Giving Public Invitations in a Worship Service

On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, explores the practice of giving public invitations in worship services. Drawing from LifeWay Research and his own ministry experience, he discusses the importance of thoughtful invitation planning, the concerns pastors face, and practical ways to invite people to respond meaningfully to the gospel.

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Host

Jeff Iorg

President, SBC Executive Committee

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Jeff Iorg: 00:54

Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Welcome to the first Lead On Podcast of 2026. And the people who keep up with these things tell me that I'm about, 440 or so podcasts into this project, which means that sometime about this time next year, I will record my five hundredth lead on podcast. I think that will deserve some kind of a party or something here in the studio.

Jeff Iorg: 01:33

But for today, I wanna kick off the year of 2026 by talking about something that is prevalent in most Baptist churches, but frankly, is controversial for some, neglected by others, but needs improvement nonetheless. I wanna talk about giving public invitations in worship services. Now my interest in this was really spurred by, two perspectives. First, I I see this done in worship services right on a regular basis in Baptist churches, and I often think about how invitations are offered and how they can be offered more effectively. But then secondarily, I recently read a study, by LifeWay Research about invitations as they surveyed Southern Baptist pastors to see what were some of the, convictions about invitations, what are some of the concerns about invitations, and then what are some of the methods that are being used in extending public invitations.

Jeff Iorg: 02:34

So the first thing that I found is interesting in that LifeWay research study was that 74% of pastors say they provide an opportunity to respond, in a worship service in each of their Sunday services each week. Now, that's a pretty high percentage, and frankly, I'm grateful for that. Another 11% said that they offered the opportunity two to three times a month, and a very small number, only 3%, said they only offer an invitation about once a month. So clearly, the vast majority of Southern Baptist pastors are offering invitations on a fairly consistent, if not weekly basis, in worship services. However, in the context of that, they also asked what were some of the concerns pastors had about offering invitations like this.

Jeff Iorg: 03:22

And here are those. First, some pastors raised the concern about emotional manipulation with invitations. This is certainly something that's inappropriate and what we want to avoid, and it is a legitimate concern that you should have when you're in the process of inviting people to receive Jesus Christ, whether it's public or private manipulation of any kind, including emotional manipulation, has no part in an effective gospel invitation. A second concern was that since salvation occurs only through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, an invitation can, seem inappropriate in that it puts too much emphasis on the person and not enough emphasis on the spirit's work. Well, this is also a valid concern.

Jeff Iorg: 04:11

The Holy Spirit is the cause of conversion, but that doesn't preclude a person opening themselves and placing faith in in, Jesus and asking him for a salvation experience. And then another concern was that some pastors said, well, I don't really offer an invitation to receive Jesus because typically only church members are present in their services. Well, I'd say two things about that. First, enlarge your outreach to include more people being invited to your church that there might be the potential of more guests being present in a worship service. And then second, I would say, even if all of the persons present or church members don't assume that they're all saved Christians, There's still a need for an invitation even in that context.

Jeff Iorg: 04:58

And then another concern is that extending an invitation and having a person respond to it may provide them some kind of false assurance regarding their salvation or regarding some other kind of spiritual experience, meaning that they trust in the fact that they responded to the invitation more than that they made a true spiritual decision. This is another legitimate concern. We don't ever want to create the impression that we're putting our trust in any kind of human act for a spiritual result, including even an act of responding in an invitation. That doesn't mean, however, that physical acts and that responsive acts can't be part of a person, solidifying their moment of spiritual decision. Well, what we've learned from this research is that most pastors offer invitations and pastors have legitimate concerns about doing it and doing it well.

Jeff Iorg: 05:51

So let me see if I can talk now for the rest of the podcast about some things to keep in mind when you're planning, for good public invitations to make a response to Jesus Christ or to make a response to the preaching of God's word in a public setting. First thing I would say is that good invitations actually began with good worship planning. Worship services should be planned to culminate with response. In other words, every aspect of a worship service should be contributing to leading people to a moment of response to God. And in fact, in a well designed worship service, there are many opportunities for response.

Jeff Iorg: 06:35

You may have responsive reading of scripture. You may invite people to respond by joining you in prayer. You ask people to respond by giving, an offering as a part of a worship service. You may ask people to respond by standing and moving to each other and forming groups for prayer or even times for mutual fellowship. Good worship planning takes seriously the need to lead people to make response throughout the worship service, but then in the overarching design of the entire service, leading to a time of significant response.

Jeff Iorg: 07:12

Now, a worship service designed like this is cohesive, meaning all aspects are somehow tied to that opportunity that you're going to give people to respond toward a specific conclusion or a specific outcome. That's why while every public gathering of the church and and worship can include a call to receive Jesus as Lord and savior, Not every worship service and not every sermon is specifically designed toward that end. There may be other, discipleship aspects of your preaching ministry that, need to be focused that need to be the focus of an invitation from time to time depending on the nature of the sermon, the nature of the service, etcetera. So we're gonna plan the worship service to culminate with response, to include response throughout, but to lead people to make a specific response back to God. Now, this means that worship services are designed to facilitate every person responding to God in some way.

Jeff Iorg: 08:21

Now, this does not mean necessarily that every person needs to come forward publicly in a walk down the aisle invitation every Sunday. Of course not. But you are thinking about your worship service and thinking about your message and thinking about the moment of response and asking, how will I invite everyone to respond to what I'm saying, what we're doing, where we're leading them in this worship experience? And so that's why it's important to tie the kind of response that you're asking people to make to the specific nature or the specific subject of the worship service and particularly of the message that you're preaching in that context. So create a way and have an expectation that every person will respond with prayer, with offering, with commitment, perhaps with a public expression of those things, but everyone invited to respond.

Jeff Iorg: 09:16

Now another part of doing good worship planning that facilitates response is creating an atmosphere or a culture of response. Now, me talk about two or three things that are important here. First of all, you have to create time for response. So if you're in a church that has a a pretty firm schedule on a Sunday morning and you have an hour allotted for the entire worship experience, you can't run up to one minute before the time has expired and then suddenly say, now it's time for the invitation, and expect people to respond. If response is really the goal or the outcome that you're striving for, that the entire service of preaching and prayer and worship and giving, and then preaching and all of that is combining together to bring about a moment of response, then you have to make sure that you plan adequate time for people to really respond as a part of the worship experience.

Jeff Iorg: 10:15

This is one of the most common problems that I see in typical worship services, and that is long winded preachers and, get carried away and just can't stop talking and preach right up to the end or of the time allotted or or even over the time allotted and then try to rush some kind of invitation. You know, when I was a pastor, I I I took this very seriously in worship planning, I would actually say that we needed a five to seven minute window that was reserved for the response time in every worship service. Now you say, well, did it take five to seven minutes of response every week? No. Not necessarily.

Jeff Iorg: 10:58

But we planned for it so that we gave people ample time and had unrushed, unhurried opportunity for people to respond to God. And when people see this as the habit of your church and of your planning for your worship services, they begin to understand, you know, worship includes response. And our church sets aside time for response, and we're gonna make sure that we're ready to respond because we know we're gonna be given time to respond as a part of this service. So I would really challenge you to think about, first of all, setting a a climate or an atmosphere or a culture of response includes making sure that you have enough time allotted so that people can make meaningful response. A second thing that contributes to creating this culture is to provide trained people to assist with the response.

Jeff Iorg: 11:48

Now, whether you call them counselors or some other kind of title, you have people that are prepared and equipped to receive those who may respond, pray with them, cons counsel with them, give them information, get information from them, but you have a team of people who are prepared to be the leaders during the response or the invitation time. Now, again, this helps create culture because it communicates. We place high value on this. We've prepared for it. We have people trained to facilitate it, and therefore, it changes the culture of what your church thinks about related to invitation or response.

Jeff Iorg: 12:26

Another thing that creates this kind of culture is having materials available so that you have, materials to give people who respond, and you have information that you're asking from people who do respond, and you're prepared with these materials in hand indicating again you've created a culture of response or an atmosphere in which response is not only expected but facilitated. Now, another aspect of this is calling for response based very directly on the message, particularly the message that you've preached in that particular service. Now, I've already said that the entire service contributes, but the message contributes perhaps most directly to the kind of response you're asking for from the people. So for example, if you're preaching an evangelistic message on receiving Jesus, invite people to receive Jesus and commit their lives to him. You're preaching a message on stewardship and challenging people to give, make that the focal point of your invitation that you ask people to take a step of commitment in their giving.

Jeff Iorg: 13:31

If you're preaching on prayer, ask for commitments to prayer. If you're preaching on, relational reconciliation, ask people to reconcile with people that they have a brokenness or or offense, between. Whatever you're preaching about, make your invitation center on that particular theme or subject or idea. Call for response based on the content of the message you've been preaching. So in this first section, we've talked about planning worship services, including preaching to culminate with response, and we've talked about creating a way for every person to respond, creating an atmosphere or a culture of response, and calling for a response based directly on the message.

Jeff Iorg: 14:15

Now, in just a moment, I'm gonna talk about some kinds of responses or ways that you can invite people to respond. But before we do that, let's talk about, at least four factors which determine the kind of invitation you're going to give. The first one is the setting. Are you in a Sunday morning worship service? Are are you at a public service in a on a beach or in a park?

Jeff Iorg: 14:43

Are you at a camp, standing around a campfire when the service is taking place? What is the setting in which you find yourself conducting the invitation? And based on that setting, are there some limitations or some guidelines or some guidance that might be helpful in that moment? For example, one well known church planter stopped giving come forward invitations. And when people ask him about it some years later, why did you stop doing that?

Jeff Iorg: 15:14

Why did you change over to a card approach where you ask people to write something on a card? And he said, well, because our church plant met in a movie facility that had long aisles with twenty, twenty five seats on each row. It was very difficult for people to get out of those aisles and come down to the front of that movie theater. So we said, this isn't working. Let's find another way for people to indicate response.

Jeff Iorg: 15:39

This is what I mean by setting. If you're in a worship service, if you're at a beach, in a park, at a camp, if you're out under a tabernacle or in a in a very formal auditorium, the setting does matter. You're in a place where coming forward is gonna be disruptive and difficult, don't ask people to come forward. If you're in a place where there's nothing to write on, don't ask people to write on a card. If you're in a in a place where there's very limited technology, don't ask people to shoot a QR code off a screen.

Jeff Iorg: 16:06

You've got to think about the setting you're in and the kind of response that's needed. Now, not only setting, but also the cultural context in which you're ministering or worshiping. And by culture in this case, I don't necessarily mean your race or ethnicity or even your language, although those things do have bearing. I'm talking about the culture of the ministry perhaps in which you're working. Let me give you an example.

Jeff Iorg: 16:31

I've I've been for years associated with a ministry to men, and this particular ministry has a retreat every year. Fifty, sixty guys go to this retreat. Typically, there's a dozen or more of them that aren't yet Christians that get invited to this retreat. And the the, the whole culture of this group is is very direct, very straightforward, very matter of fact. It's the way they do their ministry, not just the way they do their retreat, but the way they do their ministry.

Jeff Iorg: 16:59

And the way the reason they do that is because of the the the commonalities of the men that are in this ministry because of their their profession and other things. That's just the kind of guys they are. So every year at this particular retreat, they have an evangelistic event. There's a cross outside, on a hill that's at this campsite campground where they, always meet. And they have a a service where they gather at the bottom of a hill, and they sing, and they and they they read scripture and then they walk up the hill together to the cross.

Jeff Iorg: 17:34

And when they arrive there, they have an explanation of the cross, a short evangelistic message, and then an opportunity for a response. Now the first time I saw this, thought, man, that's direct. But here we are all standing in a big circle, about 50 guys up on this hilltop around this cross, and the speaker gives about a fifteen minute evangelistic message built around the cross. And then he simply said this, if you're willing to follow Jesus, step out of the circle, step into the center with me. Today's your day to take a stand and follow the Lord.

Jeff Iorg: 18:10

And then we just stand there. No singing, just stand there. And every year, one or more guys suddenly just step out of line and step into the center of the circle. And as soon as they do, the whole rest of the circle breaks out in applause on their behalf. Now, I would not do it this way at a children's camp.

Jeff Iorg: 18:34

I would not do it this way on a Sunday morning service in a Baptist church. I I I would not do it this way at a women's conference. But at this particular event, with this particular cultural context, these guys are used to being called out. They're used to taking a stand, and this is the best way for them to crystallize that commitment by that kind of invitation. So just think about the setting where you are and then the cultural context in which you're ministering, including the subculture of people perhaps that you're trying to reach.

Jeff Iorg: 19:11

And then think about the kind of event that you're you're a part of. You know, if you're in a Sunday morning worship service and there's a fairly settled order of service and routine and people know what to expect in terms of a response, go ahead and invite people to come forward like you, and and to walk forward and to greet you and to talk with you as a pastor or other church leaders you may have there on your team. But let's say you're at a Park and you're having a worship service outdoors and, it's very difficult to even know how to get people organized to to move or to walk or to go. Maybe there, the better invitation is to say, when this service concludes, if you will come to me, I'll be standing here on the stage, and I'll be glad to meet with you. Or if you'll go to the person that who brought you and tell them that you're wanting to make a commitment today to Jesus, they'll help you to do that, or they'll help bring you to someone who can help you to make that commitment.

Jeff Iorg: 20:03

So if you're in a camp, for example, or you're so we're having a beach reach event or something like that, the kind of event that you're having determines somewhat the kind of response you're going to ask for people to make. And then what's the purpose of the event or the service as well? For example, if I'm invited to come and preach an evangelistic event, I'm gonna make an evangelistic invitation. But if I'm asked to preach a leadership development event at a college ministry where almost everyone there is going to already be Christian, I'm going to ask people to commit to leadership into some specific aspects of the leadership that I've been preaching about. I may also ask if there's anyone who'd like to receive Jesus as Lord and savior, but that's not really the purpose of the event.

Jeff Iorg: 20:46

So I want the invitation that I give to really be focused more on that purpose. So as you're thinking about the kind of invitation to give, think about setting and culture and event and purpose. Now, let's wrap up the podcast today with talking about some different ways to extend invitations to people. One of those, of course, is to ask people to come forward in a worship service and make a commitment, or to come forward and to request information, or to come forward and talk to someone about their commitment. Now, I know some of you feel reluctant about this, but let me encourage you.

Jeff Iorg: 21:25

If a person comes to a public worship service in a church building, you should have no apology offering them the opportunity to make a public response to God. They've already indicated by the fact that they came to the service that they have spiritual interest. They could have been a million other places, but they decided to be in church that day. Don't be afraid to then ask them to make a commitment by coming forward in the service or in that context. So coming forward is one way for people to express their commitment or their willingness to consider a commitment that God has asked them to make that day.

Jeff Iorg: 22:04

Now, some of you are thinking this only applies for evangelism or for reaching people who are lost. But I was a frequent guest at a church in California that showed me something, another model of this that was frankly powerfully moving. This church offered a public invitation every Sunday, but they called it their prayer altar call or their prayer call. So when the preacher would finish his message on Sunday, he would say, and now this morning, we'd like to give you the opportunity to respond. Some of you will want to come publicly and respond to the message that I've been preaching, and he would highlight what that would mean.

Jeff Iorg: 22:50

But many of the rest of you, he would say, need someone to pray with you today, and you'd like to come in and ask someone to pray with you and for you. And I have some friends who are gonna help me with that. And when he would say that, about 30 people would stand up from different places and walk to the front and line up across the front of this, you know, larger church. And he would say, these are my prayer partners, and they're gonna pray with you if you need prayer today. And then he would be more specific.

Jeff Iorg: 23:16

He would say, if you need a job, come and let us pray for you. If you have a sick relative or you yourself are struggling with illness, come and let us pray for you. If you're trying to make rent money and you don't have it or your car payment's due and you're not sure how you're gonna come up with the cash, come and let's pray about it this morning. If you have a child that's far from God or a family member that you're concerned about in their relationship with the Lord, come and let us pray for you. And then he would say, if you wanna respond on what I've said in the message today or you wanna respond and just ask for people to pray with you, would you please come?

Jeff Iorg: 23:48

Now the first Sunday I was at this church, I thought, well, that's really powerful. But what happened next blew me away. The aisles filled up with people coming for prayer. And as they would come forward, there was no need because this was all public, all done at the front of the church. So whoever came forward just paired up with the next prayer partner.

Jeff Iorg: 24:08

So men were praying with men and men with women, women with children. Didn't matter because it's all out in public. It's all fine. And so as this and people would say, how can I pray for you? And I'm watching these prayer counselors pray with these people who are coming forward.

Jeff Iorg: 24:23

When it was over and dozens of people had been prayed for and I'd been just so moved by what I had experienced, I asked the pastor, how how how does this work every Sunday, and how do you follow-up with any of this? He said, well, what typically happens is when a person comes forward, my counselors say, how can I pray for you today? And the ones who say, I'm I'm looking to commit to Jesus or I need help with that, Well, we help them to pray a commitment prayer to Jesus, and we get information with them, and then we follow them up. So this becomes an evangelistic invitation even though mostly they came forward in the context of prayer. Listen.

Jeff Iorg: 25:00

Come forward invitations can be about coming forward for salvation, but they can also be more broadly used to say, come for prayer. Come to let us pray with you and stand with you and help you with whatever spiritual dilemma you brought to church today. And this church over the years had built this this atmosphere of prayer, this culture of response that took place as a part of the end of their worship services. And I was there a number of times over the years, and it was always beautiful and powerful to watch as people came in these come forward moments of a worship service. Okay.

Jeff Iorg: 25:38

Another way to ask people to respond is to without moving forward is to do something like to raise their hand or to perhaps stand up. This is an opportunity for people to physically indicate that something is happening with them, that they want you to know that there is something stirring inside of them related to some kind of spiritual decision or commitment. So whether you ask people to raise a hand or to stand where they are, it gives them a physical way of expressing what's happening, so to speak, in their hearts. Now you may wanna combine that with something else we're gonna talk about in just a moment, but this raising of hand or standing up is a good way of asking people to make a physical demonstration of an inner compulsion or an inner urging that they're feeling. Now a a a bit more passive way of approaching this is to ask people to pray with you and to lead some kind of guided prayer while people are still seated or with you in the worship service.

Jeff Iorg: 26:38

So for example, you might say, as we bow our heads together, let me lead you now as we pray together about this message and about how you might respond to it. Perhaps you're here today and you're thinking about committing to Jesus. You can pray this way. Perhaps you're here today and you've heard this message on forgiveness and there's a person you need to forgive. You can forgive them by praying this way.

Jeff Iorg: 26:59

Perhaps you've heard this message today on giving to missions, and I'm asking you today, right, to pray and make a commitment to make a gift to missions this year, that kind of thing. So we've talked about coming forward, various ways that can be used, raising your hand, standing up, remaining seated, and praying, or working through our prayer time together. Now another way, that you can combine with several of these is some kind of written response. You can ask people to complete a commitment card where they give you their name, phone number, and maybe a a a checked box indicating the kind of spiritual decision they're making. You can also use a QR code.

Jeff Iorg: 27:39

Now I found it interesting that research I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, very, very few churches said they were using QR codes as their primary way of gaining information from people. Yes. I'm sure that there are some churches where these are very popular, but for lots of churches, it's just still a card. Just tear it off from the bulletin or pull it out of a pew rack in front of you or take it out of the seat or the basket that gets passed by. And on that card, just jot down your name, your phone number, your email address.

Jeff Iorg: 28:09

We'll get back in touch with you about the spiritual commitment that you're considering. Some kind of written response gives a person the opportunity to say, I do want help. Please check with me later. Now I'm not saying don't use a QR code. I'm just saying if you don't feel like your church is technologically there, don't feel like you've been bypassed.

Jeff Iorg: 28:29

Many churches are still using some kind of written card and especially in context where technology is limited or you're having some kind of special event service like at a beach or in a park or in some kind of a theater or something like that, you can use a card sometimes faster or better than you can use any other means. And then the last thing I'll mention is at the end of a service, when you've when you're giving an opportunity for response and you ask people to go to an inquiry room or to a response room or to a dialogue room or go to a table where they can obtain more information or communicate something about their their need for a spiritual commitment. One church calls this the next steps table. And the pastor just says, if you're here today and all that's happened in this service has caused you to think I really wanna get closer to God. I don't really know what that means.

Jeff Iorg: 29:19

Look. We wanna help you with the next step. Go to the next step table in the foyer, and they'll know exactly what to do to help you to take your next step of commitment today. So when I talk about giving invitations, I mean either come forward or raise your hand or stand where you are or pray while you're seated, or even completing a commitment card or using a QR code. And then if none of those are appropriate, perhaps when we're ending, I'm gonna ask you to go to a inquiry room or a response room or a dialogue room or go to a table like a next steps table to indicate that you're making a commitment or that you're ready to make one or you'd like help to know what your next step needs to be in your relationship with God.

Jeff Iorg: 30:04

Well, LifeWay Research says most churches and most Baptist pastors are still giving some kind of public invitation in most worship services. There are very many things about this that need to be addressed. There are some current concerns that need to be considered. There's definitely some factors about how to shape an effective invitation. And then I've given you some suggested ways you can think about doing it in different contexts.

Jeff Iorg: 30:32

For me, an invitation demonstrates two things. It demonstrates intentionality. I've presented something to you. I've been very intentional in what I've tried to say, and now I'm calling you to make a commitment based on what you're learning from God or experiencing with him in this worship service or in this context or in this event. And then it also communicates hope, that you have a perpetual belief that God is at work among people and that you are expecting him to work in their lives and you are confident that he's going to bring about response as he wills.

Jeff Iorg: 31:07

You have both intentionality and hope in the moment of invitation. Think about how to do this part of your work more effectively as you lead on.