saturneptune
New Member
I'm late coming onto this thread and haven't read through the replies. Let me just throw the apple cart down the hill for ya. ROFL I'm just going to post an idea on the concept of that little prayer and how the "invitation" is often given, which is typically a song, everyone shuts their eyes, people are encouraged to come forward and accept the truth and live happily ever after. The end.
I wonder what it would be like if it was made REAL?
What if a pastor got the nerve to tell the truth? The REAL truth?
What if he stood up there, everyone actually looking, and said something like the following:
If you want to follow Christ, it's going to be tough. He didn't have a peaceful life. People tormented him. People will torment you. They will turn against you. You will have to try to live and work among people who hate everything you stand for. Your own government will use your money to support things that are opposite to your beliefs. Your family may turn against you, even your own children. Your family may be torn apart. You will be raising your children in ways that contradict society and the government may step in and may even take them away from you.
You may lose your job. Your family. Your home. Your health. You will start caring about things you didn't care about anymore and it will be a mental health mess, a major spiritual battle you will fight for the rest of your life.
Those who followed Christ gave up what they had. ALL of it. They didn't come forward in a service and go home and keep everything. Their lives changed drastically, dramatically, and forever. They were in it to the death. That is what this means.
The reward will come after you die. That is the only promise. You can give up your comforts now and have peace everlasting, or you can have them now and have death everlasting. What is your calling? Are you ready to walk this aisle?
What would happen then? Would there be all these fake conversions, all these doubts, all these people going on just emotion and having no change in their lives a week, a year later? What if it happened like that and people actually cared who walked down the aisle, if people erupted into shouts of victory because the decision was REAL, not something to look away from and hide your eyes from? If the person ran down that aisle ready to give ALL, without shame, without embarrassment, knowing that others, REAL others, were there standing behind him/her for support?
Might find a new hallelujah somewhere in the chorus that followed that one.
If it happened.
But it doesn't.
It's just fluff 'n stuff. Winnie the Pooh invitations with everyone looking away while everyone else falls away and nobody quite seems to get why. Hrm. Curious.
That is probably one of the best posts I have seen in a long time. When I first joined the Baptist church, I found the invitation refreshing after 27 years of going to a PCA church where the last song was sung, a choral refrain, then we marched out like stoic robots.
However, as time has gone on, one realizes that many invitations are a sales gimmick, and little to do with a genuine union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The ones I hate the most are the people that go up because a friend did, or the sermon hit by chance on a particular sin they are feeling guilty about at the moment. Younger people are especially venerable to the follow my friend up to the front syndrome.
So it generally goes like this. Lets sing 77 verses of "Just As I Am." While it is endlessly being sung, the pastor is shouting over the music phrases like "let go of that pew and come to Christ," or "maybe you are saved and want to get closer to God," or "join our church." One can neither hear the music or the message for the clashing of the two. For all the good that does, one might as well go up the aisle doing a skip to my lou to verses of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall for an invitation song. That way, you can get in 99 verses instead of 77.
Your message about taking up the cross of Christ and living for Him is very well expressed. This is spiritual battle, between good and evil. Paul makes it quite clear when he describes putting on the armor of God. He is not kidding. He goes into detail each piece of the uniform to battle a roaring lion. It is a daily endeavor. Every sunrise starts a new day to live for Christ.
This is what Christianity is not, nor the local church. It is not a place to go on Sunday with a super glued smile on your face and ask everyone how they are doing. It is not a place to gather to gossip. It is not a center to stuff ones gut at pot luck time. It is not a social club to discuss where to go out to eat while thinking about it all through the sermon. It is certainly not a place to create your own personal comfort zone.
Church is a place to worship and honor the Lord. It is a place to gather to plan how to go tell others about the Gospel and extend a helping hand to those in need.
Invitations need to be radically changed. Not sure what form it would take, but after the sermon, invite people to come and talk to the pastor, elders, or deacons if the Spirit has lead them to do so, and leave that opportunity open to avoid an ending like the Presbyterian Church I described. On the other hand, it is time to take the circus atmosphere and the sales pitch out of the invitations.