PS – Courtney is the one with the cool fanny pack.

Following up on Sunday’s sermon I thought it would be helpful to write an article providing practical ways to share the gospel. We preachers spend a lot of time conveying the need to share the gospel, but we don’t always give listeners the tools to get started. Sharing the gospel does not need to be as intimidating as we make it out to be. Being someone who consistently shares the gospel does not mean we run around our workplaces heralding “turn or burn.” I hope to lay out a blue print here that will help you strategize and implement regular gospel sharing in your everyday life in a natural and seamless way.

Before we get into the “how to” of evangelism I want to stress that in order to be an evangelist in your sphere of influence, you must be intentional. I think sometimes we have romantic notions of people coming to us, falling on their face, crying for us to tell them the path of salvation, but we must remember that Christ told us to “go”, not to wait. So it is imperative that we set our hearts to do fulfill the mission that Christ has called us to. If you don’t think it’s necessary to share the gospel, forget about reading this article; read your Bible instead. But if you have a heart to see more worshipers of Christ in your places of influence, read on and think deeply about how these steps would look in your life today. I would highly encourage you to read this with pen and paper in hand, following along with these steps as we go. That way, at the end you will be all ready to hit the ground running.

Step 1: Identify the top 4 topics that come up in regular everyday conversation

This is not the time to over-spiritualize. For most of us we will have answers that look like work, family, school, types of leisure, hobbies, health, politics, relationships, TV, movies, etc. These are the things that in everyday conversation, we will talk about 99% of the time with the people we encounter. Think about those “shooting the breeze” type conversations you have with people everyday at work, your neighborhood, or on the bus. What are the topics that are normally brought up? Probably something of the types listed above. The four things that I have the most conversations about would be family, work, sports, and health.

Step 2: Divide those 4 things into smaller parts

This sounds more difficult than it really is so let me use myself as an example. Here’s how I would divide my top 4 things:

Family: Wife, children (if I had any), where I grew up, where I live now
Work: (Keep in mind I work at a church) Teaching, meetings, leadership development. When you think about it for yourself, think about those work things that regularly come up in conversation; things like clients, sales, profit, ethics, whatever work topics you discuss most.
Sports: hockey, tennis, and basketball (these are the sports I talk the most about)
Health: Working out, eating right (When I have health conversations, those two are all I got)

99% of all the conversations I have on a daily basis, whether it is with strangers, acquaintances, friends, or coworkers, involve these things to some degree.

Step 3: Pick one of the major topics you listed in step 2 and practice connecting its smaller parts to the gospel.

Again, for the sake of clarity I will use myself as an example. This is where the rubber meets the road. You’ll need to think deeply about these issues. The question you need to ask yourself is how can I connect those everyday things in my life to a gospel conversation? Think about it: if we are Christians, then every single thing in our life should relate to Christ and the gospel in some way, and our goal is to think about what that connection is, then speak it. I will use my family topic to illustrate this step. Also keep in mind there could be a myriad of transitions from each of these topics so I am just including a couple for examples.

Wife

“Yeah, my wife and I argue a lot too. Sometimes it’s really hard to get past it and let things know, but when I consider that Christ’s love for me is limitless even though I offend Him every day, it seems ridiculous that I would hold a grudge against my wife.”

Children

“It wasn’t until I had children that I fully realized the love that God has for me. Because of what Christ did for me on the cross, the Bible says that I am really a child of God and all of those feelings I have towards my children, God has towards me in even greater degree. That’s amazing!

Where I grew up

“I grew up in Detroit, MI. It’s as bad as everyone thinks. The poverty there was horrendous. When I think of the people there with no hope, very little government assistance, forgotten in a lot of ways, it’s unbelievable to think that that is a perfect physical picture of what my life was like before I came to know Jesus.”

Where I live now

“I live in south Austin, near I-35 and Slaughter. The best thing about that place is Southpark Meadows shopping center which is the largest retail area in Austin. I love to go to the Borders there and sit and read on my day off.” (This is where many will ask what you like to read) “I’ll go there and spend some time reading my Bible or some other theological book that talk about how great God is and how beautiful Christ is.”

Practice, practice, practice

Invite a Christian friend, roommate, or spouse to have mock conversations with you about the things you listed above, then practice making transitions to the gospel. There are a host of transitions from a variety of angles so get creative. This does take practice, but it will definitely give you confidence and show you how easy it is to make simple gospel-centered statements in everyday conversations.

Step 4: Next time it comes up in real conversation, make the connection!

Realistically speaking, if you do not make a mental note to make these connections, you will probably squander the opportunity. A couple of things to keep in mind here: first, BE INTENTIONAL! If you do not set your mind and heart to share the gospel then it will just fall by the wayside. Pick a couple specific people each day, pray for God to allow you a conversation, and then make the commitment to speak the gospel into their lives. Secondly, we must remember that Jesus is an offense to a lot of people. It would be misleading for me to convey that you won’t have any awkward conversations. To some we will be the aroma of death and to some we will be the aroma of life (2 Cor. 2:15-16) and which means it is important to remember that not everyone will be receptive and accommodating to the truth of Christ. But be intentional and let God do what He desires to do.

Finally, chances are in the beginning you will be much more timid and apprehensive about making the gospel transitions. Don’t get down on yourself, pray for more boldness, and live another day. God will always be faithful to provide us with opportunities.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the rest of the topics you listed

Simple as that. Think about it: if you are faithful to complete these steps, you will have a gospel presenting arsenal that targets every single one of your daily conversations! I do not want to imply that speaking the gospel is as easy as falling off a log, but it can be much simpler than we make it out to be. God is the one who saves yet we must be intentional to speak the gospel saving truth to those around us; now go out there and make disciples!

I started to prepare my heart for the impact of whatever blow was about to come my way about Bill, not knowing that that I was about to be thrown the largest curve ball ever. Matt Chandler started reading from the Word. I don’t remember what passage he was reading from, or even what it was about, all I was thinking was that he was softening us up for something big. And I will never forget how those next few words sounded: “Last night, Mo Murrey took his life…” It usually takes me a while to process things, but this cut me to the core. Immediately I started huffing and puffing (which was very odd to me) and tears just began to flow from my face for about an hour (which was always very odd to me).

Mo was not just a co-worker of mine at The Village, and not just a friend – he was a deeply loved member of my home group. He was a guy that we had been walking with closely for several months now, and we were constantly encouraged by the growth we had seen in him. He was a man that struggled for sure. It was a daily battle for him to allow Jesus to compete with the suicidal thoughts in his head, from the moment he woke up in the morning to the moment he fell sleep at night. These thoughts of inadequacies, of shame, of guilt – some days they just wouldn’t go away. He knew Jesus, and he knew Him well. He knew more than most of us his need for a Savior, and he desperately desired the Lord’s return. But in the end he gave in to a lie. Mo shared with me on more than one occasion about all of this, and how he had thought of ways to do this, but assured me it was only a struggle and that he would never act on it. I was hesitant at first because these statements are nothing to take lightly, but Mo never seemed like a guy that would actually do it. He convinced me that these were just thoughts…

I spent the first few days in shock, in horror, in pain, and in disbelief. As his home group leader there was a huge potential for feelings of regret or “I should’ve done this” or “If only I would have done this…,” but the Lord was gracious to me and protected me, as well as our home group, from all of this. Our home group took this news hard, and we mourned together for days. I can’t even begin to express how close I now feel to these men and women, and I don’t know how I could have gone through any of this without them. They feel like family to me now, and I love each of them tremendously.

Our emotions have been all over the map the last two weeks – sadness, pain, confusion, anger, compassion, nauseous, numb. I usually don’t feel much of anything as it takes a lot for things to get to me, but I feel that again the Lord was gracious to me in allowing me to feel all of these emotions. It was a weird deal to me, and I cried more in those first few days than I have in the last 5 years.

All in all, it has been a very tough 2 weeks, but the Lord has never left me. I go through waves of feelings – I’m grateful for the hearts and souls of those in our group, I’m saddened by the loss of someone I deeply loved, I’m confused as to why he didn’t reach out to us, I’m grieved at the length he went to to silence these lies, and I’m angry at the selfishness of the act and how all of us will carry this with us for the rest of our lives.

Mo left a lot of things behind – loving friends, a great church, a mourning family, and a slew of unanswerable questions. Why did you do this? Why didn’t you fight? How long have you been planning this? Didn’t you know that you were loved?

But in the end, these questions don’t matter. None of them will offer peace, and none of them will bring back my friend. The only thing that will bring comfort is knowing that the Lord saved us despite the evil we are capable of. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He doesn’t love a future version of you; He loves you right here and right now, and there’s nothing you can do to change that.

My wife is in Kenya right now serving alongside the Mendonsas at Naomi’s Village (orphanage) and before she left, she needed to raise partial support for her trip. The Lord faithfully provided the majority of the funds needed, but when she left she was $200 short. We had already contributed a rather large contribution to this trip, and so the remaining $200 had to come from our savings and to be honest this stretched us a bit.

This week, as I was checking the mail, I came across a rather unusual piece of mail. The return address just said “Lozano v. Twentieth Century Fox.” Thinking that this was most likely junk mail, I set it aside to throw it away later. Curiosity got the best of me and so I ended up opening it. Evidently there was a lawsuit filed against Twentieth Century Fox about unwanted advertising, and somehow my wife was unknowingly a part of this. Apparently in Sept 2005, a lot of people (my wife included) received a text message advertising the movie release “Robots” and so everyone that got this received is now receiving a settlement. How much was this settlement? Any guesses? That’s right. $200.
A random text from 6 years ago started a chain reaction of lawsuits and court hearings. How sweet is the Lord that of all the time between now and then, this is the time He chose to have these checks sent out? You can’t make this stuff up people…

Hear me out in this: I adore the local church. I truly do, and I think it is imperative to the growth in Christian maturity. But if you were to travel around the world there is one thing that is painfully clear – no one does “church” like Americans do. It is not about the building, it is not about events, and it is not about the programs. It is about advancing the Kingdom of God. People relinquish their comfort for the sake of the gospel, keeping what is of most importance ahead of them.

Here’s a few ways to show which kingdom we are focusing our efforts in building:

Church Growth:

• The church in mind – the church is central, and so we focus on creating a comfortable environment for people to come into
• Discern needs – what do our people need? comfy chairs? more programs? childcare during events?
• Individual conversions – how can we tailor the message to meet each person where they are at?
• Believer’s turf – staying where it’s comfortable to you, and inviting people into this. (Church softball leagues, church basketball courts, church coffee shops)
• Find Christians – Christians love to hang out with other Christians where everything they do is around other people that think like they do, act like they do, and value the same things that they do.
• Large group – people are OK with keeping their definition of church to be Sunday morning gatherings filled with numerous amounts of people, where they do not have to know or be known by anyone.
• Scripture for knowledge – we soak in the Scriptures and obtain a sort of spiritual obesity, where we can spit off theology like crazy with little influence or effect on our lives. 
  
• Build programs – we create ministries, events, and programs for our people, creating a dependence within the body on the church organization in order to obtain maturity.
  
• Build buildings – We outgrow our space, so we build larger buildings. Then, we outgrow that space, and have add-ons to the building. Then, we build even larger buildings, and so on, and so on….

Kingdom Advance:

• The Kingdom in mind – the local church is pivotal, but it is not the end-all, be-all.
  
• Group/family conversions - we desire to see the entire family saved, and not just individual members.
  
• Unbeliever’s turf - we go to them, we don’t just hope that they cross out paths. we learn what’s important to them, we learn their culture, we learn where they are coming from. does your friend like the arts? then learn about film, music, dance, etc. does your friend like basketball? then learn who the stars in the league are, and keep up with how teams are doing. does your friend like nascar? then learn why turning left for three hours is exciting.
  
• Find “person of peace” - when in another culture, look for the man that the church can be built upon. work your way out of a job there so that you will turn the ministry over to them – the kingdom is NOT reliant on you!
  
• Small groups - discipleship cannot be done by coming to a building filled with hundreds/thousands of people once a week.
  
• Scripture for obedience – we read as an overflow of love and gratitude for the Father, with the desire that it will radically transform our lives.
  
• Build disciples – don’t seek to make people feel good or comfortable – discipleship costs.
  
• Train leaders – doesn’t structure ministry in a way that is dependent on you or the church organization. work yourself out of a job, and at some point you will need to turn the ministry over and leave.

I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, so I just thanked him for his encouraging words and moved on. Later that night I was praying and just told the Lord “I’m tired, I’m done doing this all on my own.” I was letting go, and afterwards I physically felt the release. Ever since then I feel like there’s been a huge weight lifted from my shoulders of years of trying to do everything on my own, and I just have had an incredibly sweet season with the Lord because of this. For the last 6 weeks I have been trying to figure out where all this happiness and joy in the Lord has come from, but kept coming up blank.

Then, this morning, it hit me. It was the red balloon.

Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: “As you go, make disciples….”; “Walk wisely towards outsiders”; “Let your speech always be seasoned with salt”; “be prepared to give a defense for your hope”. We can be missional in everyday ways without overloading our schedules. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Eat with Non-Christians. We all eat three meals a day. Why not make a habit of sharing one of those meals with a non-Christian or with a family of non-Christians? Go to lunch with a co-worker, not by yourself. Invite the neighbors over for family dinner. If it’s too much work to cook a big dinner, just order pizza and put the focus on conversation. When you go out for a meal invite others. Or take your family to family-style restaurants where you can sit at the table with strangers and strike up conversation. Cookout and invite Christians and non-Christians. Flee the Christian subculture.

2. Walk, Don’t Drive. If you live in a walkable area, make a practice of getting out and walking around your neighborhood, apartment complex, or campus. Instead of driving to the mailbox, convenience store, or apartment office, walk to get mail, groceries, and stuff. Be deliberate in your walk. Say hello to people you don’t know. Strike up conversations. Attract attention by walking the dog, taking a 6-pack (and share), bringing the kids. Make friends. Get out of your house! Take interest in your neighbors. Ask questions. Pray as you go. Save some gas, the planet, and some people.

3. Be a Regular. Instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, eating out, and coffee, go to the same places. Get to know the staff. Go to the same places at the same times. Smile. Ask questions. Be a regular. I have friends at coffee shops all over the city. My friends at Starbucks donate a ton of left over pastries to our church 2-3 times a week. We use them for church gatherings and occasionally give to the homeless. Build relationships. Be a Regular.

4. Hobby with Non-Christians. Pick a hobby that you can share. Get out and do something you enjoy with others. Try City League sports. Local rowing and cycling teams. Share your hobby by teaching lessons. Teach sewing lessons, piano lessons, violin, guitar, knitting, tennis lessons. Be prayerful. Be intentional. Be winsome. Have fun. Be yourself.

5. Talk to Your Co-workers. How hard is that? Take your breaks with intentionality. Go out with your team or task force after work. Show interest in your co-workers. Pick four and pray for them. Form mom groups in your neighborhood and don’t make them exclusively Christian. Schedule play dates with the neighbors’ kids. Work on mission.

6. Volunteer with Non-Profits. Find a non-profit in your part of the city and take Saturday a month to serve your city. Bring your neighbors, your friends, or your small group. Spend time with your church serving your city. Once a month. You can do it!

7. Participate in City Events. Instead of playing X-Box, watching TV, or surfing the net, participate in city events. Go to fundraisers, festivals, clean-ups, summer shows, and concerts. Participate missionally. Strike up conversation. Study the culture. Reflect on what you see and hear. Pray for the city. Love the city. Participate with the city.

8. Serve your Neighbors. Help a neighbor by weeding, mowing, building a cabinet, fixing a car. Stop by the neighborhood association or apartment office and ask if there is anything you can do to help improve things. Ask your local Police and Fire Stations if there is anything you can do to help them. Get creative. Just serve!

Don’t make the mistake of making “missional” another thing to add to your schedule. Instead, make your existing schedule missional.

Before I get into everything that I learned, here’s a few pictures from some sights we saw:

Hagia Sophia: a church-turned-mosque-turned-museum

inside the Hagia Sophia - so incredible!

inside the Hagia Sophia - created so big so that you would feel small before the Lord when you entered it

Inside a church - the pastor of this church had an INCREDIBLE story that I will devote an entire post to later

The security system for the front door of the church - Christian churches are not allowed

The day before boys are circumcized they are treated as kings for the day, and can do whatever they want. Poor kid had no idea what was coming for him....

Notice which areas are green and which are red. They are actively evanglizing the world, and this should spur us on.

Here is a brief overview of what I learned:

• Teams are a must. We met with several missionaries while we were there with ministries all over the spectrum, and there was one thing that was remarkably evident – those that were working as islands independently from one another were not near as effective as those that were working in a group. Working together allows the body of Christ to be the body in that where one person is lacking in giftings, there is another that can pick up the slack.  Also, when engaging someone with the Gospel you have a body of believers to invite them into. Christ said that the way men will know that you are His disciple is by how you love one another (John 13:35), and how can they see this without seeing true Biblical community at work?
• God is using other nations. This sounds like a given, but I think deep down we (Americans) feel that the Lord loves us more than others, and that the Lord chooses to use us first in reaching the nations. This is simply not true. God is rising up nations besides the US to reach the world, particularly in Latin America, Northern Africa, and Asia. God is doing a new thing.
• Business as mission. We saw and discussed some pretty great “business as mission” models while we were there. When utilized correctly, we can leverage this to reach those in places that can influence others more effectively (business owners are in a place where they manage 5-500 employees at a time – imagine the possibilities!).
• The church should use what the Lord has provided. All too often we as a church think of where and how we want to engage, and then we recruit the people to do the ministry. There is a time and a place for this, absolutely, but what do we do with the rest of the congregation’s giftings? Find how people are gifted, and equip them to be on mission with it. For example, does your church or home group have a lot of artists? Then encourage and equip them to paint the Gospel throughout their paintings as this can be their mission.
• We can engage in global missions by engaging in local missions. Instead of thinking about where to engage, or what sort of people group to adopt, take some time to find out the demographics of your community. What people groups are represented in your zip code? Perhaps refugees who fled their countries from violence? Engage them. Learn their holidays and reach out to them. For example, imagine you fled your country to somewhere that didn’t celebrate Christmas. Then, as the holidays arrive, memories of family traditions from years past flood your mind, leaving you sad and homesick. Then, as you arrive at work, your come to your desk to find that your coworker has left you a candy cane and some hot cocoa – how far would this go with you?Engage the people around you. They will be your way into “closed” areas around the world. They often still have families, businesses, etc still back in their home country and these can be utilized to gain entrance. Also, in engaging the people groups around you, you can empower and equip them to be agents of transformation when they return home, thus doubling your ministry efforts!
  
• Collaborate with people and churches that are different than you. This proved to be very fruitful and beneficial to me on the trip. Our team was composed of pastors and leaders from all over the country and from all different denominations like Baptist, Assemblies of God, Evangelical Free, Presby, etc). We don’t do ministry the same way, and have very different ways to reach our communities – does this mean that one is effective and the other isn’t? The Village Church hasn’t cornered the market on ministry and evangelism; there are several churches in our area that have thriving ministries and we need to work together for the sake of reaching our communities.
• Not all Muslims are terrorists. I don’t know why we think this in the West. Do all Christians blow up abortion clinics? This is clearly birthed out of ignorance and this frustrates me greatly. We hate it when people stereotype us, so why do we stereotype them?
• Islam is spreading fast. We had the opportunity of going into an Islamic Evangelism School, where they are actively training and equipping Muslims to share their faith (see above picture). They outnumber Christians in the world right now and are continuing to grow. Don’t let your fear of ” the terrorists” prevent you from sharing the hope of Christ to the world.
• Just do it already. We tend to be very slow on moving on anything. We have to make sure we have just the right process, that all the kinks have been worked out, and it will be completely fail-safe before we can do anything. This greatly inhibits our ministry because 1) we can never have a perfect product or ministry, and 2) sometimes Christ teaches us the most through failures.

All in all this was a great experience. I truly feel that my ministry here has been affected and strengthened by this trip, and am incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

Day 1

Our flight arrived in the early evening, so we did just had dinner at the hotel and had a relaxed night. We met with a few individuals from an organization called Elam Ministries, and the conversation that followed stirred my soul. Elam Ministries focuses on equipping Iranians to engage Iranians with the gospel (Iran is a very closed country, and so I will not go into too much detail with this). The story that affected me the most was from this one woman, who after her husband found out she was a Christian he divorced her. Then, he went to the courts and fought for custody of their 2 year old child, saying that she is an unfit mother since she is a Christian. The courts told her that she could have custody of her child and could have her husband back again as long as she renounced her faith. She said no, and has not seen her daughter since. This was 10 years ago.

This really got me thinking – what does my faith cost me here in the US? At worst, people may think I’m a little weird or silly for believing in a God I can not see, but that’s it. The cost of discipleship for this woman was great, and she rose to the challenge. Will I?

Day 2

This was a big driving day. We spent most of the day on the bus, but made stops in the ancient cities of Troy and Assos. I was extremely excited to see Troy as this city is rich of history. I was quickly disappointed when we arrived as it seemed to have become an attraction, or amusement park-like.

Next we traveled to Assos. Acts 20:13-14 talks about how Paul met up with Luke there, and so this was our first experience of being able to stand in the very same spot as pillars of the faith stood many years ago. I spent some time just peering out into the Sea, imagining the boat coming around the bend to pick him up.I loved every minute of this, but little did I know this would just be a glimpse of what awe was to come.

Day 3

Now on to the churches. For the duration of this post, you will need to keep in mind that the letter John wrote in Revelation was the church body in each of these cities, not to a specific church building/organization. The sites we saw we extremely historic in nature, and were filled with temples to gods, Roman statues, etc, and had little “Christian” artifacts in them. I was confused by this at first, but then I realized that the Church (body of believers) was very small back then, and looked nothing like it does today. These sites were not Christian sites, they were pagan sites with relatively few believers among them.

The first church we saw was Pergamum (Rev 2:12-17). This church was called to repent because it dwelled among “Satan’s throne” (Altar of Zeus).

Next we drove to Smyrna (Rev 2:8-11). There is not much left of Smyrna, except a small portion of the outer wall, which has since been renovated. Smyrna was told not to fear the persecution that was about to fall on them by the hands of the devil. I’m sure this wasn’t exactly encouraging words for them to hear…

Day 4

We started the day with a trip to Ephesus. This was by far the highlight of all the churches, as it had the most Biblical history (Acts, Ephesians, Revelation). This was also the largest of all the sites, but as large as it was, archaeologists say that only 15% is uncovered, leaving the remaining 85% of the city still left buried below. This was crazy to me, as this place was huge. By the looks of all of the elaborate statues, paintings, mosaics, and culture, I understand how they had forgotten their first love as John said in Rev 2:4.

My soul was deeply stirred while sitting in the enormous theater (built for 25,000 ppl). While sitting in this theater, I meditated on Acts 19:21-41. It was a usual occurrence for Paul to reason with the people in the synagogues about the Scriptures. The local craftsmen heard about this and became furious at his claims, as this would ultimately drive people away from their businesses, since he was preaching against the idolatry of the Greek gods. The book of Acts says a riot started, where the people of the city ran into the theater chanting “Great is Artemis!” over and over again for 2 hours, causing a huge uproar throughout the city. Paul kept trying to run into the theater to address the crowds, but was held back by the disciples as I’m sure they were fearful of what the crowd would do to him. Sitting in the very same theater and imagining all this happening around me was a little overwhelming, but led me to worship.

After Ephesus, we saw where John the Apostle is believed to be buried.

The next church on the list was Laodicea. John urged them to stop being lukewarm in the faith (Rev 3:14-22), and well, just with anything that’s lukewarm, there wasn’t much pizazz at this site.

Day 5

We started the day by going to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. John wrote to the church here a letter of encouragement rather than rebuke. Philadelphia had held fast to the teaching and was going to be rewarded (Rev 3:7-13). Unfortunately their reward was not going to be long life as a city, or that their legacy would live on, because as you can see in the pictures, there was not much left of it at all. We were in and out in 30 mins.

Next we saw the site of the city of Sardis. John urged the people of Sardis to “wake up” as their faith is dead (Rev 3:1-6). They held to their previous reputation of doing great things and being a people of God, but they have since fallen asleep. This site was convicting because how many of us cling to our faith of old, or who we used to be, disregarding where we are standing today?

The last stop on the trip was to Thyatira. John’s issue with them was that they had a prophetess named Jezebel who was seducing Christians into sexual immorality (Rev 2:18-29). Now this could mean that there was literally a woman that was doing it, or it could have applied to the people as a whole. Either way, destruction was coming.

This concludes the first half of the trip. Though the Biblical sites were awe-inspiring, the second half of the trip was what blew me away.

(to be continued…)

Though I feel that I have something to say, I have often felt discouraged as to what the avenue of this would be. If any of you know me at all, you know that I love attention, but I quickly become completely paralyzed when speaking in front of people. This rules out speaking. I am also not very good with words, nor do I know how to elaborate any points. This rules out writing. Well if I can’t preach and I can’t write books, what else is left? Blogging. (And yes I realize that this is not a new concept, and for many see that blogging is dead)

Many blogs are aimed to preach self above all else. David Putman told me last week while in Turkey that because of social media, we now write our own press release. We control what we want others to think about us, and we shape our blog posts accordingly. If I want you to think I am humble, I will write on my recent confessions to my community. If I want you to think I am cool, I will write on my recent expeditions, what famous people I’ve met, etc. If I want you to think I am funny, I will search the internet for hours for a story that I can put a witty, humorous spin on. If I want you to think I am Godly, I will make sure to include Bible verses on everything I write.

The above things are not inherently evil in and of themselves, as my posts will contain elements of all the things mentioned above. But at the end of the day, what is most important is to ask “Who are these posts glorifying?”  They will undoubtedly lead you somewhere, stirring your affections for either Jesus Christ, or to DJ Hofmann.

Please help hold me accountable to this as I desire to make more of Him and less of me.