Sometimes as Churches we put so much effort into ‘evangelistic’ events, and sadly these seemingly ‘outreach friendly’ events are attended by Christians with very few non-Christians.
In order to share our faith we must be prepared to share a bit of ourselves. So here’s the tough question; how many non-Church attending, non-Christian friends do you have? I can safely say that 6 years ago the answer to that was none.
I discovered a few years ago how easy it can be to make friends when you put some effort in. 3 years ago a close friend of mine had just had her third baby, when the baby was about 4 weeks old she said to me one day; I really need a night out! She had some restrictions though, it had to be close to home and she had to be in bed for 10pm! So we decided to go to our local Italian restaurant one Thursday night just before Christmas. Now who should we invite? We decided to be brave and went around the playground randomly inviting anyone who was there. I even texted everyone in my phonebook! The text simply said ‘Ladies night out 7.30 pm meet at (insert local restaurant name here) would love to see you there’. Guess what, we had over 20 turn up. Must ladies didn’t know each other. One mum surprised me the most, I had met her a couple of times at children’s parties, I texted her anyway (I wasn’t even sure she would know who I was!) She replied immediately ‘Would love to come’.
It isn’t always hard to get alongside people and make friends. A meal was a perfect way to chat and get to know people better, the result of that night has been some beautiful friendships.
Easy to arrange, minimal organisation…Dare you?