"Patriotic Ambassadors: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities" by Gary Miller

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Well, it looks like it's 6 o'clock, and I don't know about you, but I think I'm ready to get started. So good morning, everyone, and welcome to Strength to Strength. It's a good morning to be on here, and my family recently moved to Pittsburgh, PA, and we are part of a new church plant here, and so we're excited about this. Greg Weaver is also with us this morning, and they just moved out here this week, so we're really excited about the progress on that. So any of you, I want to tell you, you're welcome. We'd love to have you stop and see us in Pittsburgh. You're driving through, stop in. We're not very far off the beaten path at all.

So yeah, and pray for us as we try to shine God's light in this dark city.

Yeah, we are welcoming Gary Miller here this morning in our Patriotic Ambassadors series, and he's talking about turning obstacles into opportunities. Looking forward to hear what you have to share with us, Brother Gary. He comes to us from two time zones west of myself, so I think it's 4 o'clock about for him this morning. So he got up very early this morning. So thank you for that, Gary. And why don't we, without more further ado, let's have a word of prayer, and we'll get started.

Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness again this morning. Your mercies are new, and your goodness is great. Lord, we praise you for this opportunity, and I just pray that you would speak to us through Brother Gary and help us, Lord, to be ambassadors. And may you have our eyes opened to be ambassadors of your kingdom, patriotically supporting and extending and expanding your kingdom by our actions.

Give us eyes to see the world as you see it, see the people of the world as you see them. And yeah, just use this opportunity here this morning to open our eyes and our imaginations to how we can be better equipped to be this kingdom embassy as you call us to be. I pray for all of us here this morning as we're listening, help us to grow and be challenged. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, so I'll turn the time over to you, Brother Gary. And for those of you who are listening, just keep your questions for the end, and we'll have a time for Q&A and let Gary respond to what your questions are at the end. So keep that in mind, and it's over to you, Gary.

Okay, greetings to each of you. I'll give a brief introduction. My name is Gary Miller. I live in Idaho, close to Boise, in that area. I have four children. Three of them are gone and one daughter that's still at home, and six grandchildren, so we feel very blessed.

I work with the SALT program at Christian Aid Ministries, which is a program designed to work with sustainability and chronic poverty. And so we work in different countries around the world. Really, we have two objectives in SALT. One is to provide teaching on better ways to provide for people's families, and the other is to demonstrate or teach what it actually means to follow Jesus in daily life. And so that is our objective there. I'm going to share my screen here this morning, and hopefully that comes across. And I wanted to look a little—I was asked to speak some on the book Reaching America and a little bit of what's behind that. There's probably—let me just say this: some of you have read some of my books.

Those books actually started—I started writing manuals for developing countries in the SALT program, and then out of that came requests to write some books for the Anabaptist people. And if you'll notice, most of my books deal with my own inner wrestling. So if it's finance, if it's regarding technology, if it's regarding church life, in this regard, how to reach out to your neighbor, it has to do with questions that I'm struggling with. And so I tend to ask a lot of questions. Probably in my books, more than provide a lot of easy answers.

Maybe several reasons. The primary one is I don't always have the easy answer. But there's several reasons I wrote this book. One of those is this: there are few unbelieving American neighbors that seem to be coming to faith and joining our conservative Anabaptist fellowships. And so why is that? What is the reason for that? Another is that our culture has changed, but sometimes as I look around in our churches, our methods haven't. Sometimes we're not connecting very well with the people we're wanting to reach out to. And then finally, as I've worked alongside Cam's billboard program, I felt we could learn something from some of the answers that these team members give out.

They get a lot of difficult questions, and the calls that come in provide a window into our culture. Different questions than we would have heard 50 years ago. Many more obstacles, we might say, that are there. And so I'm not this morning proposing or putting myself out as an expert on this topic. What you're going to hear really is my own wrestlings and some thoughts, and I'd be glad to hear from each of you if that's possible. I'm going to look at four areas.

First of all, change within and without. Our world has changed, but so has the church. The average American church today is much different than what we read in Acts. Secondly, reassessing our approach as our culture changes. I think it's important to think about and rethink about how we reach out. We become pretty entrenched. I've heard it said before that in Washington, DC, there's nothing as permanent as a temporary program. And sometimes church life can be that way too. We have trouble honestly assessing what we're doing. Are we honestly really using—are we being effective in what we're doing? Are there times we should put our energy somewhere else? Third, I want to look at some potential Anabaptist obstacles.

Very common question, especially among youth. Aren't we putting a lot of unnecessary obstacles up in front of people? Isn't that the primary reason we're not seeing more growth? Is it because of cultural hurdles we place before seekers? And then finally, I want to look at New Testament church communities. What should a church community today look like? Admittedly, this is a divisive topic.

I'm not proclaiming that I have the answer to it, but I think it's one we should be talking about. So let's start by looking at cultural change that has occurred. And I'm calling this change within and without. Our world has changed. The foundational beliefs have shifted in culture, but church life is different as well.

If you think about the early church versus the current church life, it's obvious to most of us that there's a lack of new last names in the conservative Anabaptist churches. And some of us seem to be okay with that, almost as though that's normal. And yet, as we read the book of Acts, especially the first part of Acts, it was so different. There were exciting things happening. And in contrast, American Christianity looks boring. Not much change going on. Few new seekers coming to Christ.

And so youth tend to ask, why is church life so radically different than in the book of Acts? Have we just lost interest in evangelism? Are we caught up in nice homes and business life and forget our mission?

Have we become irrelevant, too ingrown? Or is it our culture? Is it the culture surrounding us that's been inoculated against the gospel? Do people have an improper view of what Christianity is? Do they see Christians as just uninteresting and unloving and a right-wing political movement?

So in short, the question is, is it a problem with us or a problem with them? One thing we know is that we do tend to have a less outward focus. For the most part, I'm making a broad statement here, but as you look at Acts, they seem to be very interested in other areas, in sharing, in caring about others.

And I think it's only honest to say that wealth, like thorns, tends to choke out spiritual interest. That's been the pattern throughout history. And the early church seemed to have a greater focus on other people. And I think there's a good reason, maybe several good reasons. One of those is, a short time ago, those people who were in the early church were on the other side. They were first-generation believers.

And church life today is very different. It's a multi-generational thing. Something has changed. But our world, our culture has also changed. There's little fear of God. There's abundant distractions. Most of us have found America a very difficult place to evangelize.

And why is that? Well, we can look at lack of community participation. Just try having a tent meeting today and see how excited people are. Or street preaching. A lot different than other times when there wasn't much going on and someone going out and preaching drew a crowd.

There's other influences, other reasons for this change too. One of them is affluence. Most of us seek God when we're out of options. But money provides other options. We can afford counseling. We can afford pills. For a board, we can buy more toys. If you need relief, you can take an exotic vacation.

Wealth provides options. Technology is another one. We live in a culture of electronic pacifiers. If things aren't going well, you can pull out your device. Continual diversions. I like to take walks. We have a neighborhood here, a lot of people. Pretty rare to see people outside. Many people were inside. But in the past, there were many more outdoor porch interactions with neighbors.

Now there's less interaction, less chance to dialogue and build relationships. There's also another reason. It's what I call contaminated soil. Many people believe they understand Christianity. Many seekers have already been exposed to some flavor of Christianity, and they're not real impressed. It's been said that behind every atheist is a wounded theist. In other words, they got hurt somehow. And this is something the early church in Acts did not have to deal with. And it's huge as we try to reach out to people, is that many people around us have been hurt by so-called Christianity. We'll come back to that later.

Secondly, I want to look at just reassessing our approach. So the message of the gospel has not changed, but methods of delivery need to be thought of differently. And there are times when we need to change our method of delivery.

We could say different soil calls for different methods of planting. And we see that in the book of Acts already. I put a chart here that I think I had this in the book as well, showing two things: showing interest and knowledge. If you look on the left side, you're going to see knowledge, and on the top is interest.

And so if you think about Acts 2, where Peter is delivering a message on the day of Pentecost, he was calling them to repent. It's a very strong message. Come out very strong. But consider his audience. They were Jewish people. They had a fear of God. They had a good grasp of the Old Testament. And they were very interested in knowing what they should do. Our family just read this last night, and I was just shocked again at the terror they must have felt in knowing they had just killed the Messiah.

They weren't going to know what to do. And so on this chart, you'll see it shows a very high level of interest, good knowledge. But if you go to Mars Hill, Acts 17, Paul was speaking to a completely different crowd. He was probably over here on that chart.

They had little, if any, knowledge. They were just kind of curious, wanting to know what was going on. So Paul didn't start out the same way Peter did. He started out talking about their gods and their superstition. He tried to reason with them. Completely different approach than Peter had. He even quoted one of their prophets to make a point. I find that interesting. That's like reaching out to a Mormon and using Joseph Smith and quoting him. It's like, "Is that how you reach out to people?" But they were creative in how they reached out.

Today, one of the fastest segments of American society is known as the nuns. If you think about this chart, they're probably down here somewhere. Not only do their knowledge poor, it's been contaminated. They already think they probably have a pretty good grasp of what Christianity is.

And sometimes, as we try to give the gospel message, that's what we call it, it can actually harm them. Because we're not dealing with people who have no concept. We're dealing with people who have an improper concept. Now, we can share the kingdom of God. That's one thing that I think there's universal appeal in.

Everyone can agree that things aren't right in our world. And the good news is that God has done something about this. But considering the worldview, the background, the audience, I think is very important. The other thing that's important here is it takes time to change.

I'd like to just think about this in terms of when you try to share a different worldview with someone as you're trying to share Christianity, for example, think about and compare it to how you see evolution right now.

Have you ever wondered what it would take to get you to embrace evolution? If someone come up to you and tried to explain to you the virtues of evolution. Here's a chart here. If you think about moving someone from a confident creationist over to a confident evolutionist, if I wanted to move you across that continuum, how would I do that? What if I walked up to you and gave you a track that said the answer is evolution?

Would that actually move you across that line? And probably not. Because when you have a deep-rooted worldview, it's hard to move across that line. But if I wanted to move you, I'd have to do this. I'd have to expose you to something that you didn't know or weren't aware of. It might be maybe new links in the evolutionary chain that we just found or doubt about the truth of the Bible.

And even then, it would take multiple exposures. You'd have to have a lot of proof. But if I was successful with that, if you moved a little, you would probably move over to investigation. Is this evidence really valid?

Now, even with all of this, you'd want to look at it from multiple angles. But let's just assume for a minute that the logic held. You would keep moving. You finally would get over here to doubt. Is there a possibility I might be wrong? Is that even a possibility? Now, here you are. You're caught between two beliefs. You're not over here at evolutionist yet, but you've been shaken. There's something there that's shaking you.

And if nothing changes in the facts you are investigating, you'll probably keep moving over to an awakening of evolution might be true. There's a possibility that could be. And your gaze would start to shift over toward a totally different worldview. And then finally, you could move clear on over to confidence that actually the world evolved.

And just a couple of things I want to think about in this chart. First of all, everyone you meet already has a worldview of some kind. And secondly, we change worldviews very slowly. We don't just quickly move across that. So if you go back to your unbelieving neighbor, maybe you're agnostic or you're atheist, what will it take to move them? Now, I want to remember, first of all, that no one comes.

John 6:44, "No one can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." So we don't want to act like this is all mechanical here. God is at work here. But we're called to be workers together with him. But I want to suggest the path is very similar to you adopting a worldview of being an evolutionist.

So he's over here, and you'd have to, first of all, expose him to some fresh information. Now, remember, the Holy Spirit is pulling along this line. Satan is opposing the movement. Prayer is essential. But what might cause your neighbor to reconsider? Well, he's going to need something that shakes that worldview.

Secondly, assuming that happened, there would be an investigation. Is this new evidence really valid? Again, multiple exposures, time to investigate. Now, there are exceptions. I work in contexts sometimes where there's Muslims coming to faith. There's miracles. That can move people across this continuum very rapidly. But for many, this movement is actually very slow.

Then there would be doubt. Is there a possibility I might be wrong? There might be a time of inner wrestling. Sometimes this point in here, I think, is a place of major crisis, maybe a death or divorce or something that hits their life. Then there's an awakening. Jesus might be who he said he was. And the word of God works on the heart during this time, and hope begins to emerge. And finally, there's clear over to confident believer, confidence that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But again, for many, this is a slow process. Another comment I want to make here as you reach out to your neighbor. Sometimes we talk about bringing God to people or bringing Christ to people, but I think we need to live in confidence that God is actually already there.

He's been working with them. We're simply working together with him. But increasingly, if you look at this chart, Americans are over here on the left. Many people are in that segment there. 50 years ago, it was much different. People had a foundational fear of God. They were more over in this area. They were more interested in listening.

The general public, there was a basic understanding and a grasp of the fear of God. Our culture today, I think, is much more like Athens in current-day America. So what will it take today? I want to propose there's a need for disquieting exposure, something that shakes their presuppositions.

So again, if you go back here, this is our unbeliever on the chart over here, total unbelief. We want to reach out to him. But many times we reach out over here on the faith side, we give him a track which explains the gospel message. It really has no connection with him. He doesn't believe in God, so why would he fear judgment? It's like you giving me a track on evolution. It just doesn't penetrate.

So how do we reach this man? And that's where I would call disquieting exposure. And it could be apologetics. It could be his reasoning with him. But many times, I think it's unsettling evidence, something he sees that shakes his current worldview. And once he begins to question, then there's a possibility of moving over to where the things we're using, gospel tracks, those types of things can work. He's open to new thoughts.

Now, I want to say this. The Bible is powerful literature across this continuum. It does contain disquieting evidence. People read it, and they connect, and they understand that that's what the Bible is saying. It's what's going on inside me as well.

But increasingly, there's fewer and fewer people reading the Bible. And yet, they believe that they understand Christianity. They watch the news, and they see things like this. They see people carrying signs with hateful messages. Maybe it's a promoter of gun rights or a political movement, signs that portray all this. It may be very difficult to convince them that God is a God of love.

I think it's very important to consider the message we carry. And even our countenance, whatever it is we're carrying, are they seeing joy? Are they seeing love? Are they seeing peace? Let's go back for a little bit. What is it that provides this disquieting evidence? In other words, what are some examples of disquieting evidence? I just made a list here. I'll share, and there's more. Number one, believers willing to humbly discuss scientific evidence. There is a shortage of apologists in our churches, people who are interested in new discoveries, who aren't afraid to ask good questions. They aren't afraid to humbly admit there's much they don't know. There's a great need for that. Two, sacrificial love between believers, seeing people with different temperaments, personality, interests come together and love each other sacrificially.

And we see that in the Church of Acts. Right in the first chapters, we see different backgrounds of people all coming together. It says they were of one accord. That's a powerful witness to a world. People that are willing to give up strong personal preferences for the good of the brotherhood. It's a great witness. Three, businessmen who ensure you win in a transaction. This is rare in America.

As you think about your neighbors right now, they have a conclusion. They've drawn some conclusions about your church. They have some opinions. How do you think they got those opinions? How many of them have read your statement of faith for your church? Probably not very many. And I would propose that much of what they think about you was learned in the marketplace as they interacted with you, as they saw how much money means to you, as they developed an opinion of your values based on how you interact with them. But imagine a church that's famous for making sure that everybody wins in transactions. That would surely shake the faith of an unbeliever in our culture today.

Number four, believers who are vulnerable and honest with doubts. This is extremely powerful with an atheist. We are all drawn to people who are authentic and are open with their doubts. It's very compelling to a seeker. It's okay when we have a difficult question to say, "You know what? I'm not sure about that. I'm not even sure how to answer that. Can I think about that and get back to you later?"

Remember, we don't have to have the last word. The goal isn't to win the argument. The goal is to win the soul. Five, functional families who reach out to the dysfunctional. We'll come back to this later. And about just people having an abundance of good functional families. But we have a shortage of families willing to reach out. And this needs to be done carefully, but it needs to be done.

You're not going to reach out to the lost without being with them. And so do you actually have a love for them? And just think about the last year. How much time did you actually spend with unbelievers? You can look at the example of Matthew here, Luke 5. "And after these things, he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, 'Follow me.' And he," I mean Matthew, "left all, rose up, and followed him. Notice, 'And Levi made him,'" Jesus, "a great feast in his own house. There were a great company of publicans and others that sat down with them." Notice Levi's response to salvation.

He invited his friends to his house. And it was his house, and Jesus was there. But Levi wanted to reach out to his neighbors, and he used his home. And we'll come back to that later. And finally, six, literature which challenges the reader's position without questioning his dignity or intellect. I think we need to be careful what we hand out. Remember, they have a worldview. They have facts to back it up.

Simplistic tracks, I believe, can feel very condescending to people. When we have little trite statements that are trying to address complex questions, that can feel very condescending to people. Now, our lives end up here on disquieting evidence. Our lives in our church community should be providing disquieting evidence. There was a man in a community we used to live in that said this, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." And that's a very common saying. We're all familiar with that. But he would say he used to work with horses. He'd say this, "But you can give him salt, and salt creates thirst." And so the question that I think we should be pondering is, first of all, is my life making people thirsty?

Is my life providing disquieting evidence? And another question, is my church community making people thirsty? Are they seeing enough sacrificial love in my church community to provide that disquieting exposure or evidence? Putting our homes on the altar. We tend to think of our homes as a quiet sanctuary, maybe a retreat from sin around us. And it is to be that. But it is also to be a place to demonstrate Jesus.

We have not done well at this for many. I could give many excuses. But we do have some neighbors that come. Yesterday, I walked in the house, and my wife was talking to a neighbor just around the corner here from us. Young couple, couple of small children. They're confused about life. They've looked at philosophy. They are just trying. They're just seeking. And they have just come and they should come pretty regular and just spend time in our home asking questions about this and that, about life in general.

They've never came to church. Right now, we're just developing a relationship with them. And there's lots of opportunities. There's lots of hunger out there for what we have in our homes. And that's a big topic. Care needs to be taken in how you do that, in exposure to children. I address some of that in the book Reaching America. But I just want to leave us with a godly home as a powerful tool. There's a passage that we often neglect. And it's Jesus' instruction on how to make out a guest list. And you'll notice in Luke 14, it's familiar. And yet, do we actually take this instruction to heart? Luke 14:12, he said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." So Jesus in this passage tells us who not to have and who to have.

And this has fascinated me because all of us as Bible readers know the Old Testament is very explicit and specific. When God wants to be specific, he can be, right down to which toe to put the blood on and so forth. When you get to the New Testament, there's a real lack of specifics.

Just try to find instructions on how to marry someone or how to ordain a leader or etc. So when Jesus speaks this specifically, I think we should set up and take notice. Again, we have good homes. And it's a gift we should be sharing, finding creative ways to share that with other people.

Another approach we need to think about is seeing business as mission. And I mentioned earlier, what is your neighbor's opinion about your church? It's a huge opportunity. We've been given huge business ability and opportunity. It's a great place to demonstrate Jesus.

And we should be teaching and demonstrating how that is to be done in our businesses. Now, I want to look at some potential Anabaptist obstacles. What are the hurdles we may be placing in front of potential seekers?

And should we worry about that?

In other words, are we laying unnecessary burdens on seekers? That word unnecessary, I think, is important. There was a concern, and these words come from Acts 15, obviously. But I think this should still be a concern. In other words, are we asking more than God would in our situation of people? Now, there are some hurdles we should not be ashamed of. Jesus gave many difficult commands. We can think of divorce and remarriage, two kingdom teaching, defenseless living, on and on. We shouldn't be embarrassed defending Jesus' teachings. That's not legalism. But our greatest challenge and question and what we wrestle with, I think, are agreements or decisions we come up with that are designed to enhance, help, promote, even preserve a counterculture lifestyle.

God doesn't give us explicit instructions on how to survive in 2021. America is a difficult place to survive. And so we have biblical principles. We come together, and as communities, hopefully, we prayerfully consider. We want a safe path for ourselves and our children. But while we're doing this, we should also be wrestling with this question. Are we placing an unnecessary burden on seekers? And there's going to be a tension between those two, between preserving and promulgating.

Sometimes the obstacles from our perspective are different than we imagine. And so I want to look at what are the real obstacles that seekers face. And there's other lists. I went out a few years ago. I had to give a presentation, asked to give a presentation. And so I went out and just tried to find as many individuals who are currently in an Anabaptist community who come from a non-Anabaptist background.

And I wanted to know several things. I wanted to know, like when they walked in the door for the first time, what were the huge hurdles they saw, the obstacles? When they joined a community, what were the hurdles they've had to overcome and wrestle with?

Just so I don't forget, I would encourage any of you to do this. Sit down with people who have come from a non-Anabaptist background, spend time listening to them. It doesn't mean that all their observations are correct even. But I think we have a lot to learn. I hope they'll come back to that. I want to just give a few things that I did here. Think about the obstacles they face. Just think about Anabaptist cultural obstacles from a non-Anabaptist background believers. First of all, assume they would not be welcome.

Many of them said this. They knew who the Anabaptist people were, but they just assumed that they probably would not be welcome there. And I just want to say this. It's going to take more than just a sign in front of your building. It's a posture. It's a way we live. It's how we interact with others. Second, aloof and condescending attitude, cultural pride. This one was consistent.

I had an individual that called me several years ago, and they said this. They said, "Originally, I joined an Anabaptist church because I was on a spiritual journey. I wanted to get closer to God. I saw there were doctrinal issues in my evangelical church that were not being lived out, and so I wanted more." But as I look around today, what I'm seeing many times is people who are not on a journey. They think they've already arrived.

And I thought I was joining a group who was still trying to get closer to God. But in reality, I think I've joined a group that actually feels like that they've arrived at the epitome of where they should be.

And sometimes we don't listen well. And that's because we assume maybe subconsciously we have little to learn. Sometimes we show very little curiosity about their lives even because we just have the answers. But I think this one is huge. Aloof and condescending attitude. I think it was consistent in almost everyone that I talked to. It come out in some way.

Another is non-resistance in the hard sayings of Christ we mentioned earlier. It's a barrier that they come across. One that was mentioned repeatedly was gluttony, an undue focus on food. One sister said, "Why do you just keep sending food around the table and telling people to eat more and more? What's going on?" And what we call hospitality, she saw as gluttony.

And she didn't feel very good about this cultural practice from a biblical perspective. She talked about a poor use of resources. One said, "Why are you so strong on some Bible verses, but you neglect this one?" Good question.

Hypocrisy, recreational activities, dress, etc. So golf is out, downhill skiing is out. And yet you waste resources and time and money on all kinds of expensive hunting trips and four-wheelers and snowmobiles and that type of thing. Or in dress. So you don't have the men don't wear a necktie because that's ornamental or unnecessary or fashionable, a waste of money, all kinds of reasons why you don't do that. And yet women come to church maybe in a plain dress, some fancy scarf around their neck. It's obviously not to keep warm. What's going on here? Why is one okay and the other isn't? It's a cultural obstacle.

Apologetic about counterculture lifestyle. We tell people sometimes in all kinds of ways that our culture isn't very important to us. We might do that verbally or even by how we embrace it. We're apologetic. Recently, I had an individual who was an atheist at one time. Today, he's a very devout member in an Anabaptist. In fact, he's a leader in an Anabaptist community.

He made this comment. He said, "Quit trying to imitate culture. Don't be afraid to be different." In other words, would you join a group that wasn't excited about their culture? If they're apologetic all the time, why would you want to be part of that group?

Another, sometimes people perceive they are a project. Scheduled hospitality. And this has happened in our community. We've had a lot of seekers, people coming through. And so we will take turns being responsible to have someone in our home to make sure that somebody has a place to go.

And later on, they found out that this was actually a schedule. They just assumed people wanted to be with them. They felt like a project. Again, it doesn't mean it's a wrong thing to do, but be open about what's going on. It can be a way that they feel.

Weird songs and phrases, a different language. We have so many songs memorized. Many times before we have prayer and a meal, we'll say, "Let's sing so and so." We all burst into song. And the one person sits there and looks around, and they have no idea what you're doing here. It's an obstacle, a cultural obstacle that makes them feel different.

Frustration, seeing drift toward the culture they left. They feel like they're headed one way away from the world. And they've given up everything to walk a counterculture lifestyle. And yet they're seeing young people straining against the fences and going the other direction, back toward the world. That's very confusing to them. Can be very discouraging.

Appearance, fear of the evangelical friends. This is one that came up. This is one we typically think about. There's an assumption that one person mentioned that they were afraid to go back to their family reunion the first time. Just assuming the first thing people saw them, they would assume that they're being saved by works and that they're part of some legalistic cult.

Appearance isn't as big as I had assumed, but it can be an issue for some. Hospitality, feelings of inadequacy. Another big one. Not used to having company. I had one sister ask me, "Why didn't someone teach us how to have company?" I didn't know how to have company. How do you have people in your home? I'd never done that before.

Shallow conversation, reluctance to share. One lady told me she'd been a Mennonite for 15 years, and no one had ever shared a deep struggle they're having. She said, "I know their struggles being a counseling center or booked, but lots of shallow talk." There's many more examples.

This is an incomplete list, but these are real cultural obstacles that people feel. And again, I want to encourage you, if you have people in your community who came from a non-Anabaptist background, take time to sit down and just listen. Just listen to how they felt.

I don't think we in many of our churches realize how much we need people who were raised outside of our culture. They have so much to share with us, and we can learn so much from them. Importance of listening to seekers.

Seekers are good at spotting our deficiencies. And sometimes we don't like that. And we're not always interested in listening, but take time to do that. And finally, I want to look at New Testament church communities. We read about the vibrant churches in Acts and the Reformation.

But what about church today? How important is church life? And one of the things that's happening more and more here in America is people who can't seem to get along anywhere. And so they've got lots of answers, but they're kind of off by themselves somewhere.

What does that how does God feel about that? And I want to, again, give a disclaimer as I move into this one. I am not an expert on church life. None of us have arrived. Every church I know of struggles at times, and most of us struggle all the time. That's just part of church life.

But I do think we need to keep discussing this and asking, "What is God wanting today?"

First of all, the church, there is no plan B. Now, I work for a parachurch organization with a salt program. And it's very easy to get excited about parachurch activities and mission organizations. But I think it's essential we keep coming back and realize that there is nothing as important or as exciting as local church. That's where Christianity is demonstrated. It's where it's lived out. It's hard work, but it's God's plan.

I've thought about it this way. Too often we shop around, I think, for a church where I can truly live, where I can just live there. But actually, church is designed as a place where we go to die, not just to live. It's a place where we are committing and giving up. It's a place a little like marriage, where we learn so much about our own selfishness. It's a place where we have to submit to others. And that's part of God's intent is to develop. I really believe sometimes in America—this is partly due to affluence—but about the time God is working in our own life in our church community, where things get tight and we're starting to learn and actually God is able to work inside my own heart, I jump up and move somewhere else to another community and don't give God the chance to actually work within me.

Sacrificial love, it's a powerful billboard. I mentioned this earlier. Jesus said, "This is how you're going to know where my believers are." It's like a billboard that says, "Jesus is here." He said this in John 13, "By this, all men will know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another."

This is probably the most neglected verse on evangelism. But notice it's not how much you're loving the seeker, although that's important. Jesus is saying it's how much you love your brother. How much are you willing to give up your own will? And that is noticed by seekers.

Sacrificial love, I think today seekers are searching for authentic community. They are looking for a group of people who are committed to each other, willing to lay down their own little personal preferences and live together in community. I've been interested many times in thinking about the tour buses that circle through Amish communities. Why are they there? And you can say, "Well, it's partly due to people who are living. People see them as stuck in their past." But I think there's something else. I think there's something very intriguing to an American. The thought of these people are submitting their life to a larger cause, to a larger community.

There's something attractive about that. In individualistic America, in the loneliness and alienation that people think or feel, there's something that pulls people there.

Church life, multiplication, it was God's idea. God is the author of multiplication. You can plant corn and you get more back. All that is from God. It's a very basic principle in nature. It's a principle in business. There has to be profit to survive.

But church life is the same. And I think we should be concerned if multiplication isn't happening. It may not always be possible to plant churches. But I think we should recognize that an inability to multiply isn't normal. That's not how God thinks. God does think in terms of multiplication.

The historic Anabaptist challenge. Except during times of persecution, there's always been a challenge between preservation and promulgation or offense and defense in the church. And I want to put a chart up here. I use this chart as in Reaching America. And like all illustrations, it isn't perfect. But it may, I think, help us visualize a little bit of this challenge. So I want to start with a continuum here.

On the right, you see a family church. And on the left, you see a church family. So a family church, what I'm calling a family church, is a group of believers you worship with. It's a biological family unit is preeminent and where the goal of the church is to bless the family.

And on the other end, on the left, you have church family. And this is where the community of believers to which you—this is a community of believers to which you are committed and accountable. The group is preeminent and the goal of the family is to bless the church.

Now, take just a moment and identify your congregation on this line. What level of commitment is there in the people there? And we'll come back to that later. But I want to look at another continuum. So this is one part of church life, but there's another one. Church life wasn't intended just so we can enjoy ourselves. So I put a vertical continuum here. On the top is evangelistic or intentional about reaching out locally. And the bottom is little focus on local outreach.

So if you look at these two continuums, identify your church on the vertical one as well. How interested is your church community on reaching out to your neighbor? Not even talking about programs necessarily, but a genuine interest in your neighbor.

Now, these two continuums, if you identify yourself on both of them, also describe what I'll call four different church models. So I have these identified as one, two, three, and four. I'll start with number four, the bottom right. It's a church community that's weak on community and weak on outreach. You could call this one maybe a social club. Move over to model three. It is strong on community, but it's weak on outreach. So they're probably preserving their culture. They take good care of their own. If you're in this community and your business burns, they will be there the next day or the next week to help you rebuild. There's also in number three, usually a lifetime commitment.

But there's also very little interest in other people. They tend to be ingrown and think about themselves. Model two, the top right. There's strong focus on outreach. There's probably a mission board and a kids' club and a jail ministry and lots of that, but very little commitment to the church community. In fact, the average member may have only been there a few years. And if they find a better church, they might move again.

They might move on down the road.

I want to propose that model one is what Jesus actually had in mind. That's where there's a strong commitment to each other and a strong love for your neighbor as well. And there's no question this one is difficult to maintain. In fact, I would say that Satan will fight this one. You will run into satanic opposition to this one. I don't think maybe Satan doesn't care too much if we're strong on community and weak on outreach. Maybe he doesn't care that much if we're weak on community and strong on outreach. But when you get those two together, when you get strong commitment to community, sacrificial love, and a desire to reach out and share with your neighbor, Satan will fight that.

But in spite of that, I want to encourage each of us to aim for God's best. Don't stop dreaming. Even though none of us would say, "Yeah, that's where we're at. We're on number one." Let's keep aiming for that.

But while we have this chart up here, I want to share what I observed today in Anabaptist churches during times of prosperity. And that is a continual migration from model three to model two. And people leave model three for good reasons.

Many times there's a lack of good biblical teaching or a lack of interest in the neighbor, lack of outreach. But in that move, something is lost. And usually it's a loss of community. They may have found an area or a church that's less restrictive. But I think seekers sense that something is missing in model two. They sense there's a lot of talk, but there's a lack of sacrificial love there. And again, none of us have arrived. But try to think about where is your community on these four models. And then wherever you are, wherever you find yourself, I just want to encourage you to do what you can to move your community toward a model one.