Making the most of Share Life
Share Life rolls into week 3 this Sunday and Tom and I are preaching on “Love your enemies” from Matthew 5.
Thanks for the encouragement and feedback from Week 1 and 2 - please continue to pray for us!
At a staff meeting recently, we did what many of you have done in your growth groups in recent weeks - we shared names of people that we as a staff team are hoping to invite to church and we prayed that they would come. I prayed for the staff team that they would embrace the awkwardness and invite someone to come - and some of them have! Isn’t there such joy when a guest says yes!
But there can also be some disappointment when the people you invite decide not to come. But, that doesn’t mean your role in Share Life Sundays has come to an end. All of us have a vital contribution to make this Sunday to ensure that our time together is excellent for all the guests who do come.
Here are some ways all of us can stay involved - and especially when your guests don’t come:
Pray before you leave home. For Tom and I who are preaching, and for people who are invited and coming, for all the people serving, and for the service to flow well.
Plan to arrive early and stay late. If you are not bringing someone, come prepared to be lovely to someone else’s friend. Create space in your day to stay and love people well.
Think about where to park. The further away you park, the easier it is for an invited guest to find a place close by. Think about helping your guest work out where to park and maybe meet them at their car.
Be mindful where you sit in the auditorium. Sit towards the front and don’t leave big gaps between people. We are expecting several of our services to be really full again.
If you are bringing a guest, prepare them for what will happen in church. Look out for other guests and help them to orient themselves to what is happening too. Observe whether they are needing help; be situationally aware.
For those who bring children, prepare your children well. Talk about what is going to happen and if your routine is changing, make sure the kids are ready for that too.
Prepare well for conversations with people you don’t know. If you have a friend at church who brings a guest, say hi and pursue a good, high level conversation (Who are you? How’s your week? etc.) Guests don’t like to feel they are being interrogated or pigeon holed by people they don’t know. There is an art to all this and we want to help people move forwards rather than backwards. So, allow the inviters to go deeper but know that we can all be friendly and warm. One hot tip: Don’t ask, “What did you think of the service?” as your first question!
Don’t come to church hoping to have lots of admin conversations or catch up conversations with your growth group members this week. Provide time and space for people to feel cared for and perhaps catch up on things at another time in the day. Look for someone you don’t know and make people feel welcome. Join a friend and meet a friend.
Essentially what I am saying is, let’s be a community in action. We, together, are seeking to reach people for Jesus. Share Life is not about bringing a guest to listen to an expert. Share Life is about all of us working together to help people know Jesus. This is a moment where our friends and family can get to know Jesus in a community of people who love him.
And of course, you can do any of those things I mentioned above on any other Sunday in the year. Let’s serve together to see people come to know Jesus, because he is absolutely 100% worth it.
