The power of invitation

Over the last month I've been thinking a lot about the Samaritan woman and how she invites people to come and meet Jesus. I don't imagine for one minute that extending that invitation was an easy thing for her to do. In fact I can think of a lot of reasons why she might have avoided making that invitation. (She didn't know much, not many friends, unresolved morality issues in life, no Holy Spirit to gift her in evangelism.)
She is contrasted in the story with the disciples who go to the same village and fail to appreciate that the harvest fields are ripe. They go into the village and return to Jesus without anyone coming with them to see the one they had witnessed healing the sick and turning water into wine.
Last year Dumfries Baptist Church got involved in the Back To Church initiative, an invitation-based church growth strategy run by Michael Harvey.
I was overwhelmed by the difference it made. The church spent time looking at how they welcomed people, reflected on their weekly practises and changed some of them. They considered issues of hospitality, children's ministry and what should be part of our services. They also took up the challenge to invite people to a church service that they believed would be an encouragement to their friends and colleagues.
In many cases these invitations led to friends and colleagues attending a church service. For others it opened up conversations about the importance of faith in their life. The local press were also captivated by the idea of a "Back to Church Sunday" and were happy to run stories, adverts and follow up articles.
Here is the big question: when was the last time you invited someone to come and experience your church? There may be many reasons for it being a while ago. As I reflect on my own reasons, I am afraid that I am discovering my reasons are only excuses. I have fallen into the disciples' trap, or devil's lie, of believing there is not a ripe harvest in Scotland.
Tear Fund conducted some research that suggested 6% of the nation are ready to be invited back to Church. That's getting on for as many as attend.
I think we could do with a good few models of people who, like the Samaritan women, are ready to invite others in and trust in the power of the Spirit to have softened hearts to receive the invitation.
Michael Harvey has some great resources available on line including 12 videos on the 12 steps to fruitful invitations.
http://www.mjhassociates.org.uk/?m=201008

Shetland connections

A one and a half hour flight out of Glasgow found me landing on the southern most tip of the Shetland mainland. It's the area served by the Dunrossness Baptist Church. A good 30 minute drive and you are in the area served by the Lerwick Baptist Church, keep going north for a further 30 minutes and you are at the area served by Brae Baptist Church and there is still a longer drive to reach the top of the main island. Head west out of Lerwick and you find yourself crossing a couple of bridges onto Burra Isle where the 4th Baptist Church is situated. The geography was staggering, I had little knowledge of these islands, of how big and indeed how remote they are. Sitting in the home of Ian and Morag who minister in Dunrossness, looking out onto a wild Atlantic Ocean, it is staggering to think that the next piece of land due west is Greenland!

It was a great visit, made special by the people I met and the opportunity to lay the foundation stone of the new Lerwick Baptist Church. But it was also a time of great learning and inspiration.

I witnessed an interdependency on the island seldom seen on the mainland. The ministers fraternal was relational, deeply relational. These 4 ministers really knew one another, cared for one another and supported one another. They shared a passion to reach out to the islanders and encouraged and enabled one another to serve.

During the vacancy in Brae the other 3 churches sent a visiting preacher each month covering 3 out of the 4 Sundays. Members of the congregation were familiar with the other church's members and as a result of Andrew's "Better together tour" they are talking of having annual joint deacons' meetings.

These structures are in essence the dry bones of what I actually felt. There was something life-giving, a supportive, encouraging, trusting, upbuilding and deeply caring attitude towards each other expreseed minister to minister, congregation to congregation. Competiveness, insecurity and suspicion appeared absent.

These, our most northern congregations who face the most demanding of climates, demonstrate for us a relational climate that we would do well to imitate.