Put your sandals on
Matthew 4:19
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people."
I have always been a huge fan of comic books, especially Spiderman, mostly because the hero, Peter Parker was a nondescript typical kid. But one thing Peter could never do was get involved with a girl or worse yet – get married. He knew that if he fell in love and had a bride, his enemies would go after her and jeopardize her safety. His bride would be his greatest weakness.
So let’s say for instance that I was God’s greatest enemy. Now I know I don’t stand a chance of lasting 12 rounds in the ring with the creator of the Universe; I can’t match him pound for pound in any arena. So, what do I do? Simple….I go after what he loves. I go after his bride.
Sometimes to get a clear picture of what is going on in the world you need to look out the window, and maybe even down the street. Currently in America 1 in 3 people are unchurched. This means in the past six months, they have not attended a place of worship of any faith. What is worse is that statistic was the same back in 1994. To put it in larger numbers that is an estimated 73 million adults who are presently unchurched. When teens and children are added, the total swells to roughly 100 million Americans. To put that figure in context, if the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, that group would be the twelfth most populated nation on earth.
These are definitely tough times, attracting people to a conventional church is a greater challenge than ever - as is the difficulty of keeping them engaged in the process. But I came across this quote from Christian statistician George Barna that still gives me hope, "Every year, many previously unchurched people return to a church for one or more Easter season services. More often than not, this is the result of one of two motivations: the compelling invitation of a close friend who accompanies them to the service, or a personal crisis that compels them to seek God more fervently. Impersonal marketing efforts generally have limited impact in persuading the unchurched to break their normal Sunday morning habits."
What doesn’t work? Impersonal marketing efforts. (i.e. tracts, mailers, flyers, door hangers, flashy websites, mass emails etc.)
What does work? A personal invitation.
Think about this, Jesus was God in the flesh and he still felt the need to put his sandals on and walk down to the beach to find a few followers. Jesus extended a personal invitation to a few lost men and it still works today. Who is in your oikos? Who are the 3 to 16 people that you know that make up the 100 million Americans who don’t attend a church? Did you know there are only 8 weeks left until Easter?
Jesus said to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it.” [Matthew 16:18]
God’s enemies can keep on trying to take out his bride, but as the old song says, we shall overcome.
* some quotes and statistics taken from http://www.barna.org
