Nod and a Wink

Lets be honest here. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see anyone being invited to church. We see lots of invitations to come to Jesus to be introduced to him but not to “church”.

Now you might say wait a minute here what about 1 Corinthians 14

23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you

Does not this imply someone invited them to church to get saved? First of all you must read 1Corthians chapters 12-14 to get what Paul is going after here. Also there were no “services” in the early church. They gathered for mutual encouragement and edification, hence the instruction in 1 Co. 14 about how many people are to “share” and how gifts are to be used.

So should you never invite someone to church? Well I would say that depends. What do you think will happen? Do you think being around church people will cause Jesus to kinda rub off on them? When you look at statistics church people have just as high divorce rates, unplanned teen pregnancies, depression etc…as the average American. It appears rubbing off does not work.

But they will hear the gospel and be changed! I refer to the above statistics.

Well you might say if it is that bad why bother with church at all? Ah, now we are getting somewhere. For most Americans church is an event to which they attach certain expectations. Those expectations may be valid, unrealistic, wrong, etc but they attend the “event” in order to validate or realize their expectations.

Let me give you an example: Joe and Suzie attend church for their two kids. They expect church to teach them values and provide experiences that will unable them to become healthy well adjusted adults. Joe and Susie themselves hope to find like-minded people with whom they can they can have friendships and perhaps find God. They will be basically safe and comfortable.

Could not the same expectations be realized in say the Boy/Girl Scouts? What about in a civic group like the Shiners or United Way? What about the YM/YWCA?

So never invite anyone to church? Actually that is not exactly what I am saying. I think Church needs to give what I call a nod and a wink to these expectations. Because the prevailing culture comes to church looking for these things we should maintain a public face. We cannot meet these expectations! We can however offer public services the way Jesus did.

The crowds came to Jesus and he met their needs. He did not however always live up to their expectations. The parables of the soils in Mark 4 reveal this.

I suggest we arrange our public face to feed the sheep and present Jesus to the thirsty. But if all we have is that “service” then we have missed the mark. We invite people to join us as we follow Jesus. We introduce them to Him and how His story is reveal in ours. We purpose to share His life through our shared lives.

In essence we determine that to find us is to find Him.