Take a Deep Breath and Go For It

Easter is just a few days away. In the church world, Easter is a BIG DEAL! On Easter weekend we anticipate having thousands of people participate in the Good Friday walk-through experience and one of our Easter services. Many of them will have no idea what the big deal is all about and we feel that it is our primary responsibility to tell them. My prayer is that everyone who attends Freshwater will take a deep breath and invite one person to join them. It could make an eternal difference. 

While contemplating the significance of Easter as I read a book and watched T.V. with my kids, I realized that I had not taken the time to personally invite any of my non-Christian friends. Sure I have invited them via facebook and Twitter, but I had not made any personal invites.

So I took a deep breath and sent a few texts to some of the people I hang with outside of church. The first person I texted was a man I play hockey with. He is a great guy in his mid-twenties. He lives in the area and God has been putting him on my mind a lot. So I fired off a quick text inviting him to come on Easter to one of our services. Less than a minute later he replied informing me he would love to come. It seemed too easy so I contemplated sending another text stating, “You know that I just invited you to a church service, right? I didn’t ask you to go to the bar or something.” I guess he was just ready to be invited. God must already be working on his heart. So instead I replied, “Cool, see you then.”  

With a sense of confidence I sent a text to another friend. He owns a local business and is known for being, shall I say, less than a model citizen. Two minutes later he replied to my text “Yea, I’ll be there. What time should I come?” I had given him the times in my first text, but he must not have read that part. So I sent him another text with all the times and where I would be speaking live so I could meet him and we could talk. He replied “See you at 10 or 11.” For months I had wanted to invite him but never felt the time was right. Looking back, he was ready to be invited a long time ago. I was just making excuses for not doing it.   

I sent three more texts to three more friends not knowing what to expect. I sent one to a friend from high school, another to someone who used to go to church then fell away, and the third to a friend who I only see at church once or twice a year. One of them said yes and I’m still waiting for a response from the other two. 

Once again I have been reminded that people are hungry for spiritual truth. All I needed to do was to step up and invite them to take one step closer to Jesus by giving church a shot. I wonder how many more non-Christian friends I have that I could simply toss an invite too? How many more of them would be open to spiritual conversations? I guess I won’t know unless I ask. So with a new sense of confidence and drive, I’m going to keep inviting people and I challenge you to do the same.

This Easter weekend is a great time to take a deep breath and invite someone you know to join you at the Good Friday walk-through experience and for one of our Easter services. This is the one service a year when people of all faiths (or no faith) are the most open to coming with you. Why not at least extend them an invite? They might just be waiting for you to extend it.