HOPE GROWS: COME AND SEE by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

I learned something this week. Parents raising black sons have to do something that parents raising white sons never have to do. You have to have the talk, not the talk about things we do, but the talk as to how to “teach him how to walk, what to say, and how to act so he won’t seem like a threat” (http://bit.ly/GJu4Ty Marian Wright Edelman “Walking While Black.”) My son Jamie, enjoys privilege because he is white. We live in the Old West End, and even if it is raining and he puts up his hood on his hoodie, he will not be viewed as a threat.

Not like a young black man in Florida. Who was walking home from a store, having gotten Skittles and a canned iced tea. He was not carrying a weapon, but he was viewed as a threat. A block watch captain, (and details may come out), shot him for "walking while black."

People say we have moved past the race issue in our country. People are not paying attention. In 2008 and 2009, 2,582 Black children and teens were killed by gunfire. Black children and teens were only 15 percent of the child population, but 45 percent of the 5,740 child and teen gun deaths in those two years. Black males 15 to 19 years-old were eight times as likely as White males to be gun homicide victims.

Here at the Village we follow Jesus so we can change the world. That is what it’s all about. With problems as big as the race issue and gun violence in our country, it seems pretty hopeless to change the world. Look around. There are not so many of us, about 50 people. How can we really hope to change the world? The Children’s Defense Fund has a piece of children’s art on its web site that seems fitting. It says: Dear Lord, be good to me, the sea is so wide and my boat is so small. Look at all of us. The sea is so wide, and our boat is so small.

Well, of course, this is how we change the world: one life at a time. It’s how Jesus started and it’s how we start. Last week, we had a benefit concert at the Village Idiot down the street. We raised $400 and collected 138 items of food for the food pantries in Toledo. Our food was taken to the food pantry at Salem Lutheran Church downtown on Huron. I am familiar with that ministry. In fact our friend Tianda has had a long history with that ministry so I was delighted to hear the food ended up there. They will stretch that money to feed hundreds of hungry families across the city.

Between acts, we took a few moments to talk about The Village. Our friend Rock came down and told her story. Rock does not like to come to bars. She has been clean from drugs and alcohol for about 15 years after a life of serious addiction.

Rock is not a professional speaker, but she stood up there and told her story, because this church means so much to her. She knows we are already changing the world because we changed her life. When she moved to Toledo a couple of years ago to help take care of her two grandchildren, she had no friends. Life was hard. Before she found the Village, she was very close to looking for drugs again. It wouldn’t be too hard in this town, is it?

This community saved her. We gave her a second community, a second family. We showed her God’s grace. We showed her unconditional love. We gave her the courage to continue to fight her addiction. Last week, a year later, she has become a leader here at the Village. A year later, she found her partner Beth. A Year later, she had the courage to stand up in a bar and invite people to come to church! I’d call that a miracle.

You see, Rock wants this church to grow, because one of the ways we can grow our movement stronger and do more to change the world for the Trayvons, is to find more people who need a church home like The Village.

But they can’t find us, if we don’t invite them. We can’t find them if we don’t go out of their comfort zone. So today I have a question for you – have you ever gone to a great new restaurant or seen a fabulous movie (Becca & Kurt went to see the Hunger Games at the midnight showing Thursday night) and the next day, you tell everyone you see all about it?

Over the next two weeks, I want to ask you to take 5 of these invitation cards to our Easter Service and invite 5 new people to our Easter service.

Now, I know that some of you have already invited everyone you know to The Village, and you are just waiting for them to come. If they have shown any interest at all, then give them a card and invite them again. But here is the thing, the average person knows at least 200 people, so you have probably not invited everyone you know, you just think you have.

You see, in our heads we just make this into some big scary thing. And we are afraid of rejection. We aren’t afraid of rejection when we tell someone about a great restaurant or movie. Ever lost a friend because you recommend a restaurant for a kind of food they don’t like or a type of movie they would never want to see. We are just giving them information. So why does this have to be any different.

You would be surprised how many people are just waiting for an invitation. Look at our scripture for today (John 1: 35-42 for those following along on the net). Jesus’ ministry is just beginning. Some of John’s disciples see him. I think they can sense that there is something special about Jesus. They are curious. They want to know more about him. When they ask where he is staying he says: “Come and see” and then they spend the day with him. By the end of the day, several are with him and one calls him the Messiah, they are hooked. They know a good thing when they have found it. But in the initial encounter Jesus does not try to convince them. He does not talk theology. He just says: “Come and see.”

It’s a great model for us when we are inviting folks to The Village. We can say to anyone: “Come check out this new church meeting at a movie theater. I love it. The people there have become my second family. We are changing the world.” There’s something special here. We feel it.

Jesus in our Bible story today does not require these people to believe in certain principles. He doesn’t ask if they believe in his virgin birth. He doesn’t ask them to go through classes. He simply invites them.

Whatever two or three sentences you choose to say will be enough. They will either be ready or they won’t. But if they are ready, they will catch the energy in your voice. What have they got to lose? An hour or two of their day – in exchange for the possibility of finding a community of Hope where they can be a part of changing the world? Sounds like a great offer to me.

But they won’t know about the offer if we don’t invite them. Now sure, we can put a few ads in the local paper, and yes we want your help putting door hangers on doors in Maumee, but by far the most effective means is one on one inviting. Even better, is you offering to bring someone with you to church. If you offer to give them a ride the first Sunday, and go have lunch with them after, that is the best.

Let me tell you a personal story of how this works. I have been spending time at a coffee house down the street: Georgette’s. I keep inviting the baristas to our various “come and see” events. I invited them to Blues Christmas; and to Grease, and then to the concert at The Village Idiot to feed hungry people. This week, one of them, said to me, “You know I’ve been thinking about it. I have not been to church for 4 years and I need to come back to church. I’m going to come to your church.”

We talked a little more the next day, and I learned why she had left church and why she thinks it’s time to come back. She was just waiting for the right time, and for an invitation from someone who seemed safe and friendly. You could be that person for someone else.

This young woman is not my best friend. I just got to know her because I buy coffee from her a couple days a week. But because the Village is having these “Come and See” events to make it easy for you to invite people to things, I had something easy to invite her to. In time, she was able to say to me, “You know, I used to go to church, and I want to come back.”

She wants to change the world too. And with us, she can do that.

Who do you see every week that you could invite to The Village’s Easter service?

I’m going to ask you to invite 5 people to Easter Sunday and see Hope Grow with us. Just 5 friends, relatives, co-workers. Five people who need a community where Hope Grows. If you’re following along on the net, come join us. We’re at the Corner of Conant Street and the Trail in Maumee in the Maumee Indoor Theater, Sundays at 10:30 AM and out in the world the rest of the week, following Jesus and Changing the World.