It’s true, I’m an Eagle Scout. As a matter of fact, I’m an Eagle Scout with a medal of heroism and three eagle palms, now it seems totally logical but not when I was a kid.

When I was a kid I was in a family that was pretty dysfunctional at times and we had recently relocated to a new state so it was sort of an understanding that we kept a low profile and just started to figure out how to get through our new routines. I didn’t have any experience with Boy Scouts and it wouldn’t have been something that I would have even thought to ask because the answer would have been no.

The difference for me was a new friend of mine that I had met in our neighborhood named Mark. Mark hosted a Cub Scout den and they had a spot open up. He asked me if I wanted to be a part of it and without knowing a whole lot about it I agreed, and surprisingly, so did my parents!

I went on to form a whole new circle of relationships, eventually getting into Boy Scouts and climbing to the rank of Eagle Scout late in Junior High. God used Boy Scouts to grow me as a leader in a way I would have never seen coming...and it all started with an invitation.

Invitations are so powerful because they offer something new through a relationship - it shows the vote of confidence in us from someone else. You making the invitation to someone in your life is far more powerful than some stranger, or something they see online. God can use you to shape someone’s future and their willingness to dream for it.

This Easter is just a few weeks away and you have the chance to show someone their potential and celebrate the power of the resurrection in them. I would love to encourage you in two ways; first, invite people in your life to come to Easter and second plan on attending either the Saturday 7pm or the Sunday 7:30am services to help create space for the ones we think will be even more full.

You can help bring the hope of heaven to the hearts of earth this Easter.

Praying for those invitations,

Pastor Phil