GO FISH

Just got back from Week 4 of our Saturday morning small group and had a great time. They're a great bunch of people and it has been fun getting to know them better as we have worked through Andy Stanley's small group material Go Fish.

His main point today was that the church needs to partner with its members in helping to reach people who don't really know Jesus yet. He talked about being in another church years ago where he would have been embarassed to ask someone to come along to a service and how that should never be the case if the church is designed to welcome the unchurched. We chatted for some time about what are the positives at Grace in creating an environment where the unchurched would be comfortable and what the negatives are too.

Thankfully there wasn't too much on the negative side, but that was probably just because I was leading the group!

Several people commented on how the movie theater creates a point of interest for inviting friends to come and check us out. We talked about how renting there works out so well, but then one relatively new member of our church suggested that it isn't so much the building as the atmosphere inside it. He described the warmth he had felt on his first visit, the kindness, the acceptance.

Heartening words. Let's keep doing what we're doing - invest in others and invite them, along. Jesus said he's make us fishers of men, not keepers of aquariums!