living lent

Have you ever thought about what a great evangelism opportunity Lent is? You've got free dinners, evening services, meaningful messages, inspiring music, Christ-centered themes, all culminating in Holy Week and Easter Sunday.

What an opportunity! It’s ready made for inviting friends and family who do not know Jesus or have become disconnected from Him to come to church with you.

What an opportunity for the church to live out the fact that it's a mission outpost where Jesus gives life. Lent is a great time for our church to look for new ways of bringing the Gospel to the community. You think most everyone in town goes to church? Don’t be fooled. Demographic studies show that there is no portion of the country where church goers number more than 50% of the population.

So let's find those people and invite them to church this Lenten and Easter season. They’re all around us – at work, school, in your family. Now is the time for us to talk about what we can do to bring people to worship during Lent and Holy Week. Now is the time for us to pray about who we can invite to come with us to church.

In the book of Acts, when Paul finishes his speech to all the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens, he tells them, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all people by raising Him from the dead.”  - Acts 17

That’s why Lent is an evangelism opportunity. To repent means simply to turn around – to turn away from sin to see Jesus crucified for us. It’s done by God through the power of the Holy Spirit, but He uses us to extend the invitation to others. No one is left out. No one is excluded. There’s only one way - and His name is Jesus.

He lived for us, offered Himself for us, and died for us. And now risen from the dead, He gives new life to all who believe in Him. At the end of Lent comes Easter and the hope of new life through Christ's Resurrection.

What a fantastic Easter this will be for someone you bring with you to church this Lent, for whom God’s Spirit has the opportunity to work repentance and faith in Christ! So go on - bring someone to church with you on your Lenten journey this year.

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