A Persuasive Word

When I was growing up and toward faith in Christ, the church where I worshiped always had a Sunday evening service which was usually much more informal than Sunday morning.  The singing came from a different hymnal and somehow always seemed more spirited.  And back then the service often ended with a time for folks to come kneel around the altar for prayer.  Invitational hymns such as "I Surrender All" and "Take my Life and Let it Be"  were often the words which invited us to go forward into moments of responding to Jesus.    

As the days of ministry were coming to an end, the church had forgotten about Sunday evening worship and mostly lost its invitational ministry.  Preaching with an invitation in view was not a normal thing.  It is almost as if the preachers became hesitant to offer an invitation to accept and follow Christ lest someone be offended by the assumption that some may not have made such a decision.  Or, it may be that the church became too sophisticated for people to bend knees publicly at an altar and confess that there were things about their lives for which repentance and mercy were the only solutions.  

As one who sang many invitational songs and went to more altars than I can count, it always seemed important to me as a preacher to preach persuasively.  If the pulpit is not a place where a word is said to persuade people to look to Jesus for deliverance from the parts of life which rob it of its meaning, where will that word be heard?  It sometimes seems that I responded to a thousand invitations to follow Jesus before it finally took and I got on the road of faith as a permanent walker.  We must never grow weary in presenting Jesus as the One who has changed our life.  If we are passionate about Him and what He has done and is doing in our life, a little persuasion is more than in order.