Friendship first

Something that I've been pondering abit is the importance of friendship first with people, especially when we are talking about growing the Kingdom of God. Something that I've seen heaps of people do is to be over eager to invite their friends to church/caregroup that all they even do when they see them is to invite them. After some time, they may come once just to shut the person up. After that, they don't feel obligated to come anymore and just "drift" away from the well meaning Christian. What happened?

I think that we can forget that if we want to reach out to someone, we need to first be genuine friends. The saying "people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care" is so true. The moment people smell that you're not interested in them, but just for them to get something out of them, they'll run. This girl I knew was helping out in world vision, I met her at Parachute Music Festival and she asked me to sign up and support. Long story short I sponsored a child anyway as it was always something I wanted to do, but I could tell that she truly wasn't interested me or my thoughts about the kids.

Friendship first, I think this must be true in our lives if we are to reach people and bring them into the Kingdom. It takes time and energy, like in all relationships, but we must be willing to invest it, not because we have a hidden agenda, but because we value them. I only drink around two times a year, simply because I have two non-Christian friends whose friendship I value and want to support them in the way they celebrate their birthdays. Yesterday one of them came to caregroup (to my surprise) and I hope he continues to come and that he eventually comes to know God personally.

Friendship is not only important to speak into the lives of people. When people are down and everything is falling around them and their natural response is one of isolation, the power of a friendship could cause them to come back to church or to caregroup. Even for leaders or fellow Christians who struggle for a season, the power of a friendship can have such a therapeutic effect for them. It can be thing that bring out through a hard time

There is so much that genuine friends can bring... Friendship first...