I know I might come across as a bit biased because I pastor a church, but I really am convinced that Christians should be in the regular habit of inviting friends, family, coworkers, and the occasional random stranger, to check out their church family.
The reason I believe this is because I really do believe that we exist to follow Jesus, and part of following Jesus is being an active part of his family. I also believe that everybody spends eternity somewhere and Jesus is pretty clear that the path to eternity in heaven is through him.
But when it comes to inviting people, too often we have excuses. Tom Rainer posted Ten reason why church members don't invite people. Here's his list:
“I just don’t think about it.”
"I’m afraid I’ll be rejected.”
"The music isn’t that good.”
“The preaching isn’t strong.”
“We’ve got too many church problems right now.”
“Our church is already too crowded.”
“Nobody ever challenged me to invite anyone.”
“I don’t know how to start the conversation.”
“It’s the Spirit’s job—not mine—to bring people to church.”
“It’s too far for people to come.”
Now let's be honest. Some of those are really good excuses. Some are horrible excuses. But they are all still just excuses.
Stop making excuses and invite someone.
The Christmas season is the best time of the year to invite someone to Hub City. So who's it going to be?
I'm going to let you in on a little "not-so-secret-secret" about me as a pastor. I'm not interested in doing church. Nowhere in Scripture are we called to do church where it's just an hour or so event that we can check off of our to-do list, where church is a place we go, where church is one of many things that competes for our attention. Scripture calls us to be the church and I am passionate about Hub City being the church. Scripture is clear that followers of Jesus are the church.
There are two ways for us to be the church. We can be the church individually. We can be the church corporately.
I'll talk more about how to be the church individually in a later post, but I want to share with you an opportunity for us to be the church corporately.
There are many ways for us to be the church corporately, but we have been given an opportunity to strategically be the church corporately to the District 6 CDC.
This means that we, as the Hub City Church family are going to take responsibility for praying for, loving, serving and meeting the needs of the teachers, staff and students at the CDC. We have two opportunities for us to be the church for them.
- Pray for teachers and staff. We have a list of all the teachers and staff at the CDC. We want them to be prayed for regularly. Feel free to write notes of encouragement to them as you pray for them. Everything worthwhile begins and is covered in prayer. Let's pray for these teachers and staff.
- Provide some things they need. We have been given a list of things that are needed by the teachers and staff. We're going to be collecting these items for the next two Sundays. Here's the list:
Crayons - regular size
Glue sticks
Clorox wipes
Baby Wipes
Boys/Girls new underwear
Pencils - regular size
Markers
Kleenex
Socks
Black permanent markers
I'm excited to see how God is going to use this partnership. We want to be a church that would be missed if we were to suddenly disappear. That happens when we serve. That happens when we love. That happens when we take serious our vision to Be The Church.
Hub City: Be The Church.
