The Power of an Invitation
A couple of weeks ago I got to be the best man at my cousin’s wedding. At the rehearsal dinner there was a time for people to share stories about the couple, so I shared a story about my cousin. I spoke for a couple of minutes about our childhood, how meticulous he eats a snickers bar (you have never seen anything like it!), and then I shared how God used my cousin to change the course of my very life. You see my cousin was the one that invited me to church. He invited me to summer camps, lock-ins, youth group stuff, and of course church on Sundays. I went to the fun stuff but held back for a while on the Sunday church thing. After a while though I said yes and went to the church. I was so surprised by what I experienced: friendly people who were normal, teaching from the Bible that I understood and helped me see God in a new way.
The Holy Spirit used all this to open my life to Jesus and at a summer camp I surrendered to His call to come and follow Him. And it all started with an invitation.
Over the next few weeks we have some opportunities to leverage the power of the invitation to people we care about and need to be introduced to Jesus. God can use your invitation to literally change someone’s eternal destiny, like He did mine.
Would you pray and then take a step of faith and invite a friend who needs Jesus to one of the our upcoming events . . .
1. Spectrum Art Show
- This is our second Spectrum Art Show. It is an art show designed to be a gift to our community by providing local artists a place to show their God-given talent. This is not a church service nor will there be a Gospel presentation but this event might be a good step for some of your friends who aren’t ready for a Sunday Service yet.
- It is Friday October 14, 6-10PM, here at 1049 Eldridge.
2. Ladies Retreat
- Ladies take advantage of this weekend getaway to invite a friend who needs to hear the Gospel and be introduced to a loving community of regular people. Let me encourage you to focus on people who are not connected to Jesus or to a local church at this time. We love other Christians of course and the other churches in our area but our mission is not to be a vendor of religious goods and services to all Christians in the area but to create gospel environments for the people we have been entrusted with and those outside the faith we want to see saved.
- The retreat dates are, November 10-12, and you can learn more by going here.
3. Patties and Pies on the Porch – Sunday November 6!
- That’s right we will have our 2nd Annual (is it annual if you only have done 2?) Patties and Pies on the Porch! On time change Sunday (the good one with more sleep) after each service we will enjoy some yummy burgers on our front porch and some of the best pies in the city made by you! You can sign-up to bring a pie on Sundays using your Connect Card.
- Our Porch Sundays are great times to invite someone new to discover what God is doing at Crossbridge.
The power of invitation is amazing. Leverage it for His glory and our friends’ joy!
Inviting with you!
Chuck
