Recently, I mentioned briefly to you about the “each one bring one” concept in regard to bringing others to hear the Gospel preached from our pulpit. There are so many folks “out there” who don’t attend worship at all. The field is ripe for harvest. We just need to become the machines to make the harvest! Teaching others the truth of the Gospel is never an easy task because there are so many worldly beliefs and obstacles to overcome. Yet, we must start somewhere!
So many of the older congregations around us are just like ours; the numbers are dwindling, and, in many cases, worship services have been discontinued altogether at some congregations that at one time were dedicated centers of worship to God. That is so sad because, at the same time the congregations have ceased to meet, the population has increased, and modes of transportation have improved to make it much quicker and more comfortable to get around and to get to the Lord’s house.
I want to challenge you to start this program of “each one bring one.” Please consider that each one who is a Christian has the same direction from God to “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). None of us is exempt from this directive. I ask that you begin thinking of a particular person who you might get to come to worship services with you. Please, don’t just think about inviting your kinfolks or those who already attend worship somewhere else and who are already members of the Lord’s body. Think “outside the box” and bring someone who truly needs the Lord in his or her life.
My challenge is for you to bring someone outside the normal realm of those with whom you mention “church.” If the person you invite turns you down, don’t give up. Maintain your Christian attitude and continue to extend to the person the opportunity to come to worship with you. You can always offer to take your guest out to eat an inexpensive lunch after worship service. Perhaps there will be a common activity you can offer to share with your guest after lunch. Just use whatever means you have available to get the person to come with you to hear the Gospel preached.
Beloved, I fear that if we don’t all work at this task of “each one bring one,” one’s congregation will cease to exist for lack of members and participation. I don’t want that to happen, and I trust that you don’t either since you have chosen your home congregation. Yet, we have fewer and fewer numbers in attendance in many churches. I appreciate that a church may be the oldest congregation in town, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing to offer folks. If our families all ceased to function because of the aged people in the family, we soon wouldn’t have functioning families, and just so with any congregation.
Some find it hard to mention God and Christ to others. When you find it hard, first consider how much God loves you and what He did for you when He gave His Son to die on a cruel cross for your sins! You might consider through what the apostle Paul went to reach out to others with the Gospel:
In abundant labor, in stripes above measure, in prisons frequently, in deaths often; of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck and I spent a night and a day in the ocean; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, robbers, my own countrymen and the heathen; in perils in the city, wilderness, sea and among false brethren; in weariness, painfulness, watchings, hunger and thirst, in fastings often and in cold and nakedness. (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
Surely if Paul could suffer all these things to reach a lost soul, we won’t find it difficult for “each one to bring one”!
