In this post I want to share a tip that will help you create a more powerful salvation invitation.
Not too long ago I learned the concept of the preacher as witness. Here’s the basic idea: A preacher is like a witness in a courtroom. And the audience is like the jury in that they will be weighing Christ’s paradigm for living vs culture’s paradigm for living. And at the end of the sermon they will make a decision for or against Christ’s way.
That being the case – during our weekly sermon run through we’ve added a new question to ask ourselves of the sermon: What does culture teach on this subject? Whatever we come up with is what I usually will include in that week’s salvation invitation. At the end of the message I will say “This is what culture teaches…But Jesus says…” I have found this to be very effective. After all, a jury can’t really make a good decision unless they understand Christ’s point of view and culture’s point of view. I think it’s so powerful because when you put Christ’s way up against culture’s way – culture’s way immediately appears to be the foolish way to go. This powerfully influences people to choose God’s way.