?
Speaker 2Oh man , there's so many wrong ways . Yeah , I mean like gilting people is wrong , scaring people into it . I've never really been motivated by the person on the street with the sign who says you're condemned .
Speaker 1Oh no , that's driving people away .
Speaker 2Right . So those are some obvious ones . I also think that we tend to do this and not even know we're doing it , but like the bait and switch of like , yeah , I'd really love for you to come to my church , I think you'd really love it but then they come to the church and we don't really , we don't follow through with them , we don't connect with them , we don't even really look for them or ask if they were there , because there's a lack of relationship in that . So I think that is like for some people now the Holy Spirit works and so when they come and they hear the word of God , the word of God doesn't go forth and return empty . And so some of those folks may still be like , oh wow , I needed that . But if they may acknowledge they need it , but still not have relationship , and then the likelihood of them coming back is still low .
Speaker 2And so there's yeah , there's a lot of wrong ways , but I think any way that is not rooted in connection with God and with each other , and eventually they'll have a connection with the world . But I think if it's not rooted in a connection with God and each other and it's rooted in and I want our numbers to be better , or I want our tithing to increase , or I want our kids program to be known as something . Blah , blah , blah . I think those are all wrong motivations . So better motivations . I desire for them to be connected to God and I want that with them , right .
Speaker 1I think one kind of on a different vein , and one that I'm familiar with because I'm guilty of , is like a really passive invite where it's kind of like , hey , man , it'd be great if you came to church with me sometime , and they're just kind of like , yeah , it would .
Speaker 1It's like , oh no , no pressure . Like if you don't want to come , no worries . Like and I know this because I've done that and I'm sometimes I don't , I don't come strong enough . Not that you need to come super strong , but I think you do need to be a little , just let it excited and letting the people know that you have something for them . It's not about , hey , my church is struggling , we need people there , it's . I have something really cool that I go to every Sunday that I really enjoy and I would love to spend time with you there . I think you would really enjoy this too , and I think if you have that excitement and you show , you show them the benefit and show them why this is a good thing for them , potentially that's when you're gonna get more of a response yeah , dan , that's , that's right on .
Speaker 2I was really convicted . A buddy of mine who's part of our core team . He was telling me about a conversation he had with the dad city next to him at the flag football game . So I'm coaching flag football with a couple other awesome parents and all these boys and and for me it's just like a game of like , like how we're like and it's important how we coach and how we do those things . But I'm so concentrated on that and this buddy of mine he tells me that like , yeah , during the game I was talking to him one of the other dads and I asked him how's your morning ? Did you , do you guys , go to church today ? And he said , yeah , we did . And I said , well , what was your message about ? And he paused and he couldn't remember he had just been to church a few hours earlier and he already couldn't remember , right , and that's rough , except how often does that happen to us , right ?
Speaker 2and so this guy returns that question to to my buddy and says , well , how about you ? What was re at church ? What was your message about ? And so then my buddy starts to tell him like , oh , I can't wait to tell you . And he tells them all about Jesus meeting the woman at the well and and in the relationship that Jesus built and how he loved that woman , and and then he talks about how like that connected so much with him and and how it impacted him .
Speaker 2And he was just so excited to share about this message of what Christ has done . And the guy goes , hey , I like my church , we've been going there for a while , but I want to check out your church sometime . And he was like , yeah , I mean , if you ever want to like , let's find a date and I'll sit with you and we'll get lunch . And that that was really convicting to me , because he was just so passionate about what God has done for him and what he received through God's word and what was revealed about Christ that morning that he just wanted to share , and with the guy he was sharing it with . It wasn't weird , it was just exciting . Whoa , that's inspiring .
Speaker 2People want to be part of inspiring things , so that was huge to me to be like I'm inspired . I'm inspired by the word being preached , by the Holy Spirit moving , by the worship I get to be a part of . What if I just share about that and kind of let that be do the inviting for me , I think that would work better than the yeah , than the like . If you want to , you don't have to but if you want , if you're available don't worry about it , you won't hurt my feelings .
Speaker 2Maybe in 2025 .
Speaker 1Yeah Well , I was just going to ask you guys if you had any cool invitation stories , and then Peter just went on that beautiful soliloquy about this . Are there any other ? And you mentioned yours with the former music teacher as well Are there any other cool invite stories that pop to the front of your mind or examples that might be good for people to keep in mind as they think about invites ?
Parents Attending Church and Invitations
Speaker 3Well for me , my parents have started attending church , kind of for the first time , regularly at Northwest .
Speaker 2Wow , do your parents listen to this podcast ?
Speaker 3Uh , I don't think they know what podcasts are , but Wow , ouch Maybe this will be the first one they listen to .
Speaker 2Can I ? Can I say their names ? Yes , judy , mike , she didn't mean it . She's your daughter , daughters , just say stuff like that . We love you . It was good to meet you .
Speaker 3They know I love them , but , um , I'm I'm so proud of them for coming , because I know for people who are not used to going to church it is uncomfortable at first . It's something new , it's a different setting . They walked in knowing me but I'm , they know I'm running around a lot of the time , so I don't sit with them usually , but I make a point to tell my daughter you have to go talk to Nana and Papa and and , and they want to see her more than me anyway . So , um , that is just like a cherry on top to for them to see my daughter , because a lot of Sundays she's working in the nursery and so she doesn't sit with them either .
Speaker 3But I can just see my dad's face light up when he sees Rebecca , and so , you know , I hope that that just like warms them up a little bit to to being in church . And so there's things like that you can do , um , especially when you invite people with kids , you know , walk with them to see where the kids go , because they're not , they're not there having a blast . You know the kids are having fun and are happy to be there , and when you know your kids are safe and in a good place like you can relax and that's a gift to new parents , you know to be able to sit and actually worship and listen to a message and not have to worry about who's crawling on the floor . You know who's making noises , so that's just something else I thought of .
Speaker 2And I would say this each invitation is created differently , right , I've shared this story , but it's worth sharing again .
Speaker 2I met with a guy for years I invited him to church probably a dozen times . He came with me , zero times , and it wasn't until COVID hit that he sent me a picture of me on his TV screen and it was Easter 2020 . And I was like , are you watching church ? And he said , yeah , I'm checking it out . And he , zero times , came into our church , our church doors , but then he moved to Texas and he's attending a church , and so my invitation , like for years , I thought , oh , it's not working . And God laughs . God's like see what I'm doing , see what the Holy Spirit is doing in this young man and this was a young man , is a young man , igor , if you're listening to this , love you buddy who , like , survived the Bosnian crisis .
Speaker 2He survived war , wow , and so for him , religion was connected to war and death and his village being destroyed , and so I didn't understand all that . The first couple of times I invited , I flippantly invited you , like it man , not knowing that there's a whole years of weight and hurt that's connected with that for him . Well , I kept being a friend , because that's really , at the end of the day , that's what I desired was friendship , and , and then the Holy Spirit was working , and and he showed up , and not in my church but at a different church , and so that's one that
The Power and Importance of Inviting
Speaker 2is different . There may be ones where it's like you invited people for years and years . They never came , and then one day we're going to party with them in heaven and it'll be so awesome . And then there will be people that you invite once and they just show up and you're like what ? This is crazy .
Speaker 3Awesome .
Speaker 2And so the invitation is created equally , but to but to know that each invitation is to something greater than yourself .
Speaker 1Beautifully said . Well , we've given a lot of good tips , a lot of good stories on inviting , talked about the power and the importance of inviting . Now , yeah , we just got to go out and do it . Guys , thank you so much for giving your time and thank you , listeners , for tuning into the multi site podcast here at King of Kings . Who knows , maybe we bring this thing back when we open future campuses , but for now , it's it's . It's going on the shelf for the time being . It's been a wonderful time . Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with us .
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