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Inviting people to church
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 3rd October 2004
Revd. Matthew Vernon
How did you become a Christian?
I'm a "cradle Anglican".
I've always been a Christian:
• baptised as a baby;
• brought up in a Christian family that always went to church –
• my Dad was the priest after all!
• A Christian school with regular chapel services.
• Confirmation as a teenager.
Then the weird stuff:
• thinking about being a priest.
And weirder still:
• doing something about it.
When I look back on my journey of faith there are particular times when my faith deepened:
• a Christian Union meeting at school;
• being confirmed;
• living for 2 months with some monks;
• my mother dying.
But I've always been a Christian.
Your experience may be completely different.
There are, after all, many paths up the mountain.
Perhaps your experience is more like Mary's.
Mary wanted to have her baby, Natasha, christened to give her the best start to life.
She was frightened about going to see the local vicar of St. John's Church,
• but he is surprisingly nice
• and suggests she starts praying for Natasha.
The baptism preparation and the service mean little to Mary intellectually,
• but she senses a genuine welcome.
She starts praying for Natasha
• and God becomes a little more real to her.
She is invited to join a playgroup on Tuesdays.
There she meets a nice bunch and makes new friends.
They see Mary and Natasha as belonging to St. John's.
She finds the church is relevant to her needs so she goes to a Family Service.
It's strange, but it widens her sense of belonging and she enjoys it.
God is real to her and she begins to pray more.
Mary buys a Children's Bible from the church bookstore
• and reads it herself.
Natasha is now 2.
After a couple of visits to the church, the words begin to make sense.
So when Mary is asked to come to a meeting to explore Christianity she surprises herself and accepts.
She feels out of her depth,
• but makes good friends
• and is excited, stretched, and a little confused.
After this 3 year journey, Mary knows she has become a Christian.
Each episode helped her grow in faith.
How did you become a Christian?
Mary's story is included in this book: Emmaus – the way of faith – connecting with people where they are.
It's excellent.
It has lots of ideas and insights about inviting people to church.
Much more than the dreaded approaching a stranger and asking them to come to Emmanuel!
I find it a very helpful book,
• because of my experience of becoming a Christian.
Fewer and fewer people are "born" Christian.
For many people, belief comes after a sense of belonging.
Church people often think it's the other way round.
There's a fantasy that someone hears the Gospel,
• believes it,
• and then looks for a church and other Christians.
More common is Mary's experience.
Someone makes friends with people who are Christian,
• starts coming to church
• and only later starts believing.
That dynamic then greatly affects how we might invite someone to church.
For example, whether we invite then to our midweek group or one of our social events first, and then church.
You'll be hearing more from this book in the coming weeks.
In last week's discussion we started by thinking about our own experience:
• what brought you to Emmanuel?
I love that some of us were coerced into coming because Emmanuel needed a piano player or a church warden!
Others of us heard about Emmanuel from a friend, came along, found a familiar face and a sense of belonging and kept coming.
Some began coming when their children were young and were pleased to find an active Sunday School and youth group.
Most of us said we feel uncomfortable with the idea of sharing our faith.
It's difficult explaining to our family why we go to church, let alone other people!
We shouldn't feel guilty about this.
There are many things that affect how we feel about inviting people to church.
For one thing, faith is hardly talked about in public any more.
We don't come across it very often in our daily living.
Most of the world seems to manage with out it,
• though that's strange since most people in the world would claim of faith of some kind.
It's partly too about sharing what's important to us personally.
It makes us vulnerable;
• and that's risky.
We're not sure how people will react.
We know that for many people, the idea of going to church is about as appealing as the idea of going to hospital!
Which is why this book and others are encouraging and realistic.
It doesn't pull the guilt trip.
It doesn't put us under pressure.
One suggestion is to think about the people we know, not just random strangers.
For growth, "It's essential that church members develop their friendships in the community and encourage new and fringe church members… Most people will only attend it they are invited or encouraged personally by someone they trust."
Our Dean, Stephen, has said
• "evangelism is not so much going out on street corners as friendship."
That's true for us at Emmanuel.
Each of us knows some good friends here.
As a small group, we can all know each other.
But each of us friends here that we know outside Emmanuel too.
Jeremy's group picked up this in their discussion.
We are a nice size because we tend to know each other.
The Cathedral on the other hand is very large and can be anonymous.
Our small size here is actually a great strength.
"Fewer people now prefer a large church to a small one because what they aspire to get out of a church has changed: once it was teaching and inspiration, not it is belonging." In small church "everyone knows everyone else and everyone has a job to do. Everyone is needed."
Let me give one last quote on this area.
One we thought about last week, by St. Francis.
It's appropriate too as its St Francis' day tomorrow.
"Preach the Gospel. Use words only if you have to."
The thing about our friends is they know if our words don't match our actions –
• and they are happy to tell us!
The thing about sharing our faith is the most powerful way is through our actions.
If we treat someone lovingly, that's much more persuasive than any intellectual argument.
How did you become a Christian?
There are many paths up the mountain,
• but it is the mountain that calls us.
Each of us has come to faith in a different way,
• but the one thing we have in common is that God calls us.
God is at the depth of our being calling us to know God.
God is in our hearts waiting for us to recognise God.
Our hearts our restless until the rest in God.
And that should encourage us when we think about inviting people to church.
Because God is calling other people too.
Other people's hearts are restless.
The faith we share and celebrate,
• the peace of God that we enjoy,
• that can satisfy other people too.
The meaning faith gives to our lives.
The hope Christ provides.
The joy in living for God.
These are things other people need too.
And above all, knowing that we are loved by God,
• that God shares love with us
• is something to share with other people.
For love is not something we keep to ourselves,
• but something that longs to be shared.
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