I made another terrible ministry mistake recently which I hope you can learn from.

We ran a Men and Meat night at Barneys. Shamelessly stole the plan from Neutral Bay.

As an event it ran brilliantly. Lots of blokes came. The Christians were easily outnumbered by guests. The butcher was fantastic. The night was fun. It was pretty easy for me to go from carving up a lamb to a talk on Jesus our Passover Lamb. We handed out many copies of The Essential Jesus. There was a positive vibe and everyone is looking forward to the next event.

My mistake was not working hard to invite my friends along.

I could come up with a good list of excuses - there is a tricky property issue taking up some time, that same day I was speaking at City Bible Forum Legal, I’d been busy with some Inspiring People things, I was interviewing student ministers… etc etc.

But these were excuses rather than reasons.

I did invite a guy who at the last moment couldn’t make it. Worse was the guy I promised to invite (who was keen) that I forgot to give the details to. Then there were the half dozen other friends I could have easily invited but in my busyness didn’t. Then there were the other half dozen guys who I’d like to invite but it would have seemed a bit weird as I haven’t taken the initiative to see them for anything else outside soccer/school/etc.

Most disturbing was the realisation that it was possible to run a ‘successful event’ and not actually personally take the relational effort and risks I was asking my guys to take. They’ll rightly see through that - if they don’t they can read about it here!

A wise friend said somewhere - if the pastor of a church isn’t an evangelist then the church will only grow through transfer church.

Spurgeon’s advice in The Soul Winner is timely:

Just be men among men, keeping yourself clear of all their faults and vices, but mingling with them in perfect love and sympathy, and feeling that you would do anything in your power to bring them to Christ, so that you might even say with the Apostle Paul, ‘Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more’

Don’t misunderstand me - evangelism is not just about inviting people to events. But sometimes being able to invite a friend to an event is a gauge of where the friendship is up to. The friends I’m inviting are the ones I’m already praying for - asking for opportunities to speak about Jesus. If I’m not out mixing with real people and praying for them then I shouldn’t be leading the people here in God’s mission.