By Robert Leslie Holmes | Contributing Editor to Preaching; Pastor, Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Ga.; teaches preaching at Erskine Theological Seminary.
"Why in the world do you give an invitation at the end of every service?" The questioner, like me, is a Presbyterian minister. There was a hint of scorn in his voice as he asked. I could understand. We both know that such invitations are not automatically a part of typical Presbyterian worship. I suspect that perhaps only one of us knows this has not always been the case.
My reply started out with the story of Fern. Fern attended the little church that was the meeting place for our rural Mississippi student congregation. She was married to one of our deacons and was in the first congregation I preached to there. Later, she and her husband, Joe, and their two children, Glen and Lisa, were in church pretty much every Sunday. Our family was invited on a number of occasions to their home for a visit or a meal. Fern was active in Sunday School and the programs for women. To the best of my recollection, the issue of church membership never came up in any conversations we had together. That led this young pastor to assume the whole family—all of whom readily and comfortably spoke of their faith—were all members of the congregation.
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Attendance at our little church was growing despite the rookie preacher; and on a whim one Sunday, I decided to give an invitation at the end of the sermon. After all, I was taking classes at a local Baptist college and had heard some fellow students speak of the response they received to the invitations they gave. Imagine my amazement when Fern came bolting down the aisle with tears in her eyes. She told me that even though she had given her life to Christ many years before and was baptized, no one ever had invited her to join her husband's home church in the eight years she had been attending. Being modest and unassuming—and having come from a different tradition—she was waiting to be invited to become a member. Needless to say, the elders of our little church were thrilled to receive Fern into membership then and there along with two others who came forward. Like me, some of the elders assumed that as active as Fern was, she was a member of the church.
Although others responded to my invitation that day, I speak especially of Fern because just a few months after that memorable moment, Fern died suddenly and unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm. She was 34 years old.
As I reflected on this experience, I resolved that I never again would leave a service in any church without extending an invitation for all present to consider the claims of Christ and the importance of being identified with a local church and its ministry.
Years of pastoral experience have persuaded me that there are typically three kinds of people in every worship service, and it is important that each be invited to pause for a moment of invitation.
There are the people such as Fern, who long before gave their hearts to Jesus, yet wait for an invitation to join His church. Some, such as Fern, are modest by nature. They will not, for a number of reasons, promote themselves for membership.
