Is a Cold Invitation Useful?

      A sister in Christ was shopping at Wal-Mart. The church with which she worked had printed up some cards to use for inviting people to the assemblies and classes. The preacher had made a big deal about inviting people, even strangers like the Wal-Mart checkout clerk.

      “How on earth could that possibly be useful,” some thought. “Such a cold invitation will never get anyone interested.” By cold invitation they meant this was a cold contact. That is, there was no relationship developed between the shopper and the checker.

      This sister decided to take the plunge and invite the checker. I regret to inform you that the checker never showed up and to my knowledge has never been converted.

      However, there was a man in his 30’s standing behind the Christian who witnessed the whole event. He asked the sister, “Do you have another one of those cards?”

      She gave him one. This man had been going through a difficult time in his life. A friend of his, a Christian who lived and worked with a church that was about 45 minutes away from where he lived had talked to him about the gospel and about Christ’s church. He just had not acted on it.

      For some reason this gesture of a Christian inviting a checkout clerk from Wal-Mart sparked something in him. He visited a few assemblies. Then he studied with the preacher. He was baptized into Christ.

      What would have happened if that one sister had decided inviting the checkout clerk from Wal-Mart was a cold and useless invitation? I don’t know. I do know this. The invitation was offered and it impacted somebody. Will that happen every time? No. In fact, most of our invitations will never be anything more than us shining our lights. Let’s face it Jesus warned us the majority will not want to listen (Matthew 7:13-14).

      However, we never know where a simple invitation might lead. The only way to find out is to offer the invitation.

      Do you remember the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4? The apostles went into the town and nothing great happened because they didn’t offer any invitations. The Samaritan woman went back and offered some simple invitations and many of the people ended up believing in Jesus. Who would have ever thought a simple invitation to come check it out for yourself would have ever gone so far?

      Think for a moment. Who can you invite to our assemblies and classes this week? Don’t try to guess what the outcome will be, just sow the seed and let the Lord do the rest.

Edwin L. Crozier