[Biblemat] Q> Should we offer an invitation?

[shewemail at earthlink.net]

Brother Thornhill,

We may offer encouragement at any time to respond to the summons of 
Jesus, but the summons belongs to Him and not us.

If a person expresses a desire to respond to the Savior's summons, I do 
not wait till the end of services. For example, a family contacted me 
about 40 minutes before the beginning of the evening assembly one Sunday 
and stated that their teenage son had expressed an interest in 
responding to the Gospel. They lived about twenty minutes from the 
building. By the time, they got to the building and the young man got 
changed into the provided garments, there was only about ten minutes or 
less before assembly was to begin and around half of the members who 
were coming had arrived. I baptized him prior to the assembly.

I have stated in my preaching that if a person comes forward five 
minutes after I have started preaching, I will stop my sermon and 
immediately baptize that person.

The idea that we provide an opportunity is a bad thought to implant in 
the minds of the unlearned. I refer to the words that I speak at the 
close of a sermon as "the encouragement" and the song that is sung as 
"the encouragement song" because I believe that we are supposed to 
encourage people to respond to the Savior's subpoena. I avoid the use of 
terms such as "the invitation song" because I believe that it is "An 
Uncertain Sound." ( I Cor. 14:8 )

James Shewmaker

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