Sharing the Invitation to Draw Near

September 16, 2003
in Lent & Holy Week, Lift Your Light

“Draw near to God,
and he will
draw near to you.”

James 4:8

“Draw near” is an invitation God extends to everyone, not just Christians. The reward for drawing near is nothing less than God’s presence–he draws near to us in turn! This promise is one we can easily make to our family and friends. God is not magic, nor is he a divine vending machine (prayer goes in, answer comes out), but he does promise to get closer to us when we get closer to him, and that’s where amazing, miraculous things can happen. You can always say to another person with confidence, no matter how sinful, messed up or distant they are “God will show up if you do.” It’s a promise he delivers on quickly and without fail.

Why “draw near” during Holy Week?

Aside from Christmas, Easter is the time of year when people are most likely to respond to an invitation to Church. In addition, the structure and content of our Holy Week services–including Jesus’ love for us in instituting the Lord’s supper and washing our feet, his atoning work on the cross, his destruction of death and return to glorious life–are infinitely full of ways God draws near to us and calls us to draw near to him. Finally, our own Lenten preparations and prayers infuse our Holy Week services with the Holy Spirit and make these services especially fruitful, poignant places to meet God and draw near to him.

Your invitation to others is vitally important, but once it’s made, God makes all the invitations, all the promises. God reaches out AND makes it possible for us to respond. Infuse your invitations with prayer, but don’t sweat them. He’ll take it from there.

Light of Christ wants to support you as you think about making invitations this Holy Week. Think about inviting others as offering this same invitation to your friends and family as God offers us: draw near to him, and he will draw near to you.

Because we are all different, we have different ways of making invitation:

Personal Invitation

A personal invitation is most likely to get a positive response, and it’s especially great for people you see on a regular basis or that you’ve had conversations with about God. Pick up these beautiful cards on our Information Table on Sunday and stash a couple in your car, purse, briefcase. Ask God to show you people who might be open, to lead conversations–or just post it on your bulletin board at work.

Social Media

This year we’re making a special effort to promote our services on Facebook and other social media. You can help out in several ways:

Share and Attend Facebook Events

We have created Facebook events for all the major Holy Week services. Consider sharing the Event for your favorite service and let others know why you love it. Click through for each event:

If you plan on attending, view these events and click “Going.” This will improve our Facebook rankings. Basically, the more people attend our events, the more the events show up for friends of the people who say they are going. This will really help us out!

“Like” Our Facebook Page

Even if you rarely use Facebook, if you have an account, “Like” our page! This year in the two weeks leading up to Holy Week, we will be advertising on Facebook. One of the groups of people we will be targeting are those who have “Liked” our page and their friends.

This is a great support for your own efforts. If you share an event, your friends will occasionally see reminders of the event in the right-hand column.

Other Social Media

Though we get our biggest engagement on Facebook, we will be posting regular invitations on Twitter and Google+. You can help by following us there:

Yard Signs

If you’re not sure who to invite and aren’t really into social media, then consider picking up a yard sign! They will be available Sundays at the Information Table.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. As you draw near to God in these last weeks of Lent, consider who God is calling you to share this simple promise with.

Do you have a different way of inviting others to draw near to God? 

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