:A Christian Blog

While reading through Creating a Community, I found an evangelism strategy used by North Point Church called “invest and invite.” On the surface, it sounds very simple, and that’s exactly what impressed me so much about the strategy. I’ve been struggling to come up with an effective way to get non-Christians to come to church without giving them the “holier than thou” speech heard round the world daily that just fortifies the non-believer’s thoughts on religion in the first place. This strategy, however, really puts into words the way Jesus ministered throughout his journey here on earth. From the book, “We encourage our attendees to invest in the lives of unbelievers and then invite them to a relevant ministry environment.”

First, invest. I think it’s very important that this is the first step. I put a lot of thought into how to just get the non-believer to believe. Something that’s very hard to do when the most important part of Christianity is believing. You can’t just start out with talk of belief in an almighty God and if you don’t you’re going to hell. That puts them on the defensive right from the start, and from then on, they have a mental filter for religious talk when you speak. So, how do you invest in someone’s life? Help a person in need? Let’s assume this is a peer, someone at work or at the local gym. They probably don’t need clothing or food. You may not have the opportunity to help them fix a tire or let them borrow a cup of sugar that often. So, how do you invest in a person’s life that is on the same level that you are?

My first thought was to go to another book on my shelf, 25 Ways to Win with People by John Maxwell. The book outlines 25 ways to make others feel better about themselves, therefore appreciate you and value your friendship. I’m going to go over three of them that I think most apply to the goal of getting a person to come to church with you.

1. Start with Yourself. I love the quote out of the book by Harry Firestone, “You get the best out of others, when you give the best of yourself.” Make sure your emotionally healthy and happy. The task at hand involves sharing this happiness with others and showing them Jesus through you and your actions. Remember that investing and inviting a peer will require accountability.

2. Pass the credit onto others. This is especially effective if the person your trying to invite works with you. Selfless acts that build up others. Don’t just do this for this person, but for others also. Make it a daily occurrence to build up other people by crediting them and giving them compliments. People love praise and it brightens their day to get it.

3. Listen with your heart. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said” — Peter Drucker. Even though this is a very passive way to invest in someone’s life, it’s one of the most important. Why? Listening opens up opportunities in the other areas. When you really listen to someone, even if they seem to only talk about work, you can often hear needs and problems surface. Maybe this person and their spouse haven’t had a night out in a long time and you could give them a gift certificate to a local restaurant. That’s just one idea, and I’m betting there are plenty more if you really start listening with your heart.

It’s very easy for most people to give money to a charity but investing in peer’s life takes focus. Changing your daily routine from one that focuses mainly on your needs to one that puts some of that focus on someone else will take time. A good way to accomplish this change is notes around the house or at work that will help focus you everyday on your goal.

There are many different ways to do this. I’d recommend starting small. Invite them to a church function outside of church. The more friends they have from your church, the better chance they have of getting into a routine of attending church. Of course, there are two possible answers to your request.

Yes. Great! Reduce any anxiety they have about attending church by letting them know about what will be going on and be prepared to answer any questions they have about what will be happening. If they are anything like me, then one of their worries might be getting singled out once they get there. If they are nervous about this, take steps to insure this doesn’t happen by calling friends, letting your pastor know about them coming, etc.

No. This isn’t as bad as you think. By investing in someone’s life, it not only helps them, but helps you as well. Hopefully, you now have a friend and there will be other opportunities to get this person involved with church and hopefully in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Also keep in mind that it’s possible that another “Christian” hurt this person and now they are cautious towards religion in general.

For some, this won’t be as rose-colored as I make it seem I know. It can take anywhere from weeks to years to make something like this happen. Trust in God, pray about your goal, and let him lead you to victory. The outcome may be a little different than you expected, or take a little longer than you thought, but by investing in someone’s life and inviting them to church, you’re on the great commission given to you by Jesus Christ.

1 Comment

Not that I think anyone cares, but sometimes I find myself looking for new books to read and often spend more time than I should at Amazon looking for books. Here are just some books that I currently have on the shelf waiting for me to read that are at least worth checking out if you’re in the market for a new book.

The Barbarian Way (Just finished this one)

Creating a Community

The Tipping Point

Today Matters

Of course, all authors were speakers at Catalyst 2005. I really wish I could hear all the authors of books on my reading list before reading them because it really gives you some idea of what they are about. The only one I can say I’m not really anxious to read is Today Matters by John Maxwell. He didn’t really impress me at the conference and the last couple of books I’ve read by him seem like it is republished material that he’s already talked about. I think he has some great ideas and insights, but tends to try to turn those into 2 or 3 books instead of just one. I still buy and read his books for the same reason I read all my other books: new ways to think, vision, and ideas.

1 Comment

This post is filled with questions in my head surrounding talk about the new Supreme Court Justice nominee, Harriet Miers. Everyone wants to know how she will vote on this issue or that issue. James Dobson has even graciously assured us that Harriet Miers is a good candidate for the Supreme Court. Which in turn, has got him in some hot water with everyone else. That fallout caused Dobson to come back to the issue today and say this. Whew! Anyone else seeing more focus on the Supreme Court than the family here?

Question: Why don’t Christians start concentrating less on making abortion illegal and more on encouraging mothers to keep their babies so that even if it’s legal, they won’t want to do it? This all comes back to outreach in the church. The majority of mothers (I dare say all) don’t want to abort their babies, but they don’t feel like they can support them. If less basketball courts were built, and more permanent shelters for the poor were built, maybe more of them would keep their babies knowing they are going to be taken care of.

Am I wrong to think that all of this attention given to Harriet Miers by James Dobson and others is just missing the point? Have we become so small of an influence on society that we think we need the help of a law to prevent/discourage people from doing something we feel is wrong? Maybe we should lobby for judges that would require everyone to go to church, prevent them from smoking, and ban alcohol. Is that the best way to spread the gospel in the 21st century?

Comments Off

In case your wondering, yes, I will wrap up talking about this subject soon. This is probably my last post about it specifically. Here are some links I’ve found from around the internet on views about Catalyst 2005. Some I really agree with, and some only partly, but if you read them, it at least looks as though everyone was at the same conference and in sync for the most part with their opinions of it.

Church Marketing Sucks

Tony Morgan’s Blog (in depth posts about Catalyst also)

live… from new orleans

Bob Franquiz (seperate posts for different Catalyst speakers also)

I’m sure there are more, but that’s what I could find from the past few days of looking through the Christian blogs that popped up. It’s good to see that everyone had a good time, and I hope it’s even bigger and better next year.

Comments Off

Just thought I would point out that Rick Warren has made Fortune’s Top 25 People We Envy Most. A suprising list to make for a Christian I know, but even more suprising is their write-up about Rick.

From the article:
“The most influential evangelical since Billy Graham preaches in Hawaiian shirts and sandals. As if that weren’t enough: Warren gives away 90% of his income. And he’ll never wake up wondering if his job has meaning.”

God is giving a lot of responsibility to Mr. Warren, and from what I’ve seen, he’s using it in some of the best ways possible. Congratulations and keep up the good fight.

Comments Off

Imagine a person that has spent his life in the jungle. He somehow knows how to read, but the only book he has ever read is the Bible. This person would believe that a follower of the almighty God is without limits. That is what I see in Erwin McManus. Someone who hasn’t been domesticated to American Christianity. Someone who doesn’t see limits to Christianity.

The Barbarian Way tries to convey some of that thinking to the Christian who has been domesticated to think that going to church most Sundays out of the year is what being a Christian is all about. In the book, he tries to “unleash the untamed faith within” with many examples in the Bible of barbarian Christians. He challenges you to stop acting civilized when spreading the word of God, and start acting barbaric (The book tells more about exactly what that means). One of the Bible contexts in the book that really hit it home for me was this one.

20And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

21But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,

22saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

23And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

24″For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

25″For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?

26″For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

27″But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

I’ll end with this tough question. How many Christians do you know (including yourself) that deny themselves, take up the cross daily, and follow Jesus?

1 Comment

“Vintage Catalyst” was one of the best conferences that I’ve been to. All the speakers were right on target, as far as I’m concerned, on how to move forward with today’s church. There was even a special appearance by Rick Warren to proclaim that we need a second reformation in the church to move in a new direction which I would sum up as “Others, not self”. I ended up buying a book by almost every speaker at the conference after hearing their views on the role of the church and it’s leaders in today’s world. A lot of it was inline with some of the things I’ve been talking about. Outward, not inward, is the way that Jesus taught and that if you walked in any church today, your more likely to hear a sermon on “stress” than the needs of the poor in your community. I’m still taking in all the information that I’ve heard and have drastically stepped up my reading time this week to formulate some ideas in my own head about how to get this accomplished in my community. I would recommend that everyone that has a position or plans to take a position in Christian leadership attend Catalyst 2006 next year. I’m sure a lot of the blogs over the next couple of weeks will deal with the same subjects that Catalyst talked about.

Comments Off

The blog will be void of posts this week. I’m attending a leadership conference called Catalyst. I have never attended this event, but those who have highly recommend it. Here’s a little more about it from the web site.

Catalyst’s Purpose:

To provide relevant solutions through training and resources which connect and develop next generation leaders.

I hope to return with new ways to motivate myself, as well as, other Christians to spread the gospel of Christ. I’m going to try to keep up with all the great Christian blogs that I read everyday through the hotel wireless internet, so keep posting away!

1 Comment

Just a quick note, there’s a good discussion about intelligent design going on over at kuro5hin.org. It’s worth a read and even though the intelligent design theory is not as clear as Christians would want it to be, it at least gets our foot back in the door in an official sense in public schools. Does anyone have links to Christian authors talking about the same subject?

Warning: The site linked doesn’t filter profanity.

2 Comments

There’s an interesting discussion going on at the Rapture Ready message boards that started out with an educated atheist asking “Why should I love God?” It’s interesting to me because it’s not from a scientific standpoint. He acknowledges God, but just doesn’t see what God is doing for him. There are many different replies along the lines of “He loves you”, “He sent his son to die for you”, etc. This doesn’t mean anything to someone who doesn’t want to believe and love God though.

I think the answer is that God is doing a lot for him already. God reaches out to all the world by teaching you and me to represent him physically. Casting Crowns has it right, “we are the body”. Chances are, God has helped him all along in his life, he may have even hired him for his current job. Where would we be as the human race without God’s teaching of love and charity? It’s definitely not in our nature. As children, we are completely selfish. I would hate to see a world without God. Anyone that couldn’t make it on their own would die. Anyone that had more than someone else would be robbed or killed. God is doing a lot for him and everyone else through us. It’s a great responsibility to represent God on this Earth. Do you make God glad that he is being represented by you?

Comments Off