INVITE one citizen to a St Luke’s City Reaching Ministry or Sunday gathering every year.

 

The Bible has many examples of God’s people inviting, sometimes even urging, their community to come to the Lord to find secure and genuine hope in a world of disappointment and dissatisfaction. In Jesus, God’s hope and power have been manifest on the stage of human history.  Above all, we want this for our community, so we invite them to experience hope in Christ in the ministries and gatherings of his people. A people who aren’t perfect, yet still carry Christ in their hearts and on their lips.

 

In Luke 14, Jesus tells 2 parables about invitation. The first parable in v12 is about investing in people with the eyes of faith: trusting that our invitation will have its fruit in the future kingdom of God.

The parable in v15, on the other hand, is about the invitation God sends to all of us. This is the heart of the kingdom: that we are invited to sit at the table with the king, apart from any contribution from us.

So, we embrace that inheritance. We call it to mind daily: the abundance of blessing we received from God. Our unworthiness to be counted among his people. Thank him in prayer for the new life that he has in store for us, in his future kingdom.

For reflection:

Who can you invite to a Sunday service or other city-reaching ministry of St Luke’s?

Are they ready to invite them, or will you need to develop the relationship by moving from front-yard conversations to back-yard conversations? How will you do this?