Pastoral Letters

Inviting People to the Gospel Rally

August 16, 2015 Author:Elder Liu Kerh Li
The church organises a gospel rally every year.  This year is no exception.  You may know that this year’s gospel rally will be held in church, on 4th of September, 8pm.  The theme for this year’s gospel rally is “The Love of God.”  We are privileged to have someone familiar, Rev Goh Seng Fong, here to preach on this topic.  In addition to the gospel message, we have choir presentation as well as a sharing of testimony.  This year, we add a new item – skit presentation!  Everything about this skit, from its storyline, script, props, effects and acting are all hard work of our talented brethren in TOLCC.  The programme planning for the event aims at achieving a good spiritual ambience so that our friends are all ready hear the gospel message.  Singing from the choir strives to communicate the richness, breath and wealth of God’s love to the audience through heart touching melodies and meaningful lyrics.  The sharing of a personal testimony endeavours to show our friends the life changing power of the gospel through a real life story.  As for the skit, it invites our audiences to explore the topic of “love” in a light hearted way.  With the emphasis on “the Love of God,” Rev Goh’s message brings us to the core message of the gospel of the Christian faith.

During the gospel rally, we also organise programmes that cater to younger children.  They will run concurrently with the adults’ meeting.  Experienced teachers will be here to teach our children who are in P2 or younger through interesting activities that are also evangelistic in nature.  With this, friends who bring along their young children will have a peace of mind to hear the gospel message as they know that their children are in good hands.

We are 20 days away from the gospel rally.  Have you thought of whom to invite?  Of course, we need not wait for a gospel meeting before we can invite friends to church.  As highlighted, however, the focus of the gospel rally is the gospel.  Our whole motivation is to share God’s love.  Hence, you can expect that your friends will be able to hear a complete gospel message in the rally.  Moreover, through the sharing of a personal testimony, they will be able to see how the gospel really brings about a transformation in life.  You really must seize this opportunity to bring your non-believing friends or relatives to this rally.  They need to receive God’s Love.  Otherwise, they will have a terrible ending: endless suffering in hell.  How can we bear with even such a thought?

Should you have difficulty in thinking whom to invite, you may want start with people who are close to you because you should be most concerned about their salvation.  Inviting people to a gospel rally is often times difficult.  There are many hurdles to overcome.  This is not surprising as the enemy of gospel, Satan, is all out to sabotage gospel work.  We are in constant war with evil spiritual forces (Ephesians 6:12) as we seek to win lost souls.  For this reason, please inform your cell group or the church whom you intend to invite.  We can then pray for you and your friends or relatives that God removes all obstacles and prepare their hearts.  How should you react if they turn down your invitation?  It is natural to feel discouraged.  However, as we reflect on our own journey before we received the gospel, we were also invited to church many times before we finally made the decision to accept Christ.  Therefore, please do not let the fear of the possibility of being rejected or being scolded hamper you from inviting people to the gospel rally.  Let your love for God and your friends and relatives help you breakthrough such fear.  On another note, you can also consider asking Pastor or the brethren here to help you do invitation.  We can schedule a visit to you and your family.  Such visitations allow your family members to get to know people from the church.  This in turn may help them feel less resistant to coming to church.   Whatever the case, please let us know if you face any difficulty in inviting your friends or relatives over (including inviting them for the usual church service), we may have encountered the same problem before and have a workable solution.  We are all on the same front in saving lost souls.  Let us be “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).