Failing to Respond vs Failing to Invite

From then on, Jesus began to preach, “Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near. (Matthew 4:17 NLT)

One of my greatest fears is that many of our churches are full of people with a false spiritual confidence. I heard a great pastor and communicator say this, “I like to tell young preachers, you don’t fail when you invite people to repent and follow Christ and no one responds. You fail when you don’t invite people to repent and follow Christ.”

There are going to be times, just like Jesus and His ministry, when we invite people to follow Christ and they refuse to follow; but that is not failure for the church. The church fails when we refuse to invite people to follow Christ, to turn from their sin and follow the Living God.

We might become critical of ministries like Noah, which didn’t have a single convert (other than those in his own family). But God used him to save the world. Let’s face it, none of us would be around today if it were not for God using Noah and his ministry. But the failure is not in having people refuse the gospel or the invitation to meet Jesus, but the failure is when we (the church) refuse to invite people to join the soul revolution of Jesus Christ!