On the way to the office, I often stop by Parker’s to get my caffeine fix. Whether it’s Bluffton, Fort Mill, Pawley’s Island or Boone, it’s always been the same everywhere on Sunday mornings. People filling up their boats, loading their coolers, and getting something to drink before they hit the links, the water, or the hiking trails. Whatever it may be, it appears that the last thing on their mind is attending a Sunday morning worship service. Either they feel that God has little relevance in their lives, or what they’re doing seems more important, I often wonder how we reach people who have so little thirst for God. How do we win them to the idea that experiencing God on Sunday mornings is even more rewarding than all the other things?

God is always the One who wins them to Himself, but I know that we are often used in the process. In my ministry experience, I’m not sure if one method is better than another, but I do know that Jesus died for all. St. Augustine often taught that the way anyone discovers Christ is when they see that He is more beautiful than everything else. The Ultimate beauty is more radiant than all the others.

Recently, our Bishop challenged the clergy to aim for conversion in all that we do. May I suggest that we as a Church do the same, deliberately praying that God’s splendor would outshine all the other worldly passions that so easily distract us. In our Sunday prayers, we pray for God “to open our eyes and hearts to see the strangers in our community, to inconvenience ourselves to meet their needs so that they might enter the new life only You can provide.” Let’s fervently live this prayer and see what God can do.

(Photo credit- Pastor Nathan Weaver)