First, let me tell you what my pastor said and then what he did. It’s what he did that bordered on the outrageous.

In his sermon this Sunday, Pastor Mike Miller told the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Kenner, Louisiana, that Jesus’ message in Luke 14 has a direct application to us today. (My disclaimer: I did not get Mike’s permission to give a representation of his sermon; so consider this a 25 minute message from a great communicator filtered through the mind of a senior preacher who was sometimes distracted by his grandchildren and at other times by his own untamed imagination.)

In the parable of the great supper, Luke 14:16-24, the order of the invitations that went out is significant:

1. Friends first.

2. Outcasts next.

3. Then the strangers.

You’d think telling our friends and family about Jesus and inviting them to know Him as Savior and Lord would be the simplest thing in the world. Often, it’s the hardest.

Outcasts are those rejected by “respectable people” and would not normally feel accepted in church. Yet, our Lord seemed to have a certain affinity for them, and so should we.

Strangers are anyone and everyone outside the family of God.

Mike challenged the congregation to invite five family members/friends, outcasts and strangers to church in the next week. He ended the service with a video making that point and a benediction reinforcing it.

Now, what Mike did.

In a previous church, he said, the congregation was 99 percent Caucasian and 1 percent minority. One day, he asked a friend who was African-American to help him with a little project.

The friend dressed up like a bum and sat outside the church on a Sunday morning holding up two signs. The first said: “HUNGRY” and in little letters: “for fellowship.”

The second sign read: “WILL WORK” and in small print: “for love.”

The idea was to see if members arriving for the worship services would engage him in conversation and invite him inside. Thankfully, one or two did just that.

Mike added, “I haven’t done this at our church because I know some of you.” He laughed, “Some of you would have caught that guy as soon as he arrived and fed him breakfast and had him in church!”

In fact, the pastor said, “I’ve never known a church that was as open to anyone and everyone the way you are.”

Quite the compliment.

As a former pastor of that church (for nearly 14 years) and a present member, I like that. And I hope it’s true.

We’ll see.

The test is what happens this week, whether we invite our friends and neighbors, the strangers, anyone, to church with us.

If a couple of hundred people do, it stands to reason that many new faces will be among the congregation next Sunday.

It’s one thing to welcome people who come to church on their own–and that’s no inconsiderable thing–but quite another to reach out to them and bring them in.

A wonderful line from Ecclesiastes gives practical instruction for all God’s children who enter the fields to reach the unreached:

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they shall both alike be good.” (Eccl. 11:6)

As an old farm boy, I understand precisely what that is saying. Don’t judge the soil; just sow the seed. You never know which seed will bear the fruit, so leave that to the Lord.

In my prayers, I’m thanking the Lord in advance for the people sitting at home this week who are about to be intersected by some of our people with a warm invitation to the House of God. This is how lives gets changed and the Kingdom gets populated.

“Go home to your people and tell them….” (Mark 5:19)

After all, someone you know is hungry for fellowship.