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Extending the invitation, II

June 27, 2023

Dear friends,

Here’s the question: “Is it difficult to invite people to church? If so, why? And what can be done to make it easier?”

Last week, I suggested that it’s difficult because we often think of church as ordinary and unnecessary. It would be easier for us to invite people to church if we understood better how extraordinary and necessary it is. And I talked about how it is and isn’t like breathing, and how God blesses us at church even when we don’t realize it.

Now, I asked for feedback on this question, and I got some responses. And there was a theme in those responses. There was a lot of attention to the difficulty of accepting an invitation. That’s interesting!

Here’s an analogy: Suppose you asked me what’s difficult about swinging a baseball bat. I might start listing a bunch of things – “Well, the ball’s coming in really fast, and I tend to ground out to the shortstop, and I can never hit a slider.”

If I think about all that, it can make it difficult to swing the bat. But, it’s difficult only because I’m afraid I’m not going to make contact or get on base. The fact is, however, just swinging the bat doesn’t depend on any of those things. My little Tobias can swing a baseball bat. Sure, he can’t hit a 90mph pitch, and he can’t get on base, but he can swing the bat. But if I’m afraid that I might fail, I might find that I’m not able to swing the bat at all.

And that, I believe, is a strong second reason why inviting people to church can be difficult: It’s because you can think of a million reasons they’d say no.

This is a super easy exercise – list all the reasons you can think of why someone you invited to
church would not show up:

has other plans,
likes to sleep in,
thinks church is stupid,
had a bad experience in church,
thinks that church is a bunch of hypocrites,
doesn’t like the music,
doesn’t like the pews,
doesn’t like pastors,
wouldn’t ever change,
has really strong opinions,
would feel out of place,
thinks the church is just after money,
thinks heaven and hell are fake,
has too many ties to the world . . .

The list really could go on forever.

And it’s really good to put that on the table. It’s good to be honest about the odds: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” 3/4 of the seed scattered by the sower doesn’t bear fruit. Many of the disciples of Jesus left him when his preaching got difficult, and everyone abandoned him when he died.

And people have lots of reasons they might say no.

But, here are two things to bear in mind:

1) Jesus isn’t asking you to hit home runs. He’s just asking you to swing the bat. He’s not asking you to get people to church, he’s asking you to extend the invitation. If it were a matter of getting people to church, we’d be tempted to use all kinds of tricks and gimmicks, and we would quickly abandon the Gospel in order just to get the pews filled. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s about spreading the good news, and trusting that those who have ears to hear will hear it, and being okay with the fact that many will not.

2) Even if you have to hear a million rejections before someone says yes, it was worth it. There is great rejoicing in heaven over just 1 sinner who repents. And even if no one ever says yes, you can rejoice because you have heeded your Savior’s command: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

Long story short, don’t let the excuses you might hear from people be your excuse not to invite them!

More next time.

God bless and keep you,

Pr. Buchs


COMING EVENTS:
Council Meeting – Thursday, July 13 @ 7pm