Over the past few years, one of the most requested topics on my speaking circuit has been a lesson in which I list a hundred ideas for training our kids to be servants. Service oriented kids grow up to be productive adult servants in the kingdom and it’s those people to whom the Lord will say, “Come ye blessed of my Father,” according to Matthew 25. So it matters if I’m making a real effort, as a mom, to put the heart of a servant in my child. For this reason, I’ve decided to devote a post, every now and then, to a service suggestion—a simple idea for moms to make their homes busy service centers for young hearts and hands. I’d love to hear from those of you who try them. So here goes:
Kids in Service Suggestion #21– Meeting Invitations
I hope your congregation makes flyers for special meetings, seminars, ladies’ days and other programs. I hope, if it doesn’t, that you will take it upon yourself to make them up. Most who read a blog have access to a computer and a printer. It only takes a little creativity and copying and pasting to make a good-looking flyer for your church’s events. Even if you feel you haven’t the skills to do this, there’s a Kinko’s or Office Depot or Staples that’s relatively close to you.
But most of us have the flyers right there on the table in the foyer. The sad thing is, in most congregations, the percentage of members who are actually passing out the flyers is relatively low. We need to do better. And it’s important that we make our kids an integral part of our commitment to do better.
I can personally vouch for the fact that in recent years there have been visitors who walked down the aisle in gospel meetings, giving their lives to the Lord and forever altering their eternal destinies. This is a process that would have stalled before it got started had someone not taken the time to invite them to the meeting. I know of women who have gotten involved in studies as a result of ladies’ days and who eventually obeyed the gospel. Someone, once again, took the time to invite them.
But perhaps the greater cumulative good comes from the lives of our children when we involve them in the process. Recently, I was talking to my friend, Mallory, and she told me about a simple incident that had occurred in her family. Now Mallory is very involved in the work of her local church and most of her friends are Christians. So she struggled to think of someone she might encourage her three young girls to invite to the ladies day at her congregation. One of the people she finally had on her mental list was the clerk in the fabric store. There was one pleasant lady who worked in the store who would at least be polite to her girls if they brought her the invitation. After all, she didn’t want the children to be rebuffed on one of their first attempts and have negative feelings about inviting people to worship. So she got all the children ready, along with their baby brother, and off they went to the fabric store. The children dutifully put on their best manners as they invited the lady to come.
Mallory never dreamed this lady would come. Imagine the surprise on the faces of those three precious little girls when someone came up to them in the auditorium and said, “There is a visitor in the foyer and I think you all must be the ones who invited her.” Imagine the children sitting next to “their visitor” and hoping she would listen to the gospel. Now imagine the family devotional at home later that evening. Imagine the little family talking about the power of the gospel message from Acts 2 or Acts 16. Imagine children praying for the souls of their fabric store friend who had her very first exposure to the Lord’s church because of them. Imagine how God must view families who are bringing up evangelistic children. Imagine how our churches would grow if every family had this mindset. More personally, imagine how your family could grow in Him if you would take a few flyers every time your congregation has a special event and involve your children in the time-consuming, but eternally valuable process of distribution to and conversation with the lost. Just imagine.
Now imagine them (your precious children) becoming so in love with evangelism and so adept at inviting that they spend their lives thinking of ways to influence people for the Lord. And, lastly, imagine one of your children at the judgement bar of God. Imagine her hearing the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” And then imagine her looking back and hearing the words again, only this time the words are directed at the lady from the fabric store or the one who lives in the house down the street or her childhood piano teacher or her softball coach. Wow! Just imagine!
