This is a post for New England Christians! If you know a Christian in New England, please pass it along! I can’t believe this GOOD NEWS!
Hey New England—it’s RESURRECTION WEEK! This is the weekend we celebrate the RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ! The God man who gave His life and shed His perfect blood on a cross for our sins did the unthinkable! He rose from the dead! He literally, bodily, powerfully, of His own will CAME BACK TO LIFE after being fully, all the way, verifiably, absolutely DEAD! It’s not myth, fairy-tale, legend or lore. It’s truth. It’s fact. It happened!
Recent studies of New England religious statistics have been published by Lifeway. Here are the HIGH POINTS! Get this…
Church attendance in New England has dropped over 10% in the last four years. That sounds like bad news, but it’s not. Think about it! There’s a HUGE state-church presence in New England. That state church, along with false doctrine, has had huge scandal. Lots of lost hearts are hurt and disillusioned by their state church. They are looking for truth and for a place to attend church for Easter!
57% of New Englanders state that a personal invitation from a friend would be effective in getting them to church! That’s HUGE! Think about it! You have higher than a 50% chance if getting someone to come to church just because you know them and invited them! Could God make it any easier for us? (The number goes up to 58% if you are related to them!)
25% of New Englanders state that a social networking invitation to church would be effective for them. So it’s time to use Facebook, twitter, email, and forums for something that’s finally HELPFUL! Grab your church’s Easter graphic, and light up the social networking world with invitations to Easter Sunday. (If your church preaches the gospel that is. If not, bring them to Emmanuel Baptist in Newington!)
30% of New Englanders say a sign would help them get to church. Make a banner! Tomorrow! Hang it! Get seen somehow. Let people know you are ready for them to come celebrate resurrection with you!
22% of New Englanders say a personal visit to their door would help them come to church. Make a postcard! They’re cheap. Get out to your neighbors, leave invites on their doors. Hand a post card to a restaurant employee, a teller, a cashier, anybody who is breathing.
I have an idea! No—a challenge. For one week, let’s stop comparing ourselves amongst ourselves. Let’s stop discussing other churches. Let’s stop measuring others by own goodness and preferences. Let’s get our eyes off of other Christians and start seeing the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of lost souls all over New England.
And remind yourself that better than HALF of them said they would likely come to church if a friend invited them!
I would think that would make New England among the ripest harvest fields of the entire world. Sort of blows the theory that New England is “closed” right out of the water!
Friends, we don’t have time to play games. We don’t have time to politic amongst ourselves. We don’t have time to prolong the spiritual phariseeism that so plagues American Bible-believers or the spiritual blindness that plagues American unbelievers! We have a resurrected Saviour and a world waiting to be invited to meet Him.
So this week, I vote that we stop weighing each other’s worthiness by our own. Let’s stop the frowning eyebrows trying to figure the other guy out. Let’s re-engage with our mission and speak up for Jesus to the lost all around us.
I promise you. I will be so busy inviting lost people to Jesus this week, and every week—I will not have time to evaluate, criticize, or otherwise marginalize you.
New England has basically extended an open invitation—57% of them are saying,
“SOMEONE INVITE ME TO CHURCH PLEASE!”
Let’s speak up! Let’s love New England into gospel preaching churches this weekend!