Two ugly sister’s of invitation
The Blame Game a really significant barrier to the leading of invitation A new friend of mine Ray Francis suggested that we church leaders can be like turtles. We are heavily armoured and if under attack can easily seek shelter, the problem is that some of us disappear and don’t come out again. For many churches invitation is a foreign concept and for some church leader’s it’s merely the fear of introducing it and being ridiculed, laughed at, and belittled which stops it dead in its tracks. If you’re willing to subject yourself to that experience, and if you survive it, then it becomes the fear of failure and the fear of being wrong. My research leads me to conclude that behind fear is shame. Invitation requires a different type of courage and creativity.” Just sitting through a church service won’t necessarily reveal a shame problem. But perhaps if we visit the church management meeting we will hear it in action. Blaming, name-calling, harassment and gossiping afterwards are all behavior cues that shame has permeated a culture. Shame and Blame are like the two ugly sister’s where one is present the other one is not too far behind.
