Home

Weekly Devotional

August 4, 2008
 

Acts 2:44-47   ⁴⁴ All who believed were together and had all things in common;  ⁴⁵ they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  ⁴⁶ Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,  ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

            This past weekend at the Lutheran Men gathering I was able to attend a workshop titled “Evangelism for Scaredy Cats”.  This work shop, led by Rev. Ernie Hinojosa (Mission Developer for NC), focused on why Lutherans love to be involved in all aspects of the church except evangelism.  Face it, if we evangelized like we ate, Lutherans would be the largest branch of the church in the world.  But sadly enough, evangelism in not a strong point of Lutheranism.

            Pr. Hinojosa presented an interesting statistic.  He said that 75% of first time worship guests were invited by someone they know.  Going door to door and inviting (such as we have done recently) does work, but the most effective way of bringing people to church is to actually bring them yourself.  Bringing people that we know makes it easier for them to walk through the doors, because the barrier of not knowing anyone is already broken.

            Pr. Hinojosa also presented what he called “Principles of Invitation”.  These are the prime times to invite someone to allow Christ to enter their life.  Who does this inviting?  You do.  Everyone does.  Take a look at the following principles and see if any of them apply to your friends, co-workers, or neighbors. 

Principles of Invitation

o   Crisis Time is an excellent time to invite

o   You have a story to share

o   You have a community to share

o   You have a prayer to pray

If we are to grow into a congregation that is busting at the seams with disciples, then we have a lot of work to do.   We ALL have a lot of work to do.  I invite you to think about these principles, and how you WILL use them to invite others to come to church.  When we read about the early Christians, we see that the number of disciples grew on a daily basis.  The people were evangelizing, and the church was growing.  Evangelism is the work of God through the people of God.  We are a part of the people of God.  How will you allow God to work through you? 

In our prayers this week: 

Alma, Doris, the mothers of Doris and Gail, all our members who are traveling

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson