West Cocoa Chat

One of the memories I have from the Workcamp are the invitations during the Camp wide worship. Invitations for me bring back a couple of memories. The first was when I was growing up in the Baptist Church. In my particular Southern Baptist Convention church the invitation was like a “Nielsen Rating” of the sermon. If someone or “someone-s” didn’t immediately respond to the invitation we were in for a long one. It was not unusual to sing all of the verses to “Just As I Am” multiple times until someone responded to the invitation. There was always the standard “every head bowed / every eye closed” technique as well. I can remember thinking as a kid, “Will someone please walk forward so we can get out of here.”

As a teen and somewhat into “adulthood” that was now worshiping at a Church of Christ, my thoughts turned to lunch. My thoughts were more along the lines of, “If we can get this invitation over we’ll beat the Baptists (apologies to my Baptist friends) to lunch.” Both of these perspectives are childish and un-Christ like but I was there for a time.

Now I can’t say that I “enjoy” invitations but I’m not in a hurry to get them over either. Each Sunday you know there are multiple people dealing with things such as being lost or sin in their lives that need to respond to the Lord’s invitation which brings me (finally) to my subject. I love the way teens handle an invitation.

At the Workcamp and at most teen functions I’ve been to, no one ever responds alone to an invitation. If someone in the youth group responds, the entire youthgroup goes up with them. They surround that person or persons, lay their hands on them, cry with them, and pray with them. To me it is real and tangible way for that teen to know that they are not alone.

The first night Pat Pugh spoke at the Workcamp there must have been easily over 50 teens that responded to the invitation. Most were up to support someone in their youth group who had responded to Pat’s powerful message about change.

I think the message for us as an adult is; don’t let someone respond to the invitation alone. Do like the teens, go up there with them, sit beside them, and as best as you can, touch them. As Jesus did when he touched the Leper to heal him, touching someone who has responded to the invitation conveys love and healing.

This isn’t your typical “4th of July” post but this was on my heart this morning. May we all remember the sacrifice our men and women in uniform and their families have given for not only the defense of our country but for the world as well.

God bless all of you. Tomorrow we’ll continue our “invitation theme” with a post entitled, “Fly-by.”