Revival, Part 5 of 5
Read Luke 14:18-24. This is the parable Jesus told about a man who prepared a great banquet. He invited many people. When the banquet was ready, he sent servants to tell those invited to come. One by one they made their excuses why they could not attend. So the man sent his servants into town to invite anyone they could. Many people came, but there was still room for more, so he sent his servants with this charge: “Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in!” In this parable, Jesus was saying that God’s grace is open to absolutely everyone who will come. What I want to point out is the charge the man gave his servants is the same charge God to us. “Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in.”
We call this ‘outreach.’ There are some issues every church has with outreach.
First is the misconception that we have to gather on a given night and knock on people’s doors. Very few people are comfortable doing this, and very few people are excited to have unannounced visitors come at night. Outreach should be something we do as a matter of going about our daily lives.
We need to read the parable closely. The servants were not told to go out and extol the virtues of the man, but to invite people to come and feast. At the feast, they will experience the goodness of the master. Our job is to go out and invite others to come and feast on the goodness of God. As they do, they will fall in love with God and commit their lives to Him.
We live inundated with technology, especially social media. I can’t count how many different avenues there are to network with others. Our church has a Facebook page, a website, and an account on Twitter and Instagram, neither of which are being used. Our younger people are all over the social media thing. We need to use it to reach them.
But, the best way of reaching others for Christ and His kingdom, is to personally invite them to come to the banquet. Every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday, not to mention our activities, God prepares a banquet for us. He serves us His love and mercy, served with a side of fellowship and music, seasoned with His word. When we feast at His table, we experience the character of God, fall in love with Him, and commit our lives to Him.
The second question is ‘How do we retain our guests?” Some people might say we need to develop programs to keep them involved. Well, programs are tools for teaching, doing missions, creating fellowship, getting to know others. But programs are just the peel of the banana. What makes a banana tasty and popular is the inside. What makes a church grow is not the programs but the people. Jesus said we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. WE are to show God in our lives to others, and to make them thirsty for the Living Water.
How about you? Are you inviting others to Christ and to church? Does the way you live attract others to Jesus? Revival is coming! Get ready!