In Luke 19, Jesus looks over the city he’s about to enter. He set his face for Jerusalem, knowing that it meant suffering, rejection and crucifixion (Luke 9:22, 51). Jesus looked at this city… and wept. He weeps because they don’t know what will bring them peace. He weeps because destruction is coming. He weeps because they don’t recognise ‘God come to them’. In Matthew’s account, Jesus longs to gather them like a mother-hen with her chicks. To bring them in for protection under His wing.
Christ’s heart is to gather rebels for safety.
Hope for the Illawarra* is a chance for us to express Christ’s heart. The 5 steps of ‘Come & See’** is really helpful in capturing Jesus’ approach of gathering. It goes further than ‘Inviting’, to bringing. As the third step says: ‘It is not enough to simply invite; you need a plan to get them there’.
As we pray for our 5 names, it’s also wise to consider all the barriers to these people coming, so we can remove as many as is humanly possible. Sam Chan gives this advice to be a good inviter and take the awkwardness away:
1. Try to make your friends their friends.
Many people today find the story of Jesus completely strange and unbelievable. How strange? Imagine what you would think if someone told you they’d been abducted by aliens and flown off to Jupiter: that’s how the story of Jesus sounds to your friends. It’s a weird story with weird miracles and weird ideas. But what is it that makes Christianity seem so weird and implausible? We might think that it’s a matter the intellect—reason and data. But sociological studies indicate that the most important factor for determining what we see as plausible is actually social. We find it easier to believe something the more people around us believe it. And we find it less easy to believe in something when we don’t know anyone who believes it. This is one reason why we find it so hard to do evangelism on our own. If you’re the one schmuck in that footy club or cooking class who believes in Jesus then you’re fighting the force of social conditioning.
A better way is to try to help our non-Christian friends to become friends with our Christian friends. We need to bring our worlds together. We need to invite our non-Christians friends along when we do things with our Christian friends. Maybe we should be thinking about shared accommodation or having them over for family meals (see point 3).
2. Go to their things before inviting them to yours.
If we never go along to the things our non-Christian friends invite us to, but then expect them to come to ours, we’re acting like Amway salesmen. It’s awkward and embarrassing and it’s unlikely to work. But if we go along to their things—their kids’ birthday parties, or their sporting events, or their graduations, then it’s going to be natural for them to come to ours. If the “event” we ask them to is just one of the many things we do with them it won’t feel so awkward.
3. Prepare the way for the gospel with coffee and dinner.
Australians are incredibly private people when it comes to their personal lives. They find it threatening to talk about serious things; they even find it difficult to go into a stranger’s house. They feel uncomfortable in private territory—both spiritual and physical.
That means we Christians need to work at building up trust. For example, it’s going to feel awkward if we try to talk to them about the Gospel if we haven’t had them around for dinner. And they’re not going to be ready to come around for dinner until we’ve had them around for something more casual like coffee. But even coffee might seem a bit much for some people at the start. Maybe we need to try something that is a bit more casual and public, like a BBQ in the backyard for the neighbours or a cheap store-bought-pizza night.
May Christ bring many under His wings this month,
Mark
Senior Minister | Congregational Pastor 8am, 10am, 5pm & 7pm
* Hope for the Illawarra is a region-wide mission partnership, supported by Leading The Way with Dr Michael Youssef. There are several outreach events taking place at the WIN Entertainment Centre at the end of March, which are designed for locals to invite and bring people they’d love to introduce to Jesus.
Friday 28 March – 7pm – HopeYouth Event with pre-event music & activities from 5pm
Saturday 29 March – 10am – HopeKids Event with pre-event activities from 9:30am
Saturday 29 March – 7pm – Hope For The Illawarra Event
Learn more here.
** ‘Come & See‘ is a prayer ministry for the mission, which encourages local church members to pray for 5 non-believers, build relationships, to invite and bring them, encourage them to receive Christ, and follow up after the mission event/s.
