Informing or inviting?

i was reading something today and this guy made a good point about the difference between informing someone about the church you are a part of...and inviting someone to come and join the experience.

most of us are pretty willing to inform. when asked, we will generously admit that we attend a church. sometimes, we are even willing to inform them of the church we attend. "i go to north point", we say..."we're located on the corner of mill and college in old town"...but seldom going much deeper with the conversation. unfortunately.

on the other hand, an invitation is something totally different. an invitation is informative and personal. it's interactive. it communicates interest and care and that church matters. and the cool thing about invitations is that people, especially friends, seldom say no!

to invite someone to north point this coming weekend might sound something like this:

"hey, i go to this really cool church in old town. it's been around for a while, but it's like we're a brand new church. it's not huge, but there are all kinds of people who come...young and old, christians, people who are far from god, and people who are nothing at all! our sunday morning meeting is pretty simple and understandable and the best part is...it only lasts an hour! why don't you meet me there at 11:00 this sunday...and then we could grab some lunch afterwards?"

now that's inviting...and i promise you, it's almost impossible to turn down!

any takers this week?

On being thoughtful

one of the biggest shortcomings that most of us wrestle with is that we are not thoughtful enough. i don't mean that we are not nice people that do nice things. hopefully, we are are. if you aren't, you probably need a short course in basic human interaction.

no, by thoughtful i mean that we don't think enough. not about life. not about people. not about ourselves. not about much of anything...that's really important. i'm afraid that our thinking is seldom deep enough, profound enough, challenging enough, or risky enough.

to that end, here are some questions to ask yourself as you stumble along the beginning of your journey in this new year:

• What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
• What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
• What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
• In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
• What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
• What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
• For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
• What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
• What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
• What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

happy thinking...

Sweet...

it's a great day to be living in texas...

as a charger fan!

10,9,8...

let the countdown begin...