There’s nothing more powerful than hearing the testimony of what God has done in someone’s life. People can try to use reason to refute all kinds of things, but it’s tough to refute a personal experience. That’s why I was excited to discover Answered.tv. They’ve recently come on the scene with some great video testimonies. Each video is short (2-4 minutes) and beautifully shot. Better yet, each testimony is powerful.

They’ve given free permission for people to share and embed their videos, which means there’s many different ways they can be used.

Here’s two great videos, but make sure to check out the whole lot:

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Last week I had two people ask me, “So what are some specific goals you have for your new role?” One person that asked the question is a leader on campus and the other is a seminary student who is looking for mentorship. After dialoguing, I discovered the true question. What they really wanted to know was, “What are some strategies you have for reaching young adults here on campus?” After thinking about it for a moment, I proudly told both of them that I didn’t have any goals. I know that the seminary student was disappointed. I could tell on his face. After all, that’s part of the reason why I was brought in to this church–to help connect with “this generation.” He supposed that I’m a young adult expert and am familiar with all kinds of strategies to reach young adults and college students and I would share with him the golden truths about how he can do the same “in the field.”

Here’s the hard truth that I shared with him.

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In my experience as a Christian, I think I’ve experimented with every imaginable time for my personal devotions. When I was a student in college I would clear my desk at 10pm and hunker down for some time with God. I wasn’t too into the morning thing. Here’s some other options and configurations I’ve experimented with:

• Getting dressed and ready in the morning and then connecting with God before going to the office
• Going in to the office earlier than normal, and then spending time there
• Having a brief time in the morning and an extended time in the evening
• Going to work out first thing in the morning, then connecting, and then eating and getting dressed

Are there some other configurations out there? I’m sure there are. And I’m sure I’ve tried them all. Every single one. But none of them has worked in the long run for one reason or the other.

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In the past, I always felt that people should be dressed very similarly to the people they’re trying to connect with and reach. So, if you’re a missionary in Papua New Guinea, you dress exactly like the locals do there. If you live in (fill in the blank) city, you should generally dress just like the people in that city. So that meant that as a pastor, I should generally be dressed down. I brought that same kind of thinking when I came here to Pioneer Memorial church. Part of my role was going to be to help with evangelism and discipleship and to connect with students. A part of me was thinking that I’d be dressing fairly casual–like the students–for the sake of the missionary imperative.

A few weeks after getting here, though, I found out that PMC has a dress code. Because it’s associated with the university, they generally want their pastors to look quite professionaly, which includes wearing a tie. When I first heard this news I was initially really disappointed. After all, how would I then be able to connect with the students? But…you do what you have to do, right? I went with it. And to be totally honest, I felt like I was compromising my missional integrity a little bit in the process.

Here’s two lessons that I’ve learned in the past six months, though:

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I know, a crazy title, huh?

Here’s the video below:

So what do you think about this form of outreach? Is this something Jesus would be involved with?

In this post, I wrote about what a missiologist taught me about discovering the needs in a community.

From that same conversation, I was able to glean another important lesson concerning discipleship. In the past, I always had the sense that people got involved in discipleship because they’re ready spiritually. They’ve made a decision for Christ, the Holy Spirit has been at work, and then they want to learn how to grow in Christ, study the Bible, and become more involved in prayer and outreach. I think it still happens that way for people who are ready. But how can we get people who aren’t even close to being on that trajectory connected to Christ and discipleship?

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I recently had a conversation with Dr. Bruce Bauer, a missiologist here at the Andrews University Theological Seminary . I wanted to speak with him because I’ve been wrestling with questions about evangelism, outreach, and discipleship, and wanted to get his perspective. During our conversation he shared that he’d been a missionary in various parts of Asia including Guam, Japan, and Cambodia. So I asked him, “You’ve obviously had experience connecting with different people groups in different parts of the world, but what would be one of the first things you’d do if you were asked to be a missionary to the people here in Berrien Springs, MI?” I think you can substitute whatever town or city you live in by the way, because I think his answer can apply to just about anywhere.

He said, “You need to find out what the needs are in the community, and then figure out a way that you can meet those needs.”

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