{"id":4541,"date":"2019-02-28T09:33:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2019-02-28T09:33:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:33:06","slug":"the-power-of-an-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/the-power-of-an-invitation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of an Invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fred Hall <\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday a friend met me on the\u00a0street. “l noticed you were absent from\u00a0our civic club last meeting,” he\u00a0said. “Will you be there next\u00a0Wednesday?”<\/p>\n

“No,\u201d I replied. \u201cl can’t make it. Don’t\u00a0look for me.”<\/p>\n

Two men asked me on Tuesday if I\u00a0could come. I said to the first, “l wish I\u00a0could, but I can’t this week.’ The next\u00a0one I answered, “My schedule looks\u00a0impossible, but I’ll try to find the time to\u00a0come.”<\/p>\n

Wednesday in the post office a fourth\u00a0man asked if I would be at the meeting\u00a0that day. “I’ll try to come,\u201d I replied, “but\u00a0I may not make it.” Before I got to my\u00a0car, a fifth man stopped me, and I\u00a0promised I would be there for sure.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know whose official duty it was\u00a0to contact me, but I couldn’t resist the\u00a0invitation from five different men. We all\u00a0like to go where we are wanted.<\/p>\n

If you want the unsaved, the indifferent,\u00a0the absentees to attend your\u00a0church, you must let them know. They\u00a0know that if you really want them to\u00a0come, you will find the opportunity to\u00a0invite them. This is a task for every\u00a0member of the church.<\/p>\n

Article excerpt adapted from Contact\u00a0<\/em>magazine, October 1989.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fred Hall On Monday a friend met me on the\u00a0street. “l noticed you were absent from\u00a0our civic club last meeting,” he\u00a0said. “Will you be there next\u00a0Wednesday?” “No,\u201d I replied. \u201cl can’t make it. Don’t\u00a0look for me.” Two men asked me on Tuesday if I\u00a0could come. I said to the first, “l wish I\u00a0could, but I can’t this week.’ The next\u00a0one I answered, “My schedule looks\u00a0impossible, but I’ll try to find the time to\u00a0come.” Wednesday in the post office a fourth\u00a0man asked if I would be at the meeting\u00a0that day. “I’ll try to come,\u201d I replied, “but\u00a0I may not make it.” Before I got to my\u00a0car, a fifth man stopped me, and I\u00a0promised I would be there for sure. I don\u2019t know whose official duty it was\u00a0to contact me, but I couldn’t resist the\u00a0invitation from five different men. We all\u00a0like to go where we are wanted. If you want the unsaved, the indifferent,\u00a0the absentees to attend your\u00a0church, you must let them know. They\u00a0know that if you really want them to\u00a0come, you will find the opportunity to\u00a0invite them. This is a task for every\u00a0member of the church. Article excerpt adapted from Contact\u00a0magazine, October 1989.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4542,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions\/4542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}