by Mark Altrogge on July 27th, 2009

You may not always be able to share the gospel with someone, but there’s an often overlooked opportunity to evangelize that’s so easy even a caveman can do it – invite people to church.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says there is a “mysterious element in the life of the Church. What is this? It is what our Lord was suggesting, I think, when He said, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst.’ It is not a mere gathering of people; Christ is present…There is something in the very atmosphere of Christian people meeting together to worship God and to listen to the preaching of the Gospel.

“I remember a woman who was a spiritist, and even a medium…She was sitting in her house and she saw people passing by on their way to the church where I happened to be ministering in South Wales. Something made her feel a desire to know what those people had, and so she decided to go to the service, and did so. She came ever afterwards until she died, and became a very fine Christian. One day I asked her what she had felt on that first visit, and this is what she said to me…She said, ‘The moment I entered your chapel and sat down on a seat amongst the people I was conscious of a power. I was conscious of the same sort of power as I was accustomed to in our spiritist meetings, but there was one big difference; I had a feeling that the power in your chapel was a clean power.’ The point I am making is simply this, that she was aware of a power. This is the mysterious element. It is the presence of the Spirit in the heart of God’s children, Gods people, and an outsider becomes aware of this.” – from Preaching and Preachers

A few years ago, a young Buddhist woman attended our church. As soon as we began to worship, she began weeping. The same thing happened two weeks ago to a Christian couple who came for the first time. I believe in both cases, they were experiencing the presence of Jesus.

So invite your friends to church. Invite your classmates and co-workers. Give your waiter a church invitation – and be sure to leave a generous tip.