Welcome to First Christian Forest Grove! Since 1882 First Christian Church has been a lighthouse of God's love on the corner of 19th and Cedar in Forest Grove.The building has changed over the years and the congregation has grown in size, but the timeless values of Faith, Hope, and Love found in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ are still alive and unchanging here.

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        We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and Lord and Savior of the World

                                     

                      

Plus One

By Rev. Spencer King

First Christian Church

Forest Grove, Oregon

Matthew 22: 8-14 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

There is an agreed upon protocol that is often employed as a part of the traditional language used to invite guests to a party and to respond to a party invitation. For example, at the conclusion of an invitation one may find the acronym “RSVP,” which is short for the French phrase Répondez s'il vous plaît meaning “respond if you please.” That phrase constitutes a request by the sender for the recipient to either formally accept or decline the invitation. 

Often the recipients of an invitation will RSVP their intention of attending a party and include the term “plus one.” Plus one means, of course, that the recipient of the invitation intends to bring a guest. That gives the sender of the invitation the ability to plan the event with the overall number of attendees in mind.

We don’t know what heaven will be like. It seems unlikely that any human words or our finite earthbound imaginations could truly grasp the boundless joy and limitless light of love that is promised to us in the next life. However, Jesus did often describe heaven as a party and a banquet akin to a wedding feast. All are invited, but not all will accept or will come adorned by Grace. So we are required to RSVP.

We respond to the invitation to attend the “wedding feast of the Lamb” by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Our willingness to receive Christ into our hearts, expressed publicly, can be likened to an RSVP. Christ offered and we accepted and that makes all the difference. But what about a “plus one?”

Will there be anyone at the eternal celebration because of your good example and efforts? Christianity is meant to be a missionary religion. Jesus said we are to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19)

Most of us don’t have access to any means of mass communication, but we can change our community, our nation and our world one invitation, a single plus one, at a time. But we are often reluctant to offer the invitation because it just seems so awkward because we think of the invitations we offer to others in the wrong way.  

Too often we think of our efforts to bring others along with us as some kind of pestering intrusion or even an accusation. When someone says, “you need to go to the barbershop” or “you need to talk to a counselor,” they are trying to tell us that they think there is something wrong with us. An invitation to church can almost seem like the same thing unless we remember that, when we invite someone to church, we are not pointing out some defect in them that needs correction, instead we are extending an invitation to a party, to a great and glorious celebration.  Evangelism should be joyous.

You are invited! 

Everyone else too!

RSVP

Spencer