One
of the fascinating things about the Jesus story is how far and how fast it
spread. The book of Acts, which is the story of the beginning of the church,
starts in Jerusalem and ends 1500 miles to the west in Rome. The wild fire called
the Christian movement also burned to the east. By the year 635 there were believers
as far away as China. A hundred years after that, Syrian believers had spread
the gospel to Baghdad, Tibet and India. The apostle Paul alone, traveled 10,000
miles proclaiming the good news of God's love. And remember that was all on foot. (source: http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20130701JJ.shtml
Today
we marvel at how fast news & information passes on the internet. We use
social media to get a story out in an instant. That website change.org is
amazing in the way people can tell a story about injustice and put up a
petition. You can join tens of thousands of people – or more – in such a short
period of time, and really get some attention for your cause from the
President, Congress or the leader of a
corporation.
It
took a little longer back in the days of Jesus’ first disciples. But the
principles were still the same. Tell people good story and we will listen. Give
us living water and we will drink from that well. Invite people to be part of a
movement that will change the world, and we will sign up, and we will tell our
friends about it. That’s what happened, they invited their friends into their
homes and they told the amazing stories of Jesus and about the power of God’s
love. People turned to God. They practiced patience, compassion, and
forgiveness – just like we do here. They pooled their resources to care for the
poor among their community. They were generous and sacrificial. They served one
another with servant hearts. They were so grateful for God’s love that they
wanted to love their neighbor as if, when they looked at their neighbor, they
might just be looking at the face of Jesus.
You
might just want to go home today, and this week and read the Book of Acts. It
is a great book, full of some inspiring stories of those early Christians,
spreading the message like wildfire around the World.. In today’s scripture passage, from Luke we
find the story of Jesus sending out 70 of his followers. The movement has
spread now beyond just the 12 disciples. There has been a lot of historical
discussion of who these 70 people were. Many scholars believe that among these
70 that we call apostles; there must have finally been some women. Whoever these people were, they model for us
the radical response to the urgent announcement of Jesus.
Jesus
says just one word, "Go!" (Luke 10:3 for those following along via
the web). "The harvest is plentiful in a hurting world. As the Father has
sent me, I am sending you." Just “GO!”.
If
you wonder where to start or what to do, these apostles give us some guidance:
Go. Do something. Do something rather than
nothing. Understand it is risky to follow Jesus. Not everyone will want to
hear the message. That is okay. Just keep telling the story anyway, because
eventually you will find someone who is ready and ripe for the message. The
field is full and ripe for harvest. There are lots of people out there who need
God’s love. They don’t have a clue that God loves them. They don’t have any
balance in their lives. They don’t have a center. They are wandering around
aimlessly like a boat with no rudder. I’m
not a sailor, but I understand if you don’t have a rudder, it’s really hard to
get where you need to go.
That
is why every Sunday I have been ending the service with some sort of word of invitation
to you: who do you know who needs the love of Jesus. How might you invite them
to The Village? You know you are going
to run into someone who needs this.
You
see, we are Jesus’ 70 apostles in this little corner of the world. Every week
we come here to be fed, to be filled up and encouraged and challenged. And then
we are sent out – to do God’s work. The fields out there are ripe. There are
lots of people out there who are hurting or who just simply could use some
spiritual growth in their lives. We all need to dig deeper in order to be
closer to God and to be more of the person God put us on this earth to be. None of us are there yet.
But
a whole lot of people out there do not have a spiritual community. Why? For all
of the reasons why you were not part of a community before you came to The
Village. You thought there was not a community that was a good fit for you. You
thought they were all too boring, too judgmental, too traditional, too ____ you
fill in the blank. Do you suppose that there might be some other folks out
there like you? We are probably not so unique. We are probably not the only 40
people in this area who need God and who want a community like this. The
greater metropolitan area of Toledo has a half a million people in it. I think
there are a few more who would love to be part of this church.
What
if every one of us invited one person every week? There are about 40 of us
today. If we invited 40 people a week times 52 weeks that is 2080 people. If
only 5% of the people we invite actually came to a service that would be 104
new visitors to The Village. That is if
only 5% of them came. Maybe more of them would come, many more.
So
the question is: how will we find these people and invite them? If you are like
most people, the thought of inviting someone to church is a bit intimidating.
You don’t to impose your religion on someone else. You don’t want to be “that
guy” or “that woman.”
Jesus
had something to say to us when we feel that way. If you go to someone’s house,
and they do not welcome you, then say: “I’ll be on my way, but it’s your loss.
Because I just came here to show you God’s love and if you reject me you are
rejecting God.” You don’t even have to
say it out loud.
You
see, Jesus invites us to treat every human interaction as an opportunity to
reveal the love of God to another person. How about that! When I meet my
child’s teacher at school, when I meet the person who sells me something in a
store, when I meet someone who will clean my house or serve me dinner, or who
teaches my class at the gym – all of these interactions are a chance for me to
be Jesus. I have the chance to share some kindness and some patience. I have a
chance to show an interest in the person.
When
a person waits on you at a restaurant have you ever done this: ask the person –
“how are you today?” Say: “My friend and I just came from church and we pray
every Sunday for people, is there anything we could pray about for you?”
What
could it hurt? What if you sent an email to your child’s teacher and said: “I
am thankful to you for caring for my child. In my daily prayer time I would
like to pray for you. Is there any special focus that you would like me to pray
for?” For those of you who are teachers. What would that feel like to get a
note like that? What would it mean for you?
I
know as a pastor, how much it means to me to get a note from someone saying
they are praying for me each week. I can imagine as a teacher who works so very
hard it would be such a gift. I might just ask: what church do you go to? If I
were looking for a church, I might just visit a church of a parent who offered
to pray for me.
What
about a server at a restaurant or someone who works at a store you go to
regularly? I have watched folks who make it a practice to ask their servers, if
they are not too busy, “How is your day going?” And if they become a regular in
a restaurant they get to know a server and ask about their family. They offer
to pray for concerns in the server’s life. That becomes an opportunity, then,
to invite them to visit The Village. It does not have to be pushy.
When
I invite someone I just say, “My church is called The Village, we meet inside
the Maumee Indoor Theater over at the Trail and Conant. It’s a very casual
atmosphere. We have a great band and good coffee. We would love to have you
come some Sunday.” I give them a card and suggest they check out the web site.
Now
if you are talking with a friend it is a little different story. Say you are
having lunch with a co-worker or a friend and they are going through a rough
time. Perhaps a parent has died or they have just gone through a relationship
break up. They are struggling. You might share from your own experience using
what we call and “I statement.” For
example: “I have found that when I have gone through some really difficult
experiences in my own life that being part of a church community has been a
source of strength to me. Do you have anything like that?” They may have a
community they can tell you about. They may have one in their past that they
are disconnected from and you might ask them if they think this is a good time
to reconnect. If they don’t want to do that for some reason or if they don’t
really have a community then you might offer: “I really love The Village. Going
there helps me feel closer to God’s love. I would be happy to pick you up next
Sunday and we could go together and then go out for food after church if you
want.”
Bringing
someone with you is the best way to help them feel welcome. It is very
intimidating to come to church for the first time if you have never been or
have not been in a long time. But if you can come with a friend it is so much
easier. This is how the early church spread like wildfire. It’s not really that complicated.
Ok,
yes I know it feels hazardous, you really feel scared doing this. Jesus, got this, he referred to it as sending
lambs into a wolf pack. You may invite someone to church and you may, one day,
get an earful about how awful church people are. We are hypocrites and judgmental
and anti gay and racist and our priests are pedophiles and we hate women, and
on and on. Some people will have issues. That is the risk we take.
But
there is another cost if we don’t take the risk. The other cost, is that we
will be this tiny congregation, turning only inward, caring only for ourselves.
We will be a closed club. Just like those other churches that we don’t want to
be, a country club church. And that is no church at all.
A
church of Jesus followers is always about taking risk. We are about doing the
hazardous work – and taking risk – because Jesus took a risk for us. A huge
risk. So we are called to get out there
and mix it up. We are called to take some chances and look for some hurting
people and invite them in to our community.
We’re all broken, we’ve all got our scars too. We will be blessed and
they will be blessed. There is plenty of God’s love to go around.
I
want to invite you into an exercise. I
want you to consider who you could invite and how. The easy way, by the way, would be
volunteering to help Kurt Young and our outreach team the next few Saturdays at
the Maumee Street Fair and Pride. They
will be providing some basic hospitality, giving away water, giving away candy,
having sun screen, etc. You can sign up
by calling Kurt Young at 419-215-955 or email him at kmy@kmylaw.com . Or you can pick a harder way. Think about it for a bit. Who can you support, who can you pray for,
who can you nudge onto the path we are all on here to a better way of life?
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