Missional Church is one of those books I return to with some regularity. On Wednesday, while working from Caribou on my upcoming sermon I came across the following passage. After showing it to Bob (who was also working out of the coffee shop), he said something like, “You should just stand up, read that, pray and sit down.”

That probably won’t happen, but the quote seems significant enough to share here.

Evangelism would move from an act of recruiting or co-opting those outside the church to an invitation of companionship. The church would witness that its members, like others, hunger for the hope that there is a God who reigns in love and intends the good of the whole earth. The community of the church would testify that they have heard the announcement that such a reign is coming, and indeed is already breaking into the world. They would confirm that they have heard the open welcome and received it daily, and they would invite others to join them as those who also have been extended God’s welcome. To those invited, the church would offer itself to assist their entrance into the reign of God and to travel with them as co-pilgrims.

I am taken with this vision of an invitation to pilgrimage. Surely this isn’t the only way to talk about Christian witness, but it may be one we need to hear more often.