Earlier this week I had unexpected meetings with two people who I had not seen for some while. One was  a recipient of an invitation to our Easter service and I approached him for an explanation for his absence from the service (our relationship is such that had I not given him a hard time he would have thought I was sick!). The other was a person with whom I spent some time after the tragic death of his wife. We have shared time occasionally since then and after each occasion stated that we did not want to wait so long next time… and we promptly did! Subsequent to our last conversation my friend has moved house to a place where it is possible to watch the sunset and appreciate its beauty and he invited Maggie and me to visit and enjoy the view. His invitation was however different, he did not say the customary come over some time here’s my number He was so enthusiastic to share the beauty of the sunset with us he wanted to fix a time there and then, later the same day if possible. When this was not practical a similar date next week was suggested in order to get a time fixed. Was he pushy? No just warmly welcoming and enthusiastic to share with us something he appreciated.
As I mused on the meeting later in the day I recalled that in the past I had invited him to church a couple of times. Had my invitation contained the same enthusiasm and purpose? I suspect not, and the perseverance and determination had clearly been absent.
Back to my other friend, the one who received a hard time for not accepting the invitation, as our banter proceeded he suddenly looked at me and said, quite seriously, "You know next time you invite me I will come, I promise. You have made it clear you really want me to come, so I will."
On the first day of the One Month challenge we were asked to think of five things we would change. I wrote down that I would invite people to experience the reality of Jesus with me more often and with more enthusiasm. You see that’s what I love about our church. We experience Jesus together and that’s worth inviting people to.
So we can have a “culture of invitation” at New Life. Did anyone lose any friends because they sent them an invitation? Remember the statistic 80+% people will come to church if invited by someone they know and trust. It does not mention any particular Sunday. So what are we waiting for? I have at least two people I need to work on!!