Why I won't invite you to church

I am a Christian. I believe in Heaven and I believe in Hell. I believe that Heaven is an incredible place...a place where there is no sorrow, no tears, and no pain. I believe Hell is a place of torment and isolation, forever separated from joy, love, and God. I also believe that there is one path to Heaven...by accepting the gift of life that Jesus Christ, the son of God, died to give us.

But I'm not going to invite you to church.

It isn't that I hate you and want you to go to hell. It isn't that my church has something wrong with it. I'm not embarrassed about my faith or my church.

I believe that you matter to God. If you matter to God, you matter to me. God sent His only son to redeem humanity, to reconcile this lost world back to Him. But just because you matter to God doesn't mean you go to Heaven. The all mighty and all powerfull God has chosen to give us all free will. He allows us to chose where we spend eternity. We don't all get in.

So if I don't hate you, but I actually love you deeply and want to see you in heaven, why don't I invite you to church? Simple. Because church can't save you. You can attend church every day of your life, attend seminary, and even pastor a church and still not make it. Only Jesus can save you. That's all, nothing else. I don't want to invite you to church, I want to introduce you to Jesus.

Called

I believe that a genuine relationship with Christ changes your life. So, when you meet someone that is a fully devoted follower of Christ, his or her life will be "different" than those around them.

Here in Oklahoma, being a "Christian" is easy. Everyone goes to church or at least knows the name of  a church they can claim to go to if asked. They may even go there a few times a year, if they have time. Then there are those that attended every week, but their lives seem extraordinarily normal. Then there are "those people." You may have met one or two. "Those people" are weird. They do things that just don't make sense, but for some reason things work out.

I know a few of "those people." I've noticed that when you talk to them, there's a light in their eyes. Even when they are weary, if you get ask them about what Christ has done in their lives, they will suddenly be refreshed and excited. Their theology isn't just in their head. Their hope isn't just in their hearts. They haven't been waiting until they depart from this world to see Jesus' face. They have seen Him. They've seen Him work in this world. Often they have been a part of something miraculous. And now their life is different and nothing will ever be the same. In the best of all possible ways.

I haven't written a lot lately. Yes, I experienced the "expected" culture shock after coming back from my mission trip. It's been quite an adjustment. After being a part of something so unique and special, bringing light to a dark corner of the earth, it's hard to get back to "normal" life. 

Now there's talk of another trip. I have my doubts, that's what I do. But God has surrounded me with a crowd of His faithful witnesses. My friends "The Meadors" have such a radical and devoted faith it continues to urge me on. It helps to know I'm not the only "crazy" one out there! Then there is "Katie" who is getting a ton of international attention for her incredible faith and how she has fully given herself over to the work of the Lord. Her recent book has been a huge hit, against all odds.

Right now my goal is to draw nearer to God. I know that I want to go on every mission trip I possibly can. But more important than that, I want to be right where God wants me to be.

Conversion

I grew up surrounded by Christians. One thing that always, always, always made me uncomfortable was the lingo. It rolled off their tongues so comfortably yet seemed so meaningless. As both a student and as a teacher I've thought that I could evaluate the level of understanding of a topic based on the ability to explain it in multiple ways. As a teacher, I believe you have to be able to put things into words the student understands. As a student, the ability to take a concept and put it into your own words without altering the meaning indicates true understanding. Yet I didn't see this in Christians. They would stick to their lingo and be both amazed and speechless when asked to explain. So, now that I'm one of "them", one of my goals is to try my best to avoid lingo. To try and use my own words to explain key concepts. So when I was hit with one of these words yesterday, it didn't sit right.

The word is conversion. Someone I was talking to was talking about converting people to Christianity. But I don't agree with that word. Conversion implies equality. We convert inches to feet, feet to yards, yards to meters, and then back to inches. We can convert our money from dollars to yen and back again. If we convert someone to Christianity, to me it implies that they can easily be converted back to whatever they were before. But this underestimates how Christ works in us.

The gospel message that is the foundation of Christianity is one of salvation, transformation, and restoration. I once was lost but now I'm found. I was condemned and He set me free. I was dead (in sin), but He gave me new life. I have been renewed from the inside out. I am saved. When we acknowledge His power, supremacy, mercy, and grace, and we chose to follow Him, we are new. And we can't help but spread the message about the new life we have found.

It's not about a favorable exchange rate, it's about new life.