Today’s Word Is INVITE

If your participation in a local fellowship of believers has been life-changing, why not invite someone along? There are more opportunities than you might think. One of my hospital co-workers once told me that a patient she was caring for invited her to church. This was not the first time she had received such an invitation, but for some reason, this time she felt God’s nudge and surprised herself by suddenly saying “OK!” So … she went. Why not?

What happened was a spiritual connection that she had not anticipated, and her faith began to emerge and grow. Life is now different and blessed.

So how do you know who to invite? I would say, “Listen. Let God speak to you.” As Jesus left this earth, one of his final statements to the disciples was, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

This is a clue to where we will encounter folks whom God wants to bless by being a part of his church. First, it is in Jerusalem, which was home base to the disciples, where they were around familiar faces. These are the people close to home, people that you know. When we are in our usual territory, seeing people that we frequently see, there is someone who needs to get an invitation to a new life of faith and to a church.

Then there is the area called Judea, which is people further out, people you don’t know. You are in places where you feel comfortable, but around people who are mostly strangers. Many of us find ways to talk with others that we don’t know. And there is an approach that we can each develop from our own personality, by which we can bring up faith matters without scaring people off. Don’t let your initial awkward attempts deter you from developing your style.

Further away from Jerusalem is the territory called Samaria. Jews only ventured into this territory by necessity. Samaritans were culturally different and mostly despised, because they were intermarried with various cultures. For our day and time, this regards the barriers of racial, cultural, and religious differences. I don’t know the accuracy of this statement, but I have heard it said that 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning is the most racially and culturally divided time in our society. We could change that.

Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4:7), and the disciples were surprised Jesus had been talking to her. In another story where Jesus healed ten lepers, only one came back to say thank you, and he was a Samaritan (Luke 17:16). And of course, we all know the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the hero is a foreigner of a different culture (Luke 10:30).

After the resurrection, the new community of Christians realized that their message was not only for familiar folks, but also for those who are “not like me” … different color, different spirituality, different country, different level of income. So, they dared to approach and invite them, and many successes followed.

The final place that Jesus named as an area for sharing our witness is “the end of the earth.” He was saying that there are no limits on where you can find someone to invite. Anywhere you are there are people who need what you have found through faith in Jesus.

Most people go to church because someone invited them … and according to research, in the vast majority of cases, it wasn’t the pastor doing the inviting. It was just regular folks with changed lives. Don’t be afraid to invite someone to church.

One final note … attending church does not make us a Christian. Salvation comes by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. In other words, church never “saved” anybody! Jesus does that! But an invitation to church can be the first step!

Blessings,

Chaplain Mark