Last Tuesday morning, Ashley, Gracie and I had the privilege of having breakfast with some of our First Baptist Church, Woodstock family... including Pastor Johnny. As is usually the case when I'm around my pastor, I did a lot of listening and not much talking. While he was sharing, he mentioned a statistic that I couldn't help but write down and spend the next few days thinking about. He noted that "97 percent of people that will visit FBC Woodstock will do so at the invitation of a friend, neighbor, family member or co-worker." Now, this is a church where, literally, thousands of people visit each year. They are not on TV or the radio. They don't have any billboards and they do no advertising of mass proportion. The explosive growth of FBC Woodstock is due, mainly, to the inviting efforts of it's people! How amazing...
Preachers are terribly guilty of minimizing the power of a simple invitation, person to person. Many outreach directors, soul-winning believers and mature, evangelistically minded Christians have bought into the LIE that the only effective form of outreach must go deeper than "inviting someone to church." No question, we need more people out taking sinners through the Romans Road or Four Spiritual Laws, calling people to repent at Restaurants, street corners, coffee shops and passionate door to door evangelistic efforts. However, until someone is capable of such bold efforts, are they useless to God, His church and the cause of Christ? Let me go on record with an ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!
Each person has value because they have been given specific gifts to be used to edify the body and spread the Gospel. A simple invitation to hear the Gospel in a worship service is not only permissible, but desirable in the life of Every Believer! Now, as a preacher of the Gospel, IT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO PRESENT THE GOSPEL WITH CLARITY EACH TIME WE GATHER FOR WORSHIP!!! To my friends at Calvary Cross-link, where I am privileged to serve as lead pastor, you can count on it, every week!
Don't forget Andrew! As you look over your New Testament, you will find the disciple named Andrew was consistently associated with one thing. With few exceptions, every time his name was mentioned, it was while he was bringing someone to Jesus. He was committed to the simple invitation!
97% of people that will visit our church, I believe, will do so on the arm of a friend, co-worker, family member or neighbor. We MUST commit ourselves to being a vessel of truth in whatever capacity we're capable. Calvary Cross-link will experience growth in direct proportion to our obedience to the call of Christ to bring people to Him! Time to Invite!!!
