Last week in our worship services we heard the impact of one person inviting another person to Alpha. “I asked if she might like to come, and she said yes!” There is power in an invitation. When I think of my own life, it was a person on my ski team who invited me to church. When I think of Jesus, it was his invitation that changed the lives of the disciples,
“Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.” Matthew 4:18-20 The Message
The Billy Graham Association conducted a national survey and found that 82% of the non-churched say they would come to church with a friend or relative if invited. We may not feel comfortable inviting people to church right now, but we could invite them to listen online or invite them to join us for ZOOM Alpha.
According to author Michael Green in his book Evangelism in the Early Church, "Christianity was supremely a lay movement, spread by informal missionaries …the spontaneous outreach of the total Christian community gave immense impetus to the movement from the very outset." Christianity spread because everyone got involved inviting.
2020 has been a challenging year in so many ways -but Christianity offers hope. We don’t have to have all the answers, but we all have the ability to invite.
Blessings, Pastor Michele
P.S. If you are interested in online Alpha it starts tonight. See HERE for details.