by Mike Stark
This past week we’ve had another team over from Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. This is the second team we’ve had over from the US this year. Its always a great encouragement to us as a church, as the Americans inject a bit of money, man-power, and enthusiasm to the work in Niddrie.
On Saturday night we had an X-Factor style talent night for the whole community, with hundreds of children, young people and adults from the area turning up. The event was a great success and a big encouragement, but more encouraging for me was the number of people from the community that turned up for church that Sunday morning – in particular, one of the young people in the area we’ve known for years. I couldn’t work out how or why he walked through our doors for the first time (well, for a church service, anyway!) but he was there, and I was encouraged!
Afterwards I got a chance to speak with him. He’s not much of a talker, and we haven’t had many one to one gospel conversations, but I know he listens and takes things in. As we talked, I found out he came simply because some of the Americans had invited him the night before at the X-Factor. We do a lot of
‘going’ in our church. This is the really the opposite of the invitational model of evangelism common in many churches (for more information about the difference between missional and invitational models, see
this short post and video…) The Great Commission says: “GO and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19). And so we rightly go: we go into the schools, to the streets, to young peoples homes and families, to their football matches, and to where they hang out. We spend time with them, we love them, we listen to them, we serve them, we share our testimonies with them, and discuss the gospel with them. Yet this is really the first time a young person from the community had come to church on a Sunday morning under his or her own steam.
So it turns out this guy’s reason for being there was quite simply an invitation. It’s amazing what a simple invitation can do. Everyone likes to be invited to something, it communicates acceptance, value, and worth. Statistics from the States tell an interesting story; 10k people were asked why they were at church – here’s what they said:
- 2% had “a special need”
- 3% just walked in
- 6% liked the minister
- 1% visited here
- 5% liked the Sunday school
- 1/2% attended a gospel meeting
- 3% liked the programs
- 79% Came because a friend or relative invited them.
The guy’s not a believer, but this simple invitation gave us another opportunity to share the gospel and sow seeds of the Word. There are loads of accounts of invitations in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament where people invited their friends and family to meet Jesus ( e.g. Andrew in John 1:40-42; Philip in John 1:43-46; the Samaritan woman in John 4:28-30; Levi in Luke 5:27-29; and Cornelius in Acts 10:24, 33).
Of course we need to be careful that we’re not encouraging the misconception that church attendance equates to salvation. Most ‘religious’ people in Niddrie believe in works based salvation, yet we know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8). And we need to remember that we don’t need young people to come to church on a Sunday to hear the gospel. Gospel opportunities come in all shapes and sizes, throughout the week. We should be inviting people to meet Jesus, and if that’s going to be at church on a Sunday morning, praise the Lord.
And yet, I can’t help but be encouraged at seeing a young person from the community taking such a bold and courageous step as coming into such an unfamiliar environment as a church service for a couple of hours on a Sunday simply because he was invited. Makes me wonder what Christ is doing in this young guy’s life.
Needless to say, I’ll keep on inviting him, and praying for him in the hope that sooner or later the Lord will open his eyes to see, his ears to hear, and his heart to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.
