This Sunday, December 8th, we will gather for our second event as the 801South Launch Team. This gathering will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Eagle’s Nest on the campus of Matthews United Methodist Church. We will eat lunch together and continue to narrow the vision for what this movement will look like as we near the 2014 launch. As always, we will have lots of fun together. There will be laughs and my hope is that you will continue to be inspired as a part of this team.

I have tried to emphasize the importance of being invitational within this new ministry initiative. Sometimes our ability to be used by God is directly correlated with our efforts to invite others into the journey. As you think of neighbors, coworkers, family, friends, little league coaches, Starbucks baristas, and others in your life who you could see being a part of the launch team, I want to clarify the invitational win. Sometimes we do not take the initiative to invite people, because we assume they will say no. We allow the assumption of rejection to keep us from even making the ask. For the 801South ministry, the win is just offering the invitation–not the acceptance of the invitation. You have done your job to be invitational in simply asking another to come along. Rather or not he accepts your invitation is our of your control.

Prior to offering the invitation, lifting up some prayers will give you more confidence and might also help to soften the heart of the invitee. One purpose of these launch team events is to be a tool which we can use to invite others to be a part of what God is doing through this movement.

I have personally invited several people from within the community to come out for this next launch team event. Who can you invite?