The Year of Invitation

For many years I've avoided the idea of Annual Themes at the churches I've led.  The annual theme tends to be soon forgotten, and it always has to be some kind of rhyming phrase.  In the end, so many are really meaningless.

But ... our church family is looking at significant changes this coming year.  We have added a second Sunday morning worship opportunity.  We are going to undergo an "Extreme Makeover" of our 1987 Worship Center building.  As I was wrestling in prayer with these issues and praying about sharing these ideas in our church family (change is always hard), I felt the Lord impress upon me to name 2012 as The Year of Invitation for New Life Church and to encourage the New Life family to invite more people to worship and events with our church family this year than they ever have before!

As I thought of this more, I thought of the times when there was a yearlong observance in the Scriptures.  In ancient Israel there was a "Year of Jubilee" that occurred every 50 years.  The people were not to plant, or harvest (that's kind of obvious - you can't harvest if you don't plant!), they were not to charge interest to the poor, all slaves were to be freed, and property reverted back to its original owners.  Quite a year!

Then there was the time in Israel when King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah issued a far and wide invitation.  Azaz had been king and he led the people into worship of false gods.  The nation was invaded.  Ahaz stole from God's Temple to bribe his enemies.  They just continued to invade and attack.  He was so crazy he totally closed down the Temple - nearly destroying it and everything inside.  Ultimately, Ahaz died and his reputation was so bad he didn't even get buried in the royal cemetery!

Along comes Hezekiah.  He opens the Temple back up and starts a restoration project!  He sent messengers throughout the nations of both Israel and Judah (they were divided at the time) to call everyone back to worshiping God.  Many had never been involved in true worship of God.

There are many in our culture today who have not been to a worship service focused on Jesus Christ in a long time.  Face it, church attendance is way down.  It's time to send some messengers with some invitations.  And, our worship centers are often closed to them - often in disrepair (our place needs some work and updating after 25 years!) - and so many times we look so different and act so different - we even speak a different language that so many in our culture do not understand:  "washed in the blood ... saved ... goin' up yonder!" ... and some are so much LIKE those outside the church, our lives are no different, they don't see the point in joining us.  We don't seem to have good answers for our own problems either.

We haven't been sanctified ... we've just been "church-i-fied" - God help us.

So ... 2012 for New Life Church is going to be a year to restore our place of worship and issue an invitation to all.

When I read Isaiah's invitation in chapter 55 of his book, I saw 10 motivations he gave as to why we should invite more people to worship this year than ever before ... and if you've never been to New Life Church in Kokomo - consider this your invitation!

The invitation in Isaiah is this - An invitation ...

- to satisfy your thirst
- to receive a free blessing
- to receive strength
- to life
- to receive a permanent love
- while the opportunity exists
- to receive mercy
- to the way of God
- to promised results
- to joy and peace

I invite you ... come ... join us on the journey in this year ... The Year of Invitation!