Sammy Gilbreath said if a pastor woke up on Sunday morning and God told him, “Today is going to be Joe’s last Sunday,” he bets the message and invitation “would have a sense of urgency about it.”

“Because we don’t know who will be back, approach every invitation with that kind of urgency,” said Gilbreath, retired director of the office of evangelism at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.

Gilbreath taught a breakout session at the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference on Jan. 27 on the topic of How to Give an Evangelistic Invitation.

He gave six aspects of an effective invitation.

1. The invitation has got to burn with compassion.

Gilbreath said that in college, a debate professor told him to choose a spot on the back wall and stare at it while he talked.

“That might be good for a debate, but it’s horrible for a pastor,” Gilbreath said. “I want you to look them straight in the face and be compassionate.”

2. The invitation has to be bold because of consecration.

“I can’t give an invitation because I’m perfect, but I can give it because I’m clean,” Gilbreath said. “How am I going to preach on the sanctity of marriage and I’m being unfaithful to my wife?

Sin is alive and well, and “Satan is trying to destroy us,” he said. “If he destroys our preaching and our credibility, we can’t give that invitation.”

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.