The Invitation

As I've mentioned several times already, lots of time, prayer, and consideration goes into making song selections for our worship services. I always ask the Lord to let me know when He wants something changed during the service. I want to make certain that I am following His will at all times. This brings us to the invitation song...

Of all of the songs that are sang in the church service, the invitational is the single most important one. Trying to conduct an invitation without a song would be extremely difficult. I normally have one selected, however, this usually changes by the time the pastor has finished with his sermon. In the last few minutes of the sermon I am usually torn between songs as to what to sing. There has been times that I have walked up to the podium to deliver the song and will have to make a decision in a split second. It is both nerve wracking and exciting! The exciting part is knowing that God will always come through and let me know which one to sing. The wrong selection could throw water on the Spirit and ruin the hopes of someone coming forward to the altar.

Of course the perfect invitation song is probably, Just As I Am. That was the song being sung on the evening I accepted Christ and I remember feeling like my heart was going to pound out of my chest as each word was sang. Even Billy Graham always used Just As I Am for the invitation at all of his crusades. It usually fits any occasion. My personal favorite's are, Lord I'm Coming Home, and I Surrender All. I try not to over use them because if it were up to me I would sing one or the other every single time. Other times, when the folks attending are our faithful few that have already accepted Christ, it becomes more difficult. I usually try to find something that conveys our love of Christ or our longing for Heaven, What A Day That Will Be, for example.

Lately I have been trying to implement invitation songs that seem to have been forgotten. Some old classics that you used to hear but for some reason folks have quit singing them. Last week I did, Near The Cross. Wow, what a beautiful song! (watch and listen to a beautiful rendition of it by the Parish Family on YouTube.) I heard a few folks singing along at church, so it wasn't completely forgotten. Our pastor did a nice job harmonizing on it with me.

I am planning on gathering several more old classic invitation songs together and practicing them with the choir so we can expand our repertoire. Be listening for them in the near future!

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