THE POWER OF AN INVITATION

Most of us have difficulty in realizing the value of as simple a thing as an invitation to a worship service. 

A professor of English and an instructor of Russian at the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts in Chickasha, does not question the worth of a personal invitation. He recently penned the emotions of one who responded to such a call. It is hoped that his experience will encourage you and me to invite “that person” to hear the

gospel of Christ.  Here is what he said!

"In the past ten years, it has been my privilege to stand within the walls of some of the great cathedrals and churches of Europe. I have attended services in the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris, in Westminster Abbey of London, in St. Stephens Cathedral of Vienna and in a host of other religious buildings, both large and small, both grandiose and simple, in 16 foreign countries. I have visited in synagogues and in Greek and Russian Orthodox shrines. I have had contact in the past ten years with 500 religious groups. And my attendance at each of these services came because of an invitation from a person who was a member of the faith involved.

But never, in my entire lifetime, had I been inside a church of Christ until five years ago. I had never been invited. Yet, as I have gone back in church directories of towns where I have lived and worked, I have found that more than half of them in this country have had congregations of the Lord’s church—including my home town where I spent the first 18 years of my life.

Still it was not until I moved to Chickasha and not until I had been here two years that I was invited to and did attend a service of the Lord’s church. Nor do I recall knowing, until five years ago, a person who said he was a member of the church of Christ. I must leave this thought with you! Had someone in the church taken the initiative years earlier, I, today, might be a member of the church of 21 years’ standing rather than of five

years. What about those you know?"

T.W. Pickard