Member when people invited people to their house for dinner after church? Member when families got together in the evening to visit or play games? Wonder what happened to those times? When Paula and I first moved to the Fourway Gin house between Seagraves and Denver City, we started going to church in DC. I remember that we visited the congregation on Sunday morning, and Tuesday evening of that very week we were visited by a couple as part of their visitation program. The group came together each week, passed out names of folks that needed to be visited and then went to make those visits. Paula and I accepted our visitors with a hug, and then loaded up and followed them to town to join the group which all got together for refreshments after their evening of visits.

We instantly became a part of that group, and in fact grew friendships that are still strong after all these years. I guess in was inevitable that we should fit in so easily, because all four of the women were expecting. Talk about having things in common, not only were all four couples expecting, all four couples already had a child, and those four kids were roughly the same age. Suffice it to say we spent a lot of time together over the course of the next eighteen years. We shared lots of meals, and played a lot of 42.  Seems things like that just don’t happen much anymore.

Well, Sunday morning Mark challenged us to ask someone to dinner after church next Sunday. He even made a nice schedule to follow. This week the members of the congregation with last names starting with the letters A thru KLA are to invite families with last names starting with the letters KLE thru Z, to lunch either at a restaurant, or better still, in their home, the Sunday after that the inviting is to be reversed with the latter group doing the inviting. Here is the thing that makes this a special event. We were also told that we were to invite folks who we had not visited with before. In other words your best friends don’t count; you need to get to know other families.

Last night I received a phone call from Lee Henry. He and his wife Robin invited us to their house for dinner next Sunday, and I accepted. The Henrys are fairly new to our congregation. I have visited with them a few times between worship and Bible class, but that doesn’t mean I know them. This coming Sunday Paula and I will start getting to know Lee, Robin, and their kids, and this same thing will be happening all over our congregation. I believe, as Mark does, that this effort will make us stronger as a family in God. The church of Christ on McDermott had almost nine hundred-fifty people worshiping God last Sunday morning in two services. The size of our building will not allow us to all meet at the same time, so the next two weeks should help the congregation as a whole become closer and stronger.

I think Mark hit on a great deal here friends, and I just wanted to do my part in passing this simple strategy along. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord’s people everywhere grew closer, and became stronger just by getting to know one another better?  Why not introduce this idea to your congregation, and let’s all get to know one another better. To God be the Glory!

Till next time,

Grump