Reason for conversion

Had lunch yesterday with Kevin Skidmore, who is sharing Jesus with city of Logan. He said something that caused me to stop and think about how I approach evangelism. He said, (quoting a name that I have forgotten) "What we convert people with, is what we convert them to."

Now, stop and think about that! That's true. Here's the thing - we say, "Come to our church. We have a great praise team! Man, the worship is really awesome." So they come. And the worship is awesome. But a few Sundays down the road, you have an "off" Sunday. The worship leader is sick or out of town - the singing is a little off. Then, it happens again. Your friend quits going and finds another church with better worship. Without realizing it, you converted "with" worship and that's what they were converted "to".

We do the same thing with preaching, youth ministry, etc. You've all seen it - people leave when "the " preacher leaves. When the youth ministry is in a down cycle, families bolt.
What about converting them to a relationship with Jesus? When the singing is off, they are still have Jesus! When the youth ministry is down, they still have Jesus.

Now, I'm all for praise teams, great worship every Sunday, - even great youth ministry! That is not the basis on which I will encourage people to come to Southside. I will invite them to a relationship with God! Because that is always constant!