INVITE THEM TO SEE GOD, STAND BACK, AND BE AMAZED

My buddy over at Discipleship Coach came up with an acronym that helps capture what several of us believe to be central to the identities of Christ Followers. It falls under the name: WORSHIP. They're 7 habits that Christ followers in our world have that distinguish them from Other-followers. The "I" stands for "Invite."

This is a purely evangelistic term, but when we say it, we mean to differentiate it from what most folks hear when they are "invited." When most are "invited", they're normally invited to something -- like a special event at a church, a kickoff worship, or some place that they must go to experience the power of God in their lives. When we "invite" folks, we invite them to see the power of Christ already working in their lives. Invitation starts by careful, attentive listening.

I've had a couple of experiences over the past few weeks where I have seen the power of invitation at work. Both experiences were funerals, and specifically funerals of people who were not connected to our particular Christ-community. They were loved ones of partners in our Christ-community, and in a pinch, we stepped in to provide the needed funeral and bereavement care they needed. It's weird preaching at the funeral of folks I didn't even know existed. It's hard to be true to their lives and how they lived. Both folks weren't particularly "churchy." They believed in God, had made the intimations that they were Christians, but just didn't connect primarily with church. They hadn't done normally "churchy" things like attend worship regularly, go to bible studies, bring casseroles to potlucks, or sit on churchy committees. I'll admit--it's easier to do funerals of people who are particularly "churchy" because you have some evidence that their lives were dedicated to God, as sinful as they continued to be. For folks who don't fall into that category, I wonder what their lives were dedicated to. I felt half like a pastor and half like a community chaplain. But these people were loved by members who had called me to serve, and I gave them my all. In both circumstances, I stumbled upon lives that were richly lived in devotion to helping others out of the generosity of their hearts. If the stories I heard were true, they rival anything from "churchy" folks.

I didn't know either of the people, so I listened to stories from loved ones. I asked questions all night long in order to get to know the people, and come time for the funeral sermon, I invited people to see where God's grace had worked itself through their lives. The outcome was amazing, because folks recognized God's presence in the lives of the bereaved, and they began to see God in their own lives as well. When I look at the task of preaching, this is one of its primary tasks for people: invite them to see God in the text and in their lives.

All I did was listen to stories. I heard them in the context of the larger story we have in our Scriptures -- the story of the God who comes to rescue all sinners regardless of churchy affiliation. And I recapitulated them back to their loved ones with the invitation to see the touchpoints between their story and God's story. Isn't this what evangelism, at its purest and simplest form, is? It seemed to work pretty well, and, truth be told, it was rather easy. Can't we do this more in our lives as Christ-followers?