Even with its foibles and challenges, I love the church! Over the last 40 years, I’ve pastored many people, from Denver to Wilmington, to Orlando, and back home in Holland. I’ve counseled and shepherded families, officiated at the weddings of their sons and daughters, and buried their parents, children, spouses and siblings. But during those four decades of ministry, I noticed a phenomenon not found in the New Testament churches around the Mediterranean world.

After Christ’s resurrection, churches that were planted by the apostles were initially made up of Jews who had come to believe in Jesus. As news about Christ spread by the apostles and the Jewish converts, scores of pagans throughout the Mediterranean world came to a new life in Christ. This happened because the new believers were taught by the apostles that it was imperative that they spread the news about Christ, and they were passionate to do it – He had changed their life!

But over the centuries something strange happened. Instead of churches growing through lost people coming to Christ, as happened in the 1 st century, churches in the 20th and 21st century, if they grew, grew by attracting Christians from other churches. What followed came to be known as the great ‘Christian shuffle’ – the reshuffling of Christians from one church to another, to another. And the lost people, well, they were lost in the shuffle.

If asked, many Christians want to see lost people come to the Lord. But for several reasons, they have a hard time talking to unbelievers about Christ. It wasn’t necessarily that Christians didn’t believe in Jesus, but an invisible barrier gradually grew between believers and unbelievers that, over time, privatized the Christian’s faith, inhibiting Christians from knowing how to talk to people about Christ.

Yet, the New Testament is replete with passages revealing that the 1 st century Christians longed to tell others about Christ, and understood that that was critical for the spread of the gospel for the salvation of the world:

• Now those who were scattered went about speaking the word to others. Acts 4.8

• “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28.19 – 20

• “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” Ephesians 6.19 – 20

• “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1.8

• And the Bible ends with the beautiful and tender call in Revelation for people to come to Jesus: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” Revelation 22:17

Then Jesus tells us something astounding in John 4. He says, “the fields are ripe / white for harvest.” It seemed that in the 1,995 years following Jesus’ resurrection, we would have seen 100’s of 1,000’s, even millions of people come to Christ on a regular basis and become genuine followers. Imagine what the world would be like today, if every generation for the last 200 years had talked to all the people they knew about Christ. And Jesus had set the stage with His resurrection for that to be the norm – a time when the gospel would be communicated and believed to such an extent that it would eventually be said:

• No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. Hebrews 8.11

That led me to wonder why, over the years, so few were coming to Christ, and why fewer were telling others about Him. Clearly there was a correlation. But why? What caused this phenomenon? Why is it that so many Bible-believing Christians in evangelical churches, want lost people to come to Christ and feel horrible that they have

family and friends they love who don’t know Him, have such a hard time talking about Him? They talk about church: its ministries, programs, praise band, youth groups, Sunday School classes, moral issues, and doctrines; but not about Jesus! – the main person everyone was talking about for the 1st two centuries!

I believe these questions are the most critical questions of our time, the answers to which have power to transform the church as we now know it and bring scores of people to Christ.

While there are several inhibitors, there are 2 major barriers today undermining the rapid spread of the gospel:

1. There are longstanding spiritual, cultural, and intellectual habits and/or traditions among most Christians that have become barriers, keeping them from talking freely about Christ. And…

2. There is an overlapping but different set of spiritual, cultural, and intellectual barriers non-Christians have, that keep them from hearing, understanding, and believing in Christ.

So, what if what Jesus said in John 4 is true: what if the fields of lost souls really are ripe for harvest? What if countless people would come to Christ if they heard the gospel in their own cultural language, at their own intellectual level, and in a way that touched the core of their heart and soul, and the Spirit opened their eyes? What if we just had to ‘start’ the conversation?

I was on a flight from Seatle and began talking with the lady next to me. I asked her a little about her life; she asked me about mine. Over the next little while we began talking about who Jesus was. And as we did, the people in the rows in front and behind us became quiet - and started to listen in on our conversation.

Sometime after that flight I came across John 4 – that the fields have been ready to be harvested, and began to wonder: If those 4 – 6 people around us wanted to listen to our conversation, how many others in the world long to hear the story about Christ in a way that would answer their deepest longings and questions and make sense of their life –

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning and purpose of my life?

To discover the answers to these questions, I’m committing the next 5 years to:

1. Pinpoint what barriers are inhibiting un-believers today, by engaging in conversations with numerous lost people, to understand why they think the way do, and to find the pathways into their hearts and minds, so that they can freely and joyfully come to Christ.

2. Work at breaking through the barriers that are inhibiting Christians, and train them to naturally, effectively and freely dialogue with people about who Jesus is, with the hope of pointing them to Christ and discipling them in their new faith.