Ministers Blogs
“Why Should I Invite?”
Categories: EvangelismBy Harold Shank
Taken From Bulletin Digest P.O. Box 575 Cisco, Tx 76437
Why should I invite? Oscar Wilde's Aunt Jane once gave a grand party. She died of embarrassment when nobody came. It was only at her funeral that it was revealed that she had never mailed the invitations.
People come to church because they are invited. It is one thing for us to logically see that point, and quite another thing to permit ourselves to actually issue an invitation.
We don't want to bother people. We don't want to be embarrassed. We don't want to raise the religious question because it makes us uncomfortable. Yet, we do other things that are not comfortable. We paint the house in 90-degree weather because we know we'll have more problems if we don't. We squirm all day before we ask the boss for a raise, but we do it because we need the extra money.
We invite people to church because Jesus set the example and raised our expectations. You know the verse about "seeking and saving the lost" and "go into all the world." Our culture tells us "don't bug others," and "live and let live." The contrast between what society demands and what our Savior expects is clear.
We invite, not because it is easy or comfortable or acceptable, but because it is part of our role as Christians. A 19th-century philosopher told a story about a man seeing a sign in a store window in a small European town. The sign said, "Pants Pressed Here." He went in and started to remove his trousers. The clerk asked what he was doing. The man said, "I saw your sign and wanted my pants pressed." The clerk responded, "Oh, we don't press pants here. We just paint signs."
It says "Church of Christ" out in the front of our building. Do we serve him and others for Him, or do we just paint signs?
