Empty Chairs…Changed Lives

I can't get this picture out of my mind.  It's one of our theaters, emptied out after our e-teams cleared the last of our gear out one Sunday morning.  Hundreds of empty chairs.
Sure, the chairs fill up with people at our services, but we always want there to be empty chairs at each of our services.  Because it's not just a gather for those of us who attend regularly.  It's a place for all of us to bring friends with us to sit in those empty chairs.
Two years ago, Christine invited Linda to come with her one Sunday to our Orillia campus.  To her surprise, and after a bit of resistance, Linda said yes. Linda was raised in an atheist home, but she had a great experience at Connexus and started coming regularly. A few months later, Linda's husband Kevin started coming along with the kids.
Two years later, Linda has a compelling story to tell about how she moved from atheism to following Jesus…all because a friend invited her to sit in an empty chair beside her.  I love Linda's story:

We have empty seats at all of our services (The overflow theater in Barrie  is now available at 10:00 a.m. every weekend in 2011.  Your generosity  made this possible. Thanks!).
We're praying for you this week as we all think about who we can invite to sit beside us in an empty chair this weekend.  You just never know what God is going to do.  Just ask Linda.
– Carey