ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Explore the transformative journey that is leadership. In each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights, and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact - all around the globe. Get ready to unlock your leadership potential.
When leaders are equipped, kingdom impact multiplies. Equipping leaders and spreading the Gospel. Let’s change history together!
This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute.
ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Ep. 56 | Finding Your Voice in Sharing the Gospel
In this deeply insightful conversation about authentic evangelism, Dr. Dan Slagle and Daniel Drewski unpack the unnecessary barriers we create when sharing our faith. Rather than approaching evangelism as a sales pitch or theological debate, we discover how vulnerability, honesty, and genuine relationships form the foundation of powerful witness.
The conversation reveals two essentials every believer needs: a basic understanding of Christian faith and the ability to share your personal testimony through three simple parts – life before Christ, how you met Christ, and how life has changed since. This straightforward framework removes the intimidation factor while preserving the transformative power of personal witness.
They remind us that God is already working in people's hearts before we enter the conversation. This shifts our perspective from pressure-filled performance to faithful participation in God's ongoing work. Whether planting seeds, watering what's been planted, or witnessing the harvest, each role holds equal value in God's economy.
Ready to move beyond fear and into the joy of authentic witness? Listen now and discover how embracing your story – imperfections and all – might be exactly what someone needs to encounter Christ.
When you begin ILI training, you will discover how the Eight Core Values will lead to the Seven Outcomes in your life and the lives of those you lead. Join a community of leaders who are ready to change history and make an impact in this world. Discover more at ILITeam.org/connect.
Welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast, where we explore the transformative journey that is leadership. Each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact all around the globe. This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute. Now get ready to unlock your leadership potential and let's change history together.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast. Listen with the headlines and the storylines around the world. I think now more than ever, people are in need of the hope of the gospel and we believe that, as leaders are equipped to fulfill their God-given mission and vision, we're going to see the gospel accelerate around the world. If that's something that's interesting to you, I want to encourage you. Keep listening in. I think it's going to be a wonderful conversation today. You can find other great resources at iliteamorg.
Speaker 2:Dan, I'm so thankful today to be chatting with you a little bit on just evangelism, right, I think it's an important topic for really faithful Christian leaders. Right, we want to practice culturally relevant evangelism. We want to have a deep-seated heart and passion for the harvest, for the people. You know Jesus tells us the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. But, man, there are so many moments where evangelism feels like maybe it's difficult, maybe it's, I don't know, maybe we psych ourselves up about it. I mean, you've been faithfully pastoring and leading for a long time. What are some of the most common issues you've seen when it comes to people struggle with evangelism in general?
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing I would say is just simply underscore the point you made about the importance of leaders setting the pace where evangelism is concerned. Speed of the leader, speed of the team.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, Okay yeah.
Speaker 3:And if evangelism is not important to the leader, it's probably not going to be communicated as something important to the followers and the trickle-down effect will happen On the other hand, if it is a priority, then that will find its way into the work of the ministry or the church or whatever the situation may be.
Speaker 3:So, things that get in the way, things that make it difficult, I think at the root of almost all the challenges around evangelism is just fear. People are afraid, and the most frequent fear I have heard voiced is what if they ask Jesus? Because you didn't have every answer to all of my questions. In fact, I once was able to lead a gentleman to Christ because I confessed I did not have the answer. This was a guy that I met in my first year serving at Faith Bridge Church back in 2002. He was an atheist in transition. I'll call it there you go. Okay, at least willing to give faith a second look? Sure, and so we began to meet for lunches on a regular basis, and every week he had a list of questions for me, and some of them were easily answered. But I noticed that he sort of began to relish opportunities to ask me something that I I couldn't answer kind of like his, his gotcha moments, yeah and uh.
Speaker 3:One day in particular he showed up and I could tell from the moment we sat down, just the gleam in his eye. Um, I'm his eye, I'm going to nail you today, man. And he asked me about the slaughter of the Canaanites and he wanted to know why did that happen? How is that remotely consistent with the Christian message? And I said I don't know. He said you don't know. No, I said I suppose I could do all sort of theological biblical gymnastics and try to come up with some answer. But I said the honest answer is I just I don't know. There are things in the Bible I cannot explain. Well, eventually I did have the privilege of leading. His name was Frank, leading Frank to Christ. This past August I had the privilege of doing his funeral.
Speaker 3:Wow, and that was a blessing, knowing that he's with the Lord.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 3:But when the day finally came that he was ready to make the commitment, he said you know, Dan, the thing that really pushed me over the edge was your honest confession that you didn't know, he said. I was just sure you were going to try to come up with some smoke and mirrors answer, but you stunned me with just this simple confession you don't know. Simple confession, you don't know. He said. When I saw that you were honest enough to admit that you didn't know, I was willing to listen to what you did know.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go.
Speaker 3:So not having all the answers isn't the worst thing in the world. Yeah, but that is a a regular fear that people express.
Speaker 2:I think we live in a day and age where there's a yearning for that sincerity.
Speaker 2:There's a yearning for that kind of authenticity to say you know, I'm not going to pretend that I have every answer, I'm not going to pretend that I've got everything figured out. And you know, just as a side note, gosh, I'd rather have a God that I can't quite all figure out, not because I don't want to understand him, but rather because I've got to believe he's big enough that there's going to be a whole lot more for me to understand when I get to be with him than I can possibly get in this moment. But I do. I think that the people around us are yearning for sincerity, yearning for authenticity. And you know, obviously we focus on leaders here and we think about leaders and I think for so many leaders it's that same fear. It's not that actually, you know, suddenly, now that I've gone to seminary or whatever, I now have all this extra knowledge. I know that's some of my story, right?
Speaker 2:Evangelism in middle and high school after becoming a believer for me was okay, I'm telling my friends, but I'm nervous that I'm not going to have an answer because I don't know enough of the Bible. And then I went to school and suddenly I've got a lot more knowledge about the Bible. But now I'm worried. Wait, am I committing heresy in how I'm talking about this? Like you know? Am I going to run into one of these you know theological gymnastics moments where my words come out wrong and all of a sudden they think you know it's God, the Father, that died on the cross and the Spirit's the one that's. You know.
Speaker 2:I just I was so nervous about those elements and I think for us to see a church that is alive and vibrant and rejoicing in their salvation, such that they rejoice with others, I think you're right. I think it's going to be a leader who has enough humility to say, exactly like you did, that example of saying you know what, Gosh, I don't know, and that's okay, we can try and investigate these things, we can try and look at these things, we can try and understand these things together. But I think for a lot of leaders out there, there is that still, you know, kind of intrinsic fear that well, I'm the pastor I'm supposed to know, or I'm the leader I'm supposed to know, and so you know, how do we, how do we overcome some of that? I mean, is it, is it just well, you know, get over yourself? Or how do we, how do we get past that?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm sure there is a degree of getting over yourself and realizing, hey, this isn't about you, but there's a more practical answer too. I typically tell people you don't need to know everything, but you do need to know some things. Okay, and I would put at the top of the list. You need to know the basics of your faith. You should be able to tell people in very simple terms this is what Christianity is. You don't need to go into a dissertation, deal with theological fine points, and I tell folks you know the Apostles' Creed is a great place to start soaking your brain in, to get a grasp on the—because in a paragraph. Boom, there it is. So at a minimum you need to know that. And then the second thing you need to know is your own story.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:You need to be able to articulate. This is why I'm a believer and I usually give people a very familiar pattern. You've probably heard it along the way. Your testimony needs to be your life before Jesus, how you came to know Jesus and how has your life been different. If you can answer those three questions, you've got a testimony. Most people have never sat down and thought through that, they just have been living life.
Speaker 1:But if you're going to talk to someone else about your faith.
Speaker 3:But if you're going to talk to someone else about your faith, you need to understand the objective side of it. This is what Christianity is Right, but you also need to be able to speak about the subjective side. This is my story. There you go, and the nature of the story does not matter whether you were, you know, a derelict in the ditch or someone who accepted Jesus at four years old. Totally Again. I've never had anyone say to me well, you know, I'm not going to accept Jesus because you weren't a drug addict. You know you didn't overcome some horrendous Right. We get that spinning in our heads and that's not what people are looking for.
Speaker 2:And it's not about, like, we want to share those subjective things, but it's not about our story per se. Right, right, it's, it's. It's no God, this is, this is your story, this is the story of Christ. This is how it's been transformational for me. And so I mean, I often think about it and I go gosh.
Speaker 2:It's funny how anxious we feel about that when we celebrate and share stories all the time. I mean that's what we do as people, is we celebrate and share stories. It is the human condition to celebrate looking for others. There's this funny meme or clip I've seen where a group of guys were challenged by their wives to watch a soccer game without making a single noise. And so all you have is this clip of five guys sitting on the couch and all of a sudden they all just jump up and they're shaking with all of their might, trying to do whatever they can to celebrate without making noise. It's part of the human story to find the completion of joy celebration in community with someone else.
Speaker 2:And when I think about sharing the story of Jesus and sharing my story of Jesus, it's hey, I'm not sitting here trying to, I don't know. Sometimes I struggle and tell me if you think this is wrong of me, or maybe just you know more reflection of maybe even some of my, you know, doctrinal or theological uniques. I struggle sometimes with even that word win, like I'm trying to win you here. I'm trying to, I'm trying to, you know, like drag you into this thing rather than just going man, jesus is so like. I just want to tell you what my life has been like, because this is the moment I met Jesus, and before this man, I was freaking out.
Speaker 2:I didn't know what was going to happen, but I was sitting in the back of my mom's car. I said, god, I know I'm going to need somebody to make through the rest of life. Mom's sick, brother's going to college, dad is dead. I've got to figure something out. God, I'm going to need you. I don't know where else to turn. Like, okay, now post that moment. Here's how God has consistently demonstrated himself in my own life, the transformation it's caused in my own heart. That's just me celebrating that transition. So, anyway, what do you think about maybe some of my own hangups sometimes with that word win, or does that kind of add or kind of put the thumb on the scale for that tension or fear we feel? Well, you know.
Speaker 3:On the one hand, you know what somebody means when they say you know, I won a percentage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:But on the other hand, I think it is a very unfortunate word choice, because winning connotes competition, winning connotes competition. You're competing and winning. You want more wins than losses, and so you're putting yourself under this pressure. And who's the opponent in that? You know, I heard about a church staff at a very large church. A church staff at a very large church if I mentioned it, you would recognize it where every week, at the weekly staff meeting, the senior pastor went around the table and asked a staff member who did you win to Christ this week? Every week.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean talk about a pressure I mean that.
Speaker 3:Talk about a pressure, pressure, yes, and I, when I heard that story, I thought did jesus even remotely do anything? He sent them out by twos when they came back?
Speaker 2:did they? Did he have a chart and a graph that he sat down?
Speaker 3:oh, I'm sorry you, wow, you are it, you wow, you are relational aspect, the witnessing aspect. That's what we're called to be witnesses Simply telling someone else. This is what happened to me.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Jesus said go and be my witnesses, not go and be a soul winner. Witnesses, not go and be a soul winner. That's a very American-ized approach, I think, to evangelism.
Speaker 2:I often think of a story. This is from one of our brothers in the Middle East and he described it this way. He said what we do is we actually begin our process of evangelism? He said we begin by teaching them the Lord's Prayer. Right, he said we're just going to teach you to pray. We say, hey, we've learned a new way to pray, can we teach you? They say, yes.
Speaker 2:He said then we start teaching the Sermon on the Mount. We just give them each little piece, bit by bit, right, blessed are blessed, are you know, you are light on the world, you are salt. He walks through those things and then, after a year of walking through right Matthew 5, 6, 7, he said then we say, hey, by the way, all of these teachings that you've begun to hear and see and live, these are the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Here's how he transformed my life, here's how he's transforming your life. As you see the truth of these things and all of a sudden you've got people's hearts prepared to kind of receive that with greater openness.
Speaker 2:And I think you're right. I think sometimes, you know, I love our brothers and sisters in the business, in the marketplace. I don't disparage them. We have adopted some of those mentalities and techniques above biblical calls, commands and structures. Right, because you're right. Jesus called us to be witnesses, to provide testimony. Right, somebody who's testifying to something is simply telling the story of what they've seen and heard. Right, and that's a very different thing from winning the case Absolutely In some kind of a legal context.
Speaker 3:When I begin to work with someone in the area of evangelism or teach an evangelism class, the primary emphasis for me throughout the entire experience is a focus on relationship. You're asking a person to make the most significant decision of their life. Yes, maybe it would be a good idea to gain their trust along the way and let them see this is real. This is genuine. There's something authentic about what you're telling, because I see it in your life.
Speaker 2:instead of walking up to someone and waving a track in their face, Well, I don't think evangelism or the gospel is meant to be transactional, and when we treat it transactionally right, I think, number one we do a disservice to the relationship Christ desires with and through not only us but in that other person. But it is. I think it's an expression of some of um, some of our cultural you know, hubris and form, right, like um. There's another great conversation I had with with one of our leaders from Central Asia and and he was talking about how, in the West relationships there's you, there's me, and then there's the deal. Uh, I had another guy. He said in the West you'll have um. He said we'll work together in business and maybe eventually be friends. He said that's relationship in the West, whereas you know, in Latin America. For that leader, he said in Latin America we're friends and maybe we'll do business.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe we'll have something down the line, and it's hard to imagine that Jesus, growing up in the first century Jewish culture and context would have been real, transactional, but a lot more relational. So, dan, you're suggesting here. You said, hey, you got to know just some basics of what we believe. Okay, so if I'm a leader that's listening to this and I'm going, okay, how do I mobilize people? I might look to the Apostles' Creed. Maybe my own church has some kind of a real shorter catechism or just something I'm going to review. I'm gonna review my own story, uh, and I'm going to help people understand how to tell that story right.
Speaker 3:Three, three parts right Before, before meeting and after right I'm going to kind of walk them through that what.
Speaker 2:what do I do next? Like, how do I, how do I help them down that next step?
Speaker 3:Well, uh, it's not rocket science. Uh, it's uh's focus on relationships in your life with people who are not a part of the kingdom. Some years ago, I realized that, as a pastor, I was living in a very antiseptic environment. I'm at the church umpteen days a month and I was not out and about among unsaved people. Yeah, and so I very purposefully joined a gym. There you go. I needed to. It was good for my health, sure, I need to. It was good for my health, sure, I need to go back. But the primary reason was to get out into the community and to get to know people. Yeah, I was a member of that gym for about six years and during that time I had the opportunity to walk with three people into a relationship with.
Speaker 2:Jesus.
Speaker 3:And as thankful as I am for that, honestly the most enjoyable aspect was making new friends. Yeah, really, I looked forward to being with these people. Yeah, really, I looked forward to being with these people, and though we have since moved from Texas to North Carolina and I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to interact with them again or not, I still count them among my friends and would love to see them at any time, even the ones that I didn't necessarily lead to Jesus. I hope that I was able. As one person said to me years ago, it was sometime before they found out that I was a pastor.
Speaker 3:It was sometime before they found out that I was a pastor and they said wow you know, the thing I appreciate about you, Dan, is even though you're a pastor, you're not weird.
Speaker 2:Well, he must not have known you that well, dan, I guess.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks. You know, people do have caricatures of what pastors certainly are and Christians in general, and I've sort of made it my mission to erase those and let people see no, we're normal folks just like everybody else. We just happen to have entered into a relationship that has fundamentally changed our lives, not only for now, but for all of eternity. Amen. I find that to be a much, much more successful approach. So you need to know the basics of your belief, you need to know your story and you need to be among unsaved people.
Speaker 2:You know, I know that challenge of that right. I mean, obviously we serve here at ILI, I mean I'm very active in my church and, gosh, it can be, it can be really difficult and I know, you know, really, as the sole full-time person trying to lead that man, there's so many calls and pushes and pressures on your time. There's so many programs, so many events. You know we're recording this just post-Easter a little bit, so, like you know, easter there's all these things that are happening before and now you're trying to do all this follow-up and you've got Mother's Day around the corner and how on earth—is it as simple as just making it a priority to get out there? I mean, how do you?
Speaker 2:make that a—is it that simple? Yes it is.
Speaker 3:You just have to decide. This matters. Therefore, I am going—we do the things we really want to do.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:Whatever we find ourselves drifting to on a regular basis, that's really what we want to do with our time and our resources and whatever else we have. Well, this is something that we have been commanded to do. It's not optional for us. Commanded to do. It's not optional for us. I appreciate the fact that Jesus stopped with the command. He did not then go on to give a formula, because Jesus understood the thousands of cultures that would come into existence, you know and the different approaches.
Speaker 3:This is the task. I want you to go do it, and so I think it is incumbent upon an individual to own that responsibility. Yeah, can't shuffle that off on the pastor or the evangelism committee or whatever the case may be. No, this is part of what it means to be a Christ follower, to tell other people about him, and it's as simple as deciding. I will prioritize this. I will make this a focal point of my life.
Speaker 2:Well, and again it comes back to what you said at the beginning. Hey, you know, as the leader, you set that tone, you set that example. And when you set it as a priority in your own life to pursue in love relationships with people not because you're going to, you know, pin them down victorious in some, but because you love people, because you want to be in relationship with people, you want to be a blessing to them and then bless them with the greatest news and story you have ever received you got to make that a priority and once it's a priority in your life, it's going to begin to reflect as a priority in the lives of the people in your congregation. Cause I do, I think. I think maybe this is just a Western thing, but, man, we've really professionalized some of that process Absolutely and as individual believers, kind of divorced ourselves from that responsibility. But I love that you said it with such clarity.
Speaker 2:It is a command, it's not a suggestion, it's not an implication, it's not a. You know, maybe this would be good if the Lord, god of the universe, has commanded go tell people this and he's invited us into it. You know I was struck. Somebody was praying once and said you know, we hear these reports of believers in the Middle East particularly seeing dreams of Jesus right, dreaming dreams of Jesus and man. How encouraging that is, how incredible that is, how powerful those stories are and the simple thought was we get to be his messengers. What's cooler that somebody has a dream, or that God sends you Right, that God sends you Right, that God calls you, he invites you to be that for someone.
Speaker 3:And that in and of itself can be an encouragement, something that helps overcome the fear factor. When you talk to someone about Jesus, God has already been at work in that person's heart. It's not as though you're opening the page here for the very first time.
Speaker 3:You know, in the Wesleyan tradition we talk about prevenient grace. From the moment a person is born, the Spirit is drawing and wooing a person and when you begin to talk about Jesus, you're just one in a series of encounters and experience. All of us can look over our shoulder before we were saved and see, oh wow, there was that and that and that, and it all led up to the moment that I made the decision. It all led up to the moment that I made the decision. It can be a real comfort to know okay, this isn't up to me and God is already working in the person's heart and I just have a small role to play here, whether it's articulating the gospel for the first time in such a way that the person can hear it and understand it, or if I get to be the person that closes the deal, so to speak, or anywhere.
Speaker 3:On that continuum, not only a lot of the fear out of it, but I think it also removes that professionalism attitude that this isn't something I'm getting paid to do or something that only the experts can do.
Speaker 3:No, this is equal opportunity here, and God is partnering with each and every one of us to come alongside him and join him in the work that he is already doing and, hopefully, obediently fulfill whatever role it is he has in mind for us. And it may be that the role we get to play is someone getting angry and saying get out of my face. I'm interested in hearing this. Right, right, okay, so what you know that that was, that was my part to play, right? Uh, I wish it could have gone different, but I don't have to feel bad about that, right?
Speaker 3:You know I have an older brother who did not come to Christ until very late in life and my younger brother made an attempt once to tell him about Jesus. He already knew about it. He grew up in the same home. The rest of us did church going home, but my younger brother tried to sort of close the deal and the only thing he got in response was anger and resentment and it really sort of damaged the relationship there for a little while sure but now, years later, when my older brother he's a sunday school teacher now, um, my younger brother can look back on it and see, oh, that that was just part of the process.
Speaker 3:You know, I was just one in a series of players in that whole thing and it just happened to be that the part I got to play was him getting mad and rejecting me. And so fear is something that we contrive, something we develop in our own minds and hearts about the experience, because there really is nothing objectively to be afraid of. Yeah, truly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, and we think of the Scripture, I mean, god doesn't give us the spirit of fear, right?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And so when we have that, particularly around, something that we know God has commanded, we know, okay, where does this come from? Well, it's not coming from him, it's not coming from a source of truth and transformation, but rather from an enemy that seeks to kill, steal and destroy. And I think some of what he's seeking to steal in that is the joy that comes in reliving your own story and thinking on that, reflecting on that. I think he wants to steal some of the joy of celebrating that with someone. And you know I constantly reflect on the Great Commission right, go, teach, tell, baptize, help them, obey. Right, but at the end it says and I will be with you. And I think, man, you know, some of the sweetest moments have been moments where I've been telling somebody else my story of Jesus and it's like I'm reliving it all over again. You sense the Spirit's presence there with you as you're trying to help them understand what you have transformationally experienced and what they have an opportunity to experience. And you do, you feel the sweetness of God's presence there.
Speaker 3:Oh man, about a year ago, and it was one of those rare moments where someone had given me an upgrade. They had miles that they could share and I got to fly in business class.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a number hall man. That's not a short flight, Right.
Speaker 3:So thankful for that. Well, as it turned out, my seatmate was an executive with X, formerly Twitter. Okay, who was a direct report of Elon Musk's? No kidding, she was the head of creative development or some fancy title like that. But yeah she and Elon were coworkers. Yeah, she was Jewish and an atheist, but not a militant, angry one. She just matter-of-factly said you know, I'm.
Speaker 3:Jew, but I don't buy all that stuff. And so I just said well, I'm just curious, why not? And she said well, you know, god claims to be God and look at all the horrible things that are happening. You know how he suffers. People suffer, and why isn't he doing anything about it? Why isn't he doing anything about it? And I said well, in my belief system, god does it too. He doesn't exempt himself from the suffering. Mm-hmm, and to my complete surprise, and hers too, she began to weep. No kidding, started to cry. I mean not bawling, but just tears.
Speaker 2:I mean she's clearly overwhelmed, she's getting emotional, yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:And I didn't pounce on that and she said that is so beautiful I have never heard that before. I've never thought about that before. And then she composed herself and said thank you for telling me that You've really given me something to think about.
Speaker 3:God was already working, and God was already working and God was already working on me, because I got that line God does it too, from Stephen Colbert. No kidding, yes, oh my goodness. There is a fantastic interview between Stephen Colbert and Anderson, the CNN. Anderson Cooper, anderson Cooper, thank you. Anderson Cooper was dealing with his grief over the loss of his mother, and Colbert has been very open about his grief experience. When he was a boy, he lost his dad and two of his brothers in a plane crash, and so Anderson was interviewing him and talking about death and at one point he says to Stephen so you're a Christian, and they kind of went into that. How does God let's—? And Colbert said well, here's the thing, god does it too. He said it just like that. And Cooper began to cry, just like this woman did.
Speaker 3:He looked at Colbert and said you really believe that? And Colbert said yeah, yeah, I do, I do. So not only had God been getting this Jewish woman ready, he'd been getting me ready too, to say something that I'm sure I would not have thought of on my own I'm not Stephen Colbert but it touched her heart in a way that, apparently, any encounter with a Christian prior never had done before I have no earthly idea what has happened to her since.
Speaker 2:But God is still at work, he is, and I think you're right. I think sometimes it's that realization or that willingness to say I don't know, I don't know, I don't necessarily have to know. This is faithfulness to that command in a moment, and it is. It's a heart that's prepared and I'm just stepping into the preparation that. I guess it is a transformational thing when God allows us to be a part of that process, to see ourselves in it, to participate in it and to again even personally reflect.
Speaker 2:You know, I remember when you first shared that story, thinking even myself, ma'am you never know what somebody's coming to you with. You don't know what suffering or sorrow, what joy or celebration. We just don't know where they're coming from. But the good news of the gospel is for our salvation, it's for our restoration, it's for our relationship with God.
Speaker 2:And woven throughout all of that is this story of the God-man, jesus, who did live, who was here, who lost friends, who saw evil and wickedness, who celebrated and danced at a wedding, who had a life, who had a life. And I think for so many who have lost, you know, lost sight of that or maybe missed that. We're missing that opportunity to help people see that God isn't this kind of far off, intangible, unrelatable, you know, powerless, nothing, entity, but rather the one who came and lived and died and rose and man. There's something sweet to that, and certainly in the Western context, I think we have a people and some of the statistics are showing that in the next generation too but there's a people that are yearning to see there is something bigger than all this.
Speaker 3:And if we can just get past ourselves and give them the opportunity to choose, to decide, how great is that that God invites us to be a part of the process? Yeah, man, that's beautiful Well.
Speaker 2:Dan, thank you to be a part of the process. Yeah, man, that's beautiful. Well, dan, thank you so much for kind of helping us think through and talk through a little bit on this Leader. If you're out there, I want to encourage you, I want to invite you actually to mobilize people to share this greatest news, and the best way I think we can do it is doing it ourselves. Let's be men and women who are faithful to share this hope, this news, because we love people, because we want to celebrate, because we want to be in relationship to them and following Christ, his story, in our life. We can't relate to people without that coming up, because it's part of who we are, it's part of our identity and being, and I think we'll find greater joy and fulfillment there.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for taking a listen. Listen. If you want to support these kinds of initiatives, if you want to help us connect and serve Christian leaders, do us a favor. Like, subscribe, comment, do something like that. It helps us to hear from you, helps the algorithms to kind of work in our favor a little bit. But, above all, I just want to thank you so much for your prayers and for the good kingdom work that you're doing and that God's calling you to. We pray that it's fruitful and the kingdom advances, and God is glorified.