Inviting

I’ve heard of people who have led thousands to Christ in their lives—through preaching to huge audiences or writing books or tracts that reach thousands.

That’ll never happen for most of us.

Paul established dozens of churches, and Peter preached to enormous crowds. Both of them wrote letters about Jesus that have been read by hundreds of millions.

My circle of influence is considerably smaller than that.

Once we’ve realized that, we’ve got two options. We can resent our situation, play the poor-ole-me card, and envy the Peters and Pauls of the world.

Or we can do what we can where we are.

Isn’t the right path obvious? The vast majority of us won’t turn a village upside down for Christ, but God can use us right where we are.

Andrew—one of the relatively unknown apostles—is the perfect example here.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus (John 1:40-42).

And that’s about all we know of Andrew. I’m guessing he lived most of his life in his famous brother’s shadow.

Didn’t write a New Testament letter. Didn’t preach a Pentecost sermon. Didn’t get invited to the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15.

So what did he do? He introduced people to Jesus.

One way we can do that now is to invite people to come to church with us. Have you done that lately?

Studies show that there are millions of Americans who will visit church with a friend. Here’s the catch: they’re not going to visit until they’re invited by someone they know.

Will you invite?

Will you be an Andrew? —Chuck