Invite your Evangelical, Pentecostal, and A.M.E friends and have your own “amen chorus”.

This is a wonderful idea. I have a suggestion for the invitation. I might add that there is no collection plate. From what I understand a number of people will avoid visiting a church because they don’t lie to be hit up for money.

I would also also be a good idea to print invitations like this for baby blessings and baptisms. It might also be a good idea to include a small map on the invitation.

I told one of the councilors in the bishopric about this idea and he really liked it.

I also have a graphic designer friend who may put together some more attractive invitations that I will make available here in teh future.

It would allow a ward to add their specific info.

You are brilliant my friend. Brilliant. Love this.

Yes we do need more variety in the way we approach sharing the Gospel. I like your idea and think it has great merit. I’m certain that if I invite my friends to hear me speak at church, some of them will come. Hopefully they will then be open to the spirit to teach them.

Since my mission, I’ve always made it a point when giving talks to speak in such a way that a non-member will feel uplifted.

“To compare a civil mariage to that of the Lord’s way is like comparing a big flashlight to the sun. A civil mariage has two basic ingredients: The bride and groom make certain promises to each other; The bride and groom can legally live together according to the laws of the land.
(…)But not matter how it is packaged, that’s all a civil marriage will ever be. The addition of words from scriptures, so often incorporated into civil ceremonies, such as “What therefore has God joined together, let not man put asunder” Matthew 19:6, does not change that fact. Just as the baptisms conducted without authority in the meridian of time (see Act 19:2-5) were eternally powerless, so too is a civil marriage powerless to do anything but qualify the man and the woman to live together under the laws of the land. Adorning the ceremony with a minister or even an LDS bishop, a beautiful church or other building, tuxexos, limousines, music, and all of the other trappings will not change that. An empty box is not given substance by the most beautiful gift wrapping. So it is with civil marriage. It is not the Lord’s way and no amount of rationalizing will ever change that enchangeable fact.”
Elder Kree L. Kofford of the Seventy, Ensign, June 1998, 7.
What happens to the poor souls victims of these (sub-prime) marriage after death? The answer is not Doctrine and Covenants 132:15-17 They become servants to those who have celestial marriage.
Another quote this time by Joseph Fielding Smith from Doctrine of Salvations 2:67 “They [husband and wife] are not bound by any law of the gospel. It has no claim upon them[the family]; when they are dead, their contract, their obligations, and bonds come to an end; they have no claim upon each other, and no claim upon their children. Their children are left without parents, only as they themselves through their own faithfulness maybe adopted into some other man’s family.”
I will drive the nail even further by taking the example of Brigham Young who married (celestial marriage)six women who were still married to their living first husband(as in not divorced). Three of them to non-mormons Mary Ann Clark Powers, Mary Elizabeth Rolling Lightner, and Anna Tapfield King.
I therefore contend that in Mormon theology a civil mariage is a non binding contract in the eyes of God (after death) and inconsequential for eternal matters and salvation (clearly you loose everything even your children). After all, one can only enter the presence of God if he/she is married in the Temple.
So I don’t think I was VERY misleading, if misleading at all. Any good standing Mormon would not consider a civil marriage as a valid marriage for their salvation. In so much, that in countries like France, where civil mariage is an obligation and has to precede a religious wedding, young women will abstain from intercourse until their “real” temple marriage which can take place one to two days later as they have to travel to Germany, England or Switzerland to have access to a temple. It is of course not required by the Church but often time talked about in Young Women and Relief Society…
So for a people who has such disdain towards civil marriage, it is quite peculiar that Mormons would spend so much money and time in protecting an “empty box”.

I’m proud to be your friend. I’m grateful for you ability to explain things so clearly, and with compassion.