7. “I don’t want to be seen as strange.”
I don’t want to be seen as a Bible-basher or, worse, one of those fundamentalists. We want to be thought of as a sane person.
At times in the Christian life, we will be rejected and seen as odd!
8. “I wouldn’t know what to say and they might ask something about my faith.”
How do you go about asking someone to church, and what if they ask me a question that I am unable to answer like, “Explain the Trinity.” We start to imagine all the difficult questions that would follow our stumbling performance in inviting someone to church, and then conclude that it is not worth the effort.
Of course, they might not ask a difficult question. They might say yea, but we imagine the worst outcome.
9. Below the surface of these answers lies the fear of rejection.
I have come to the conclusion that this is causing the majority of the issues in Christianity today and God anticipated the problem by saying:
“Don’t be afraid for I am with you.”
Yet fear is lurking amongst us all, hiding away and causing us to reject God’s prompting to invite and to extend the Kingdom of God. I believe God will use invitation to disciple a whole congregation through it.
God enables fear to be brought to the surface so we can attack it with faith that Immanuel our God is with us.
