We're ready for our 'Year of Invitation!' The Spirit plus a lot of great, hard work by Lynne, Kathie, Ann and other group leaders has led us through the Lenten study. [Yea!!!] We've seen amazing things and heard stories of God changing lives. The Spirit has created momentum, opened a 'door' in our church where we can see all those people outside. Right now we are more ready to invite people into a life with Christ and into our church than any of us can remember in years.
We've already started inviting people as evidenced by the new members we welcomed last Sunday: Evie Neilsen, Sandy Spencer, Kay and Mike Swint. Evie and Sandy came because one of us invited them to "come and see." They came and saw and liked what they experienced in this faith community. Kay and Mike were drawn to us via the yard signs in the neighborhood touting our forthcoming Single Parent Ministry and their desire to join a faith community that is active in missions. We give thanks to God for each of these members!
We had a powerful Unbinding Brunch after worship last Sunday. It was inspring to hear stories of how God is moving in our midst and moving us out in mission to the world. It was a great way to kick off our Year of Invitation.
The next step in the Unbinding process is a morning Retreat on May 11 from 9 am until noon in Fellowship Hall. Mark your calendar and plan to come!
We're half-way there. We want to invite. But it won't happen just by wishing. We can't stop this wonderful process of prayer and study just with ourselves. We're now ready for our Year of Invitation. We've already done some amazing inviting. We had two new members join the church last Sunday because one of you invited them. Now, how can we do more of that? Prayer will get help us be responsive to the Spirit in the moment, and we can help with prayerful specific ideas and action plans: individually, in our teams, and as the whole church. That's what we're going to do at the Unbinding Morning Retreat on May 11 from 9am until noon in Fellowship Hall − pray and ask for God's guidance with some of these plans.
