Out of the mouths of Babes!!!

Our spirit-filled, soul-winning church’s primary focus is evangelism. In fact our pastor speaks on it weekly. It is his passion, as it should be all of ours. Yet for all of his exhortation and encouragement our church remains relatively small, growth is minimal.

We all wish for growth and to see soul’s saved. At our home my wife and I strategize on the most effective methods of locating targets, introducing ourselves to them, and then introducing our faith to them. We agonize over how best to approach them, how best to introduce them to our beliefs. Yet our efforts frequently come to nothing.

Enter our children, Ethan and Bethany.

While at church last Sunday, three curious ten year olds rode their bikes up to the door and stared in, watching our praise and worship. Ethan, our four year old, scuttled across to the door and started chatting to them, tentatively followed by our seven year old Bethany. He stood in the doorway of the church excitedly beckoning them to come inside.

I walked over to see what he was up to – he was inviting them in to come and watch the puppets which would be on shortly. After some further encouragement from Bethany (and then from me) the three children came in and had their first taste of puppet church. They then came across to the kids room and participated in Kids Church.

Now I don’t know about you, but the whole process seemed a little too simple for me. Ethan saw some kids he didn’t know, he walked over and introduced himself to them and then invited them to watch the puppets (an interest he shared with them) and they came. The only obvious component of his “technique” was his bold enthusiasm for the experience of puppet church.

I want some of what he’s got: bold enthusiasm for saving souls unencumbered by strategies, techniques, quotas and excuses.

Church is FUN at our church. It’s loving, encouraging, uplifting, inspiring, spirit filled, and it challenges us to grow in the Lord. Why can’t we just invite people to something as “cool”, “hot”, “sick”, and “mad” as that?