An Invitation Please by Keith Cook
"And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ..." Colossians 4:3
Years ago, while working at a Billy Graham Crusade, I learned a valuable lesson that I have never forgotten. It is so simple yet profound in it's scope for ministry and service. This is what I learned: People will come to Christian events and services if they are invited! Simple, but true.
Most unchurched are never invited to events or services. Each week millions of Christians make a holy pilgrimage to a local church to worship God and they pass millions of lost and needy people on the way.
According to the Billy Graham School of Evangelism at Southern Seminary, 96% of the unchurched would come to church if invited. While I know saying you will come and actually showing up is far from a certainty, it does speak well of how favorably the church is seen by most people. If you invited someone to go to prison or a local bar, the percentages would be well below those of a church invitation.
The average church only has about 20% of its membership inviting guests to come be a part of their services. The majority of those invitations, 98% to be exact, go to people who are already church goers themselves.
Can you imagine if every member of every Christian church simply invited a non-churched person or family to church this week. What would happen? Based on the figures I have that would mean that over 150 million new people could come to church this next Sunday. Wow!
That would not take a big plan or a lot of extra work on anyone's part. Simply opening one's mouth and asking, "Hey, would you like to come visit our church this week?" or "Would you and your family like to be our guests at a special event we are having at our church this weekend?" This weekend we celebrate Easter Sunday, what better way to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ than to invite an unchurched individual to attend Worship Services with you and share with them the
love of Christ!
Take a few moments to make a simple list of those you could invite to church this weekend.
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All it takes is an invitation. Do your part this week in reaching your world for Christ.
Daily Prayer Focus: Take a moment to pray for: Open Doors, Open Minds, Open Hearts!
On The Go Prayer Focus: All the local churches, committees, and leaders who will be working with On The Go Ministries and the Keith Cook Team in creative outreach efforts in the United States and around the world. This week our team is ministering in Jamaica. Please pray for pastors, church leaders, school teachers and administration, and community leaders as they work with our team this week!
Thank you for taking the time to pray for this important division of On The Go Ministries. For more information on any our ministries here at On The Go, you may send your questions to info@onthego.org.
On The Go Daily Devotion for March 27, 2013
Brought to you each day by On The Go Ministries / Keith Cook Team
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