We are in the second Sunday of the series, You’re Invited, a celebration of and invitation to participate in and invite others to the ministries and missions taking place at Shepherd of the Hills.

First a quick review of some things from last week. We won’t be reviewing this every week, but some important points to be reminded about as to what prompted this series.

Last week, we suggested that an inviting spirit ought to be in our DNA as a church and as Christians because that is clearly what Christ calls us to…and it is essential for our future as a church. A concern, however, is that statistics reveal we are not an inviting church. If you were here last week you’ll recall this statistic—in national surveys when first-time visitors are asked what led to their visiting a church, by far the number one response is "someone invited me." Nationally, the average is 80% of first-time visitors say it was a personal invitation that led to their visiting a church. In reviewing the responses of new members to Shepherd over the last few years when asked how they first heard of Shepherd of the Hills and decided to visit, the percentage who responded "someone invited me" was only 7%. That is a startling statistic. We get high marks for being a warm and welcoming congregation—once someone decides to visit here—but we are not an inviting congregation. We must become more inviting to fulfill our calling as Christians and as a church.

Last week I also showed you this fundraising model from Jeffco Action Center (JAC) where I serve on the Board of Directors. The first step in the model is called a "Point of Entry" (POE). The staff and board are very intentional about inviting people to POE’s in order to learn about the services offered at JAC and, hopefully, become a supporter of JAC. This past Wednesday I participated in a board retreat, one part of which was reviewing the model with the director of Benevon, the source for the model. In teaching about the model, she briefly described the approach one takes in inviting someone to a POE. Staff, board members and volunteers are encouraged to invite someone to a POE by saying something like, "Jeffco Action Center is important to me because…" and fill in the reason. Or, "I love the Jeffco Action Center because…" We actually practice that at board meetings.

It struck me that that speaks to the purpose of this series. One purpose in celebrating the ministries taking place here is to remind us of the important things that are happening at Shepherd of the Hills, and hopefully reminding us of why we love this place. Another purpose is, within the reminder of what’s happening here, to invite you to find a ministry or two to become involved in if you’re not so involved. And, finally, the third purpose is to encourage you to consider inviting someone else to join you in that ministry. Those words, "my involvement in the ministry of _____ is important to me because…" or "I love ______________ because…" seem to me as very helpful toward our becoming a more inviting congregation. Throughout this series, I hope you will consider those words, how you might fill in the blanks, how you might use those words to invite someone to join you in the journey.

And throughout the course of this series, we’ll be referring to the "Nine Marks of Active Membership" cited in our Book of Order. They are reminders of what an active member, or an active Christ-follower looks like. An active disciple is involved in these things—and the ministries and missions of Shepherd of the Hills help us to be so involved.

Today, in talking about "caring for others," the marks of

Living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life and Working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment certainly are at work. There are other marks present as well—serving others, for example, but these two, Living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life and Working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment certainly are at work when we care for others.

What does caring for others look like? It comes in a variety of activities, but I can tell you that it is clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. It is clothed in forbearance and forgiveness, all of which is held together by love. From such "clothing" comes caring.

We make a lot of judgments from someone’s clothing, don’t we? For example, what might you discern from the following? (Pictures of people with different styles of clothing and related comments about those pictures)

I had hoped to show you some pictures of Kim and me from our past—a lovely picture of us in plaid pants that scream "the 70’s!" Or the picture of the infamous orange tuxedo I insisted on getting for senior prom. And, finally, the only remaining picture of my "permed hair" phase. Unfortunately, or perhaps for me, fortunately, we weren’t able to pull those pictures of a CD. Perhaps another time! Suffice it to say, however, that we can tell much about a person by their clothing—as long as we don’t take it too far or lock someone into a box of our "absolute" judgments.

Christians should be known by their clothing, their clothing of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and forgiveness—all bound together by love. The Scriptures say that Christians will be known by their…love (John 13:35). The topcoat in a Christian’s clothing should be love. And our "wardrobe" finds its expression through caring for others. All of those words—compassion, kindness, forbearance, love, et.al. are expressions of attitudes and actions toward others.

Our inspiration for such clothing is, of course, Jesus. Jesus models this wardrobe of compassion, kindness, and the rest, better than anyone else. Matthew 9:36 has this interesting, and for us, most relevant description of Jesus. "When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." We take our church name from that passage! Not only do we take the name of Christ in being called Christian, we also take our church’s name from that passage, Shepherd of the Hills. We will live up to that name only if we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, binding all of that with love. The example set by Jesus should move our hearts to extend caring compassion and love toward others. That is the importance of nurturing our own spirits in Christ. If we are not touched by the compassion and love of Christ, we will not be moved to touch others with Christlike compassion and love.

I’ve begun reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is about the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet, in part which was made up of his rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination for president. On Friday night I read an interesting section that made me think of our topic for today. Goodwin describes the Senate debate over the issue of slavery, a debate that led to the fragile Compromise of 1850. Writing of the speeches given during that debate by the great triumvirate of senators—John Calhoun, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster—Goodwin describes the reaction of someone in the gallery, Frances Seward, the wife of William Seward, a senator from New York at the time and later one of Lincoln’s rivals for the Republican nomination. Illustrating Frances’ reaction specifically to what she perceived as Daniel Webster’s cold presentation, Goodwin writes, "Acknowledging that Webster was ‘a forcible speaker,’ particularly when he extolled the Union, she found him ‘much less eloquent than Henry Clay because his heart is decidedly colder…’" and then Frances adds these words to her evaluation of Webster, "people must have feeling themselves to touch others.’" It’s important we nurture our own spirits in Christ—to be touched by his caring wardrobe of compassion, kindness, humility, patience, gentleness, forbearance, forgiveness and love—if we are to similarly touch others with Christlike care.

If we would do that, however, if we would nurture our own spirits in Christ, we will find ourselves showing the love and care of Christ to others. What might that look like? One way of caring for others might be spiritual in nature. Emulating Christ’s heart for the lost, a follower of Christ will care very much about the spiritual nature of those who are far from God. Like a shepherd who leaves the 99 to search for the one lost, we will seek to bring the spiritual care of Christ to those who are far from Him. An invitation of spiritual care could include an invitation to join us in worship, to join us in Sunday school to learn more about God’s love for us. Or the care of Christ offered to others might also be of a physical, emotional nature. Emulating Christ’s heart for the hurting, a follower of Christ will care very much about and for the physical and emotional realities confronting someone who is far from God. Like the compassion Christ had when He saw the crowds, we will also have compassion for the harassed and helpless around us. Caring for others with physical, emotional needs could include such ministries as Stephen Ministry which we celebrated earlier in our worship, the Prayer Shawl ministry which seeks to express to someone a tangible reminder of our ongoing prayer concerns, and the ministry of Share the Care, a newly developing ministry at Shepherd that seeks to ease the role of a caregiver in a family situation where surgery, injury or serious illness requires long term treatments. If you’d like more information about those ministries, I encourage you to talk to Barbara, our Minister of Member Care who has brought her own gifts of pastoral care to our church as well as her leadership to those ministries—which is also something to celebrate.

So, followers of Jesus Christ, members of Shepherd of the Hills, what kind of clothing for caregiving are you wearing? Are you touched in your own life by the example of caregiving modeled by Jesus Christ himself? If not, why not? Come and find out about it! Does your heart ache to respond with loving care to those who are spiritually, physically and emotionally hurting? Is it evident to others that you are clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience? Is your "topcoat of love" plainly visible for others to see? It’s what Christ calls us to—and what we seek to do through the caregiving ministries of our church. It is the most compelling invitation possible—come and see what Christ has done for me…and what Christ can do for you!