Disappearing Biscuits

Hey friends--

I am so grateful that we got to kick off our new series yesterday. What a gift it has been to launch into this new series with all of you as we seek to know Jesus and to work out our faith as we walk together.

Yesterday I talked about sharing our faith. I actually asked you to turn around and talk to other people around you in worship (introverts, you all get gold stars and I am very proud of you) about the people who shared faith with you for the first time. I think hearing those names and sharing them with others helped us see that we are only here because they were there.

We are only here because they were there.

I wrapped up with our new standard as a church. If we are going to do this faith thing together, the standard we will seek after is to share our faith with five people every year. That means by this time next year we will have shared our faith with someone that we have not shared our faith with before.

Now here is a key way that I deviate from what Adam Hamilton talks about in his book: I want us to share our faith with people at Shepherds also. I wrote to you last week and shared with you on Sunday that we have got a big back door. People are able to slip in and slip out and if they aren’t connected with me or a few other people they will feel like they can disappear.

We are so welcoming and so lovely to visitors, this is simply our next step. To share your faith with someone at Shepherds means to invite them into your faith journey. Text them when they haven’t been at worship. Get coffee or lunch with them. Make sure they know that no matter what happens, at least one person would notice if they missed a few Sundays.

This isn’t some sort of attendance trap or church growth hack: this is simply what God has called all of us to do. To share our faith means to bring new people along for the journey of faith that God has called us to do. If they are in the church or outside, we can make sure that no one ever feels invisible.

And when we share our faith we aren’t offering some sort of mathematical proof that we have figured life out. We are simply inviting others to try the best biscuits we have ever had.

So as we read chapter 5 this week (odd, I know) I hope you are encouraged to share these biscuits. As the world gets lonelier and lonelier, may we faithfully do the work to make sure everyone knows that they are seen, known, and loved by God. May they also know that it is so much better with them here.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Michael