John 1:41-42 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Anyone who has made the commitment to be a disciple of Christ is going to want to lead others to do the same. Andrew was chosen to be one of the 12, which is a high honor indeed, but he is most famous for this first thing he did after making his own commitment. Today we can’t physically lead people to a physical Christ, so many people substitute leading them to church. That isn’t a bad thing, but sadly, whether they will encounter Christ in church is somewhat hit-or-miss. If churches consistently demonstrated Christ, then they would get a lot more disciples from those who visit them! The other side of that is that many people don’t even go so far as to lead people to church. Expecting rejection, they don’t even invite people in the first place. We have no guarantee someone will come to church if we invite them, and we have no guarantee their heart will be touched and they will open up to Christ if they do come, but we do know that neither of those things will happen if we don’t invite them! We want people to walk in off the street, hungry for God. Every once in a while that does happen, but that’s no way to grow a church! Broadcast fliers and media advertising have extremely low effectiveness, particularly in Japan. What works is the Andrew method, of believers inviting those closest to them to come see what they have found.

This has certainly been an issue for me at least as long as I’ve been in ministry. It is true that a very small percentage of those I invite to church actually come through the door, but I must not stop inviting. Likewise, I need to encourage the believers not to give up. I have no way of knowing how often they invite people to come, but I can encourage them to do it more. Of course, the essential element in all of this is the Holy Spirit, because Jesus promised the Spirit as power to be His witnesses. As a pastor, I’m not to be laying guilt trips on people for not being more effective in evangelism, I’m to be praying and encouraging them to open up more fully to the Holy Spirit. When that happens, they won’t be able to keep from drawing people to Christ!

Father, thank You for the person who walked in yesterday. Thank You for the several believers who asked him if he was a Christian. Thank You that he is, and that he wants to serve You while he is in Omura. I pray that he would be an encouragement indeed to the believers to be active in their faith, just as he is active in using what You have given him rather than focusing on barriers of one sort or another. May we all grow to be increasingly available to Your Spirit to draw people to salvation and build them up in faith, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!