Not a Club

The Lord Jesus desires that we experience all that He has in store for us - He knocks at the door of our hearts, and as we have received Him, we can allow Him to do His work in and through us. Revelation 3 states:
18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

God has so much in store for us - He wants us to abide and grow in His love and to walk in the fullness of His presence.  He calls us to lay down our old lives and walk in His new life - to become part of the body of Christ and the family of God.  He is knocking...we can evaluate the degree to which we are listening and opening the door to His Spirit.  Jesus is calling each of us to a deeper relationship with Himself - He invites us to respond.

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We know that Jesus died for all, and He is inviting to all, and gave the invitation to those of us who have been saved, and by our response, we now have entered into a relationship with Him. His inviting nature is expressed in Matthew 11:
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Having just returned from this year's National Religious Broadcasters Christian Media Convention in Dallas, I had the chance to sit down with a variety of Christian communicators for interviews and to observe a host of communicators at work.  In addition to my work on the floor of the Exhibit Hall in the Faith Radio booth, I spent time in the NRB Press Room, where there were numerous radio, TV, and podcast hosts hard at work to bring inspiring content.  And, elsewhere in the convention throughout the week, there were seminars that informed and taught communicators about technology that is available in order to more effectively spread the gospel message.

CBN.com recently published a story about a new platform that has attracted Christian participants.  It's called Clubhouse, and according to the article:

It's an invitation-only audio chat app that launched just over a year ago and is quickly growing. Social Media Today reported during the month of March alone, Clubhouse was downloaded by 13 million new users with nearly a third of those in the U.S.

The article notes that, "Clubhouse is different from other social media platforms because it's live and in real-time. Churches can even host small group meetings or open discussions." The article notes that its popularity grew during the COVID pandemic and relates that "Clubhouse lets users start or listen into conversations on a whole host of topics, ranging from sports and parenting to religion and more."  Again, its invitation-only.

One particular ministry leader said:

"We started having altar calls. And so, when we started having altar calls, we've had over 600 people get saved so far. So we've formed a network. Once they get saved, I form a team that will follow up and then they will tell us what country they're from, what state they're from, and then we will assign them a local church. So it's causing churches to grow, ministries to grow."

One of the first takeaways from this story is the concept of being inviting.  Clubhouse is an invitation-only platform, but it can give Christians the opportunity to invite people to come and experience their content. We can consider who we are inviting to hear the gospel.

We can also be reminded of the way that God is using technological advances for His purposes.  Sure, there are concerns about social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that have censored content that is consistent with Scripture.  However, there is still an amazing amount of material that exalts Christ that is allowed to be posted; therefore, while we can advocate for more open expression, we can use what is available in order to share His truth.

The platform is named, "Clubhouse," and thankfully, the body of Christ is not a "club."  Everyone is invited - the gospel is available to all.  We just have to let Christ speak and live through us in order to send that message.  We have to make sure that we do not possess an air of exclusivity about the gospel; after all, we were not excluded from His good news.