You Always Seem So Well Prepared For Me

Yesterday morning, I had a dentist appointment. I only see my dentist every 6 months, so over the past few years, we have had a few 10 to 15 minute conversations about faith and church. I have given her a book to read and invited her to a women's event at Kentwood Community Church. Well, when she walked in the room yesterday, she told me that she had visited the church. I was excited to hear that. She immediately began to offer some excuses about why the busyness of life had kept her from coming back since her intitial visit, but she didn't realize that I wasn't going to judge her. I was excited that she was taking a step towards fellowship. I encouraged her to come back and visit again. Before leaving her office, I reached into my pocket and handed her an invite card for our upcoming sermon series on the book of Daniel. When she saw the invite card, she said, "You always seem so well prepared for me. Thank you." I must admit that I was encouraged by her compliment. I am hopeful that others in our church will always be prepared to either invite people or engage them in meaningful spiritual conversations.

Kyle

Who Should I Invite?

I had the joy and privilege of preaching again at Kentwood Community Church this past weekend. I preached about Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. The big idea was that we need to be intentional crossing cultural divides in the same way that Jesus was intentional. The fruit of this intentionality in John 4 was that many people came to know Christ in Samaria. After the message, I received an email from someone asking the following question: Based on your sermon, as a Christian, would it better to invite a white person or a person of color to KCC? Initially, this felt like a trick question, and I almost responded by saying, what do you think Jesus would do. Instead, I reminded the person that as a church, we have a relational evangelism strategy, which means that we want people develop relationships, discovering stories, and prayerfully discerning next steps. I told the person that if they felt that God was leading them to invite someone to KCC, then they should invite the person, but if they look up over time and they have only invited people from their ethnic group, then they should seek the Lord about that issue.

The reality in my life is that I try to invite people from all different ethnic backgrounds to attend KCC. Today, I met a woman in one of our outreach venues. When I asked her if she comes on the weekends to KCC, she said that she is out of town most weekends. I took the time to find out more of her story including why she travels, etc. I encouraged her to come to visit on the weekends that she is in town. She often heads out of town late on Sunday, so I encouraged her to check out the Saturday evening service. I hope that she will make it a priority to attend at some point. She happened to be of a different ethnic background than me. I am encouraged by how easy it is to invite someone to a setting where their life might be changed. Pray that this woman will make regular church attendance a priority in her life.

In Christ,
Kyle