Wonderful Healing Service and ...

We had our quarterly healing service last night.  Maybe a dozen people came.  We prayed.  Everyone prayed for the person who came up and knelt and was anointed with oil as the pastor prayed for him or her. People confessed guilt for asking God for more when he had already done so much for them.  I get it.  But God does like to be asked.  Ok?  People confessed prideful ways and feeling like they were paying the price for it now.  But would God still heal them of their affliction?  Yes.  And thanks for confessing that because it makes me realize I'm the same way and more!  People wept out of frustration with parts of their body that were so uncooperative and even painful.  What frail tents we have for this earthly stay.  Good but when they get old or break, yuck.  And there was just such a sense of love among the dozen or so who prayed together.  I'm glad we had it.  I'm looking to see if God will heal those we prayed for.

And ... 95% of our Easter attenders said they came to Cocoa because of a family member or friend.  This church isn't going to gain members to compensate for the number that are dying.  The cheapest and most effective way is to get more people here is to have members invite.  If you care about preserving your investment in this church, you better invite.  If you want this congregation here for the generation of tomorrow, you better invite.  If you want this congregation to be here to make a difference in this community, you better invite.

As I said before we can say, "Ok, tomorrow."  Or we can say, "I don't like to invite so I'll let someone else do that."  But if it isn't you, you're a part of the problem and not the solution.  If it is tomorrow instead of today, you're a part of the problem and not the solution.

You know how to have lots of good ideas?  To have lots and lots and lots of ideas.  You know how to get some people here?  To invite lots and lots and lots of people here.

Why should they come?  Ahh, because they like you and you like the church?  Ahh, because we have a great choir and a reasonably informative and inspiring service?  Ahh, because we are on the doorstep of mission work -- it's as close as RFM school.  Ahh, because we want them and need them ... other churches have more than enough and one more is just one more.  Not here!

If you're on the session, I am going to ask each month how many you invited and how you invited and how it went.  I don't like just receiving reports.  I like asking for reports and asking for reports that have you saying not just stuff but what you're doing that's critical to our mission.