The Invitation

I pastored small churches for 40 plus years, and I gave an invitation at the end of every Sunday morning service. Many times I was discouraged and disappointed that no one responded. Sometimes I wondered why I even bothered to give an invitation. But then after weeks of no responses someone would come down the aisle and share with the church what God had put on their hearts. Public decisions to accept Jesus as Savior; someone whose heart is breaking and just wants their pastor to pray with them; a Christian who has wandered from the Lord, and as they listened to the word of God being preached were convicted by the Holy Spirit knowing they needed to return to their Father—just a few reasons to give an invitation. 

When I was a young man I knew God was calling me to preach, but I didn’t want to because I didn’t think I could get up in front of people and preach. For over a year I kept putting off making that decision to preach.  Finally, one Sunday morning during the preaching service I realized that I could no longer refuse to obey God’s will for my life. I was afraid to go down when the invitation was given. Satan was holding on tight, but I knew that that moment was the time I had to let the church know that I was going to do what God had called me to do. But there was no other person in the church that I wanted to tell than my pastor. He had prayed with me many times about my struggle, my fear of public speaking, and he was the one I wanted to tell first. If I had not gone down that day I’m not sure I ever would have made the decision to preach. 

I think churches should always give people the opportunity to make decisions for Christ. And I think that the pastor,  and/or the pastors in larger churches should be available to receive those who want to publicly share their decision. Personally I don’t want to talk to an elder, a deacon or another member of the church after the service is over about my desire to do something God is telling me to do. If an invitation is not given the likelihood that people will act on what God is calling them to do is much greater. It is my opinion that churches that don’t offer an invitation are throwing water on the fire within the hearts of those who need to publicly tell what God is leading them to do. I know I’m old school, but if this practice worked many years ago I don’t know why It can’t work today.