We Succeed When We Invite
We succeed as member missionaries when we invite people to learn and accept truth. We give them the opportunity to exercise their agency.
We have observed this general pattern—one in four people we invite to learn more say “yes.” A friend of ours, Ben, applied this in a very interesting way. He didn’t feel he wanted to be told “no” three times so he set a goal that he would be told “no” once. The first person he asked said “no.” That was easy and he succeeded! Ben then set a goal to find three additional people to say “no.” He was surprised when the next person accepted his invitation. He learned that inviting people really is easy because you succeed when you invite, regardless of how it turns out!
When the background of our invitations is love, every invitation is a success because it is an expression of our love for others. God’s love for His children is completely unaffected by the choices they make, and we too can love people regardless of their responses to our invitations.
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Good video, but it begins with Bro. Christensen stating that some find sharing the gospel difficult for two reasons. The second reason is not included in the video. Still, the definition of success is great.
Kepha, I’ve watched this video dozens of times and never noticed that. Good find! I’ll ask.
The decoupling idea explained in the video on inviting is great. It would, however, be nice to actually see a demonstration of a decoupled invitation.
In the meantime, here are two great examples of a decoupled invitation from Brother Christensen’s site missionaryleaders.org:
“I have been thinking about sharing something with you as a friend, but I want you to feel comfortable in saying ‘No.’ Would you be interested in learning our Church’s beliefs about our relationship with God and the purpose of life which have given me real happiness?” (33 Ideas for Sharing the Gospel)
“Jack, we’ve been neighbors for a long time. I’m going to ask you a question, but before I do, I want you to know that your answer won’t in any way affect how I feel. So here goes my question. I’m a Mormon, as you know, and you know how much my church means to me. At some point I’d like to sit down with you, if you’re interested, and describe who we are and what I have valued from my membership.” (Principle 4, II)
Thanks, Peter! Definitely useful to have these examples here.