Mission:Invite

by Erin Bird

We just finished up going verse by verse through Romans 12 here on the blog. Now I want to take a few weeks and walk through Riverwood's mission statement, which is...

The mission of Riverwood Church is to invite the spiritually disconnected to find and follow Jesus.

Over the next 5 weeks, we will define those words and unpack this statement. And today, I want to examine the word "invite."

The Power of Invitation

In January of this year, I said we would have a "theme" of invitation for 2016. I encouraged our church family to invite people into their lives - to Sunday Worship Gatherings, to their Growth Group, over to their house for dinner, etc. Invitation forces us to focus on others and not just get wrapped up into our own lives.

In the Bird house lately, it's been very easy to get wrapped up in our own lives. Our lives have been so full with leading Riverwood, working another job, LeAnn doing a long-term sub at the high school, while both of us try to stay connected with our 4 kids and one "adopted" daughter... it makes life rather full! But as busy as our schedule has been, LeAnn and I have been trying to live a life of invitation. For instance, we've been using home football games to invite non-church-going friends over for dinner, and then head up to the high school to watch the Go-Hawks play.

So how can you adopt a culture of invitation in your life?

Here are some ideas:

• Food: Everyone eats 21 meals each week. How could you use one of those meals to invite someone to eat with you?
• Sundays: There are generic invite cards on the Give & Grow table every week. Grab some and use them to invite friends or family to attend a Worship Gathering with you.
• Activities: Use the hobbies and events you enjoy on your own and invite someone in to that activity. Invite someone to go fishing with you, or to a sporting event, or to an antique show.
• Kids: If you have neighbors with kids the same age, invite them over for a playdate. Or maybe your kids have classmates whose families don't attend church - invite them for a Saturday night dinner and game time.

I could give more ideas, but basically invitation isn't about adding something to your schedule, but rather use the things already in your schedule and invite others into that. As we are going to see this coming Sunday, Oct 23, God is calling you (if you are a Jesus-follower) to be a blessing to others.

So let's take up Riverwood's mission together and invite others into our lives so we can watch God do what only He can do.