“Now also finish the task, so that just as there was an eager desire, there may also be a completion…” (2 Cor. 8:11)

Zeal. Passion. Enthusiasm. Fire. Excitement. Drive. Eagerness.

Those words communicate the Christian mentality to all that is truly virtuous. They don’t necessarily mean that a person has a vibrant, outgoing personality. They do mean that when we observe behaviors like Bible study, prayer, church participation, generosity, moral purity, and teaching the lost about Christ… a person with “eager desire” will show ample evidence that those things matter to them.

I hope that each of us could say honestly and humbly that our lives demonstrate eagerness and zeal for the things of God. I hope that our preparedness and participation in Bible studies demonstrates that our zeal for those things overshadows our fear of what others will think of us because of our comments. I hope that our eagerness to bless others by hospitality outshines our concerns about messing up or looking silly in some way. I hope that our drive to help others by leading them in true worship eclipses our fears of being thought of in a negative light. I hope that our eagerness to participate in good works of the church compels us to be quick to sign up for all sorts of things when opportunities present themselves.

Holding back our enthusiasm for the things of God may be wise on a few rare occasions, but those occasions are just that: rare and few. Overall, saints are supposed to be people whose lives are defined by a fire that burns more and more brightly as time goes on. And that’s an act of will—a thing that we must decide. So are you deciding to live out genuine zeal for the things of God? If not, then it’s time to make some changes, so that where we have set our minds to becoming great Christians, we may finish what we have started and fully become who Christ calls us to be!

- Dan Lankford, minister

This past week, a sister from another state asked me, “How do you stop someone that you’re discipling from thinking that they are just a project to you? I feel like when I work with someone to help them understand God and live as a Christian, I’m making them feel like they’re just a charity project—like a statistic that I need to earn.”

How would you answer that? At the time, I said, “I think it’s ultimately about an authentic relationship. You have to really be building that relationship so that they don’t fear that you’re breaking away from them once they are ‘completed.’” Having thought about it for a few more days, I think one word would capture that truth best: LOVE.

As Jesus’s people, we must love others the way that he did. That means that our evangelism and the whole discipling process will be naturally motivated by genuine love for the people we help. It won’t be about successfully using a certain system, adding them to our “stats” as a Christian, making them “just like us,” or even about getting them strong enough to let you ‘move on’ to someone else. Evangelism will always be about loving others and helping them believe in Jesus to be saved and transformed by him. Loving them enough to do that will lead to quality, loving relationships based in all that we share in Christ.

Paul told the brothers and sisters in Ephesus to go about life, “speaking the truth in love, [so that all may] grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” (Eph. 4:15) An attitude like that won’t think of anyone as a statistic or a project, but always as a person in need of genuine, selfless, wholesome love—both from Christ and from us.

- Dan Lankford, minister

King Nebuchadnezzar was a truly powerful world leader. His kingdom was richer, bigger, and more feared than almost any other national power before it or contemporary to it. And he knew it too (see Dan. 4). But God reminded him that even as great as he was, there was a kingdom that would far exceed his in influence, area, and power. In Daniel 2, God showed him a vision of a future kingdom that was built by divine hands—not human ones—and that would expand to fill the entire earth. That kingdom is the church of Jesus Christ—his people, living his way, sharing his grace with the world, shining with the light of his glory, and exercising a more powerful influence in the world than any kingdom of mankind ever can.

So how does that picture of the world accord with what we see today? When tensions between powerful nations threaten world peace and safety, and when we, the church, seem to just be carried along in the tide of victims to world leaders’ decisions, how can we believe the promises of the church’s power found in Daniel’s prophecies?

The reality is that the power of God’s kingdom doesn’t come from national laws and policies, or from military might, or from economic prosperity, or from the size of its territory. The power of God’s kingdom is his personal influence over hearts. That’s a power that no kingdom of mankind can ever have—the power to change the very heart of each citizen. And that’s a power that can work subversively in the regime of any man-made kingdom, even one that is actively trying to stamp out Christianity. No matter how much a government may try to police its people’s thoughts and control their decisions the best it can hope for is to control the behaviors of its people; not to create goodness from their hearts as God’s Spirit does in us. That’s what Christ was talking about when he said, “my kingdom is not from the world.” It’s not a kingdom that’s built by top-down control and coercion, but rather with inside-to-outside conversion, changing hearts that lead to changes in entire cultures.

So, if we look around at the world and wonder when God’s kingdom will expand into the grand influence that Nebuchadnezzar’s vision predicted, let’s be reminded that it’s up to us and our relationship with Christ and our influence in others’ lives. The power of Christ’s kingdom is not in politics, but in people. It’s not in our laws but in our lives. It’s not in elections but in the elect—his saved ones. Brothers and sisters, “we are” that kingdom that is expanding to fill and change the entire world as we teach the Good News to each new generation, to our friends & neighbors, and to everyone who will be saved and live by faith in the Son of God.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.”

- Dan Lankford, minister

Growing up, I called three of my grandparents by fairly normal titles—Grandma, Grandpa, and Granddad. But I called one grandmother Nanny, and to this day, when I say it out loud, people give me quizzical looks and I have to explain why I had that special name for her.

And others have had much more out-of-the-ordinary ones than that. For example: Gigi, DeeDee, Memaw, Gramps, Big Mama, Doc, and Mocha.

If you’ve been in a relationship where you use a familial nickname like that, you know that saying it out loud brings curiosity and potential for ridicule. And yet, you find yourself doing it anyway. Even though there is the potential for some social awkwardness when you have to explain it, you use that name nonchalantly because it’s a name that you know well, because the relationship matters so much to you.

As a Christian, I want to be the same way with Jesus’ name. I want to be ready to speak it freely, even if it sounds funny to the ears of other people. Even if it garners curiosity and the potential for ridicule or some social awkwardness, I want to find myself doing it anyway. I want to use his name in a confident and nonchalant way because the relationship between him and me matters so much!

It was in the city of Antioch that Jesus’ disciples were first called “CHRISTians,” a name that they probably received from outsiders who heard them talk so much about a man they called The Christ. Let’s imitate them in freely speaking the name of Christ, the man whom we love with all of our being. Let’s speak of him and our relationship with him—our admiration and our apparent closeness with him. Let’s just own up to the quizzical looks and openly proclaim that he is our master.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Sunday morning’s sermon was likely a paradigm shift for many of us in how we think about evangelism (in fact, I later retitled the message Paradigm Shift: Evangelism). Since evangelism is already on our minds, here’s a little bit of advice about how to be persuasive in gospel teaching, based on how Paul shared the truth in the city of Athens (Ac. 17:16-33). Like we talked about Sunday, it won’t work every time, but it’s worth thinking about what we learn from Paul’s great example.

• Start where people are. Find some common ground from which you and the other party can start the things that matter most. Paul’s first address to the Athenian crowd was, “I perceive that you are very religious” (Ac. 17:22). We would do well to try to find an understandable, shareable piece of ground on which to begin talks.
• Address what is known and unknown. What does a person know or not know about God, about the Bible, about Christ, and about salvation? Paul noted all the altars and the altar “to the unknown God” in Athens, which told him a lot about how they understood things already. It’s wise for us to ask questions to someone rather than assuming too much about their beliefs.
• Bring attention to what doesn’t work to fulfill and save people. Ask, “Do you think that any government… or educational system… or science… or philosophy… or feel-good event… will truly heal humanity and make us what we should be?” And then draw their attention to what does work, saying something like, “But GOD can do that if we seek him.” That’s essentially the message the Paul gives, starting when he says, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” (Ac. 17:23)
• Tell them about the solution that will work. Paul said that God “will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Ac. 17:31). The solution is Jesus—the one who was raised from the dead, who is the assurance that God’s judgment will be righteous when the end comes. He is the only solution, and the one toward whom we want to direct others’ hearts and their lives.
• Finally, push them to a decision point. It’s ultimately up to each one and the response that he or she makes to God, but there’s nothing wrong with asking someone in a Bible study, “What do you think you need to do about that?” It’s the same impetus that Paul put behind his words when he said, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Ac. 17:30).

There are plenty of examples that we can look to for advice in outreach (see also Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well, John 4). And so I hope that these thoughts add something to your toolbox and help us make more connections as we teach others to follow Jesus and to understand the word more accurately.

- Dan Lankford, minister

PS — Special thanks to church member, Sean Cartaya, for creating the outline of this article and sharing it with me so that I could share it here.

It's a phrase that is used regularly in the world of social media marketing. The goal for businesses and brands is not just to inform their social media followers or just to entertain them; the goal is to "engage" them. What does that mean? It means that they want their followers to do something with their posts: respond with comments or re-share the content. Why does that matter? In the words of one marketing blog: "Because social media engagement builds customer-brand relationships... and increases word-of-mouth advocacy, which is a much more potent conversion tool than advertising." Essentially, "generating engagement" is a stepping stone toward a business's most meaningful moment: where the customer buys something.

Can you see how some of that same thought process could apply to how we interact with the people of the world? Obviously, our goals are more lofty than a simple business transaction: We're trying to persuade people to intwine their lives with Jesus. So how do we do that? By "generating engagement" with us that in turn turns their hearts to focus on Jesus himself.

Do you remember Jesus' two metaphors from the Sermon on the Mount for how his people ought to interact with the world? He said, "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world..." (Mt. 5:13-14). In order for salt and light to effect their potential benefits, they must be in contact with something. Light is useless if it isn't seen, and salt has no effect if isn't applied. The idea is that both have to be used, and the lesson that Jesus teaches us there is about how we face the world: We engage with it. We do not isolate from them and shout judgment from a safe distance; we make contact and draw them alongside us so that we can move toward Jesus together.

Engagement is the kind of relationship with people in the world that brings them close to Jesus and makes them interested in learning more from him. We are like the social media account of a big company: Our aim is to generate engagement with Christ, his word, and his church. We want to engage with the people around us in a way that they are inclined to return again and again to learn more about what makes us tick, which will, of course, lead them to know Jesus better if we are living the way that we should be.

So, let's do our best to talk about Christ in ways that draw others toward him. Let's be the kind of people whose actions and words show the kind of character that they want more of in their lives. Let's know and be known, so that others may actually see us as the light of the world and give glory to God. Let's generate engagement as we represent Christ; drawing more and more people toward him every day.

- Dan Lankford, minister

For many in this congregation and many who visit here, the Bible is a constant life companion. We know the order of its books by heart, we readily follow its numbering system, and we have at least a general sense of its chronology and the various styles of writing found within it.

But what if you didn't know any of that? How would one start getting to know this wonderful collection of writings? Once it becomes a second nature, it's easy for us to underestimate the difficulty of developing a working knowledge of the Bible and God's plan that is revealed in it.

Part of evangelism is teaching the Bible to absolute beginners. Many of the people whom we will talk to as we try to make disciples are going to be unfamiliar with the Bible, and it's our job to be longsuffering as we instruct them in God's ways and God's word. That won't always be the case, but we should still always be ready for it.

So where do we begin? How would you present the Bible to someone who is an absolute beginner? What does a person need to know first?

Consider this general set of first ideas. They should not be considered authoritative, but simply this author's ideas of a good springboard into deeper study.

• The Bible is telling one unified story that points to Jesus—the man through whom God will reconcile all sinful people back to himself. It contains writings in several styles, by many different authors, and from various times and places; but it all points to Jesus, the Christ.
• God selected of one family—the family of Abraham—as the channel through which he would bring the blessings of Jesus to all people. The history of that family is told in the 
Old Testament.
• The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—contain historical records of Jesus' lifetime on Earth. The book of Acts tells how Jesus continued his work by the Holy Spirit and through his people. All of this took place after he was resurrected and ascended into Heaven.
• The events that are of first importance to know and believe are these: 1) Jesus died, 2) Jesus was buried, 3) Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, 4) Jesus was seen by many people after he rose from the dead (see 1 Cor. 15:3-8).
• The rest of the Bible elaborates extensively on what it means to have a relationship with God. Some of the key things are simple teachings about repentance, faith, resurrection, baptism, and eternal judgment (see Heb. 6:1-2).

As you look over that list, maybe you can think of someone who needs to hear these fundamental things. First, pray for that person, and then start planning the time and place where you can teach them. The Gospel is for all. Let's be ready to help everyone—especially the beginners.

- Dan Lankford, minister