Anonymous wrote:Not tacky. Proselytizing.
It feels tacky because you feel like you were targeted for shallow reasons. That's essentially how proselytizing works. Or maybe you can call it sneaky missionary work.
You can be classy and politely decline with profuse gratitude for being invited. Believe me, I'm sure your friend has been turned down many times in her efforts to bring in new members to her church so this will not be a surprise to her.
It does become hard to maintain a friendship afterwards though because you think maybe there are ulterior motives behind it all. But I encourage you to continue the friendship because your friend may have felt compelled to do this outreach duty by her church. She shouldn't lose friends because the church is pushy.
OP wasn’t bamboozeled, she accepted an invitation to a church event with zero hesitation until she found out it was a potluck lol.
If OP doesn’t want to attend church events, she should decline invites to church events.