"I know a girl,...she puts the color inside of my world." Such are the opening words of John Mayer's Daughters.  It is my "Emma's Song."  I do know a girl that puts the color inside of my world.  She is Emma.  I know a boy that makes me rethink the "Why's" of my world.  His name is Gabe.  I know a girl whose giggles give the clouds their shapes.  Her name is Julia.  I know a woman whose devotion to a simpleton husband is worth more than the national debt!  Her name is Sandra.  I know these people.  They are my world.  They are my family.

I know another family.  It is comprised of Joes, Pauls, Marthas, Jeans, John, Barbaras, Sharons, Roberts, Gregs, Genes, and all the folks with unique names that make up the Hartford First United Methodist Church.  I know you.  You know me.  We know of our changing desires, hopes, fears, loves, failures, and accomplishments.  We know these things and love each other because of or in spite of them.

While all this knowledge is great, I am concerned about who we don't know.  In Ralph Neighbor's Where Do We Go From Here," Dr. Neighbors notes that most Christians in our church really only know other Christians.  He suggests that while everyone in our congregation agrees that we need to invite and love "the unchurched," very few of us actually know any of "them."  Joe Reagan made that point just today in our prayer group time when he asserted that "all my friends already go to church."  That's good for Joe and good for his friends, but it is not so good for those unlucky enough not to know Joe nor me nor maybe even you for that matter.

In a scathingly critical composition about the contemporary church in The Other Side, one writer said that the problem with today's church is not that we don't care about the poor; the problem is that we don't know the poor.  Who do you know that really doesn't believe the gospel?  Who do you know that needs an extra blanket the rest of this winter?  Who do you know that can't afford their groceries?  Who do you know that needs some intervention?

I'm sure that we know a few.  Maybe even a name came to mind.  Good.  Now we are just getting warmed up.  For 2008, I want the Hartford First United Methodist Church to consider getting to know some of these folks.  I don't just mean to know about them.  I want us to get to know them.  Let us invite "them" into our lives, into "our" families, into "our" church, until there is no longer an "us and a "them."

Will you consider making a personal goal this year in regard to your "knowing" of an unchurched person:?  Will you invite just one "unchurched" person into Christ's church this year?  Just imagine what it would look like if everyone brought an unchurched person to worship four times this year.  What if just one of those accepted Jesus Christ as their savior? What if more did?  Wouldn't you like to be a part of saving the world, one soul at a time?  Christ has invited us to just that cause.  Christ has invited "us."

As we enter 2008, let's remember why we are here.  We are here to save the lost.  We are here to be "a family of believers welcoming everyone, spreading God's Word, and fulfilling spiritual needs."  We are hear to share Who we know (Jesus) with those we know.  Who do you know that needs to know Who you know?