If there’s one thing I could impart to my fellow evangelists who meet to work together, it’s to unabashedly increase your joy through fellowship with other believers. Heartily greet, and if possible, pray and sing and delight in each other. And bond.

“Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.” (3 John 1:15)

This makes for joy, joy, joy, and sustainable, repeat-evangelism, and friendships, and old friends. All in Christ. Partnering together in the gospel.

This joy flows downstream in your evangelism.

“We aim that they share our joy and that we share theirs, so that both joys are larger because of being shared.” (John Piper, “What Jesus Demands of the World”, p. 282)

Would God be pleased to give us another “Manti” in Utah someday?

You are saved by faith alone apart from works.

Not by your performance or moral success or credibility or reputation or past or habits or disciplines or purity.

“We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

God is delighted to receive your empty-handed, incomplete, immature, needy, desperate faith and give you 100% of Jesus, declaring you righteous, uniting you to him, forgiving you, adopting you, indwelling you, and securing you.

This is the gospel. And it is the foundation for addressing private, workplace, parenting, marital, or public failures. Start with preaching to yourself: God has forgiven you in Christ Jesus by faith alone apart from works, according to his word alone.

You have equal standing before God with every other believer. God has declared you perfectly righteous in Christ Jesus.

And you now can be live free from paralyzing guilt or wretched ambition. And go seek reconciliation with hard people and love your enemies. God loves you.

It was a beautiful letdown
When I crashed and burned
When I found myself alone, unknown, and hurt

Beautiful Letdown, by Switchfoot

Switchfoot songs did a great job of capturing my existential crisis and coming to faith.

I had given up on truth and explored whatever made me feel good. My high school girlfriend had dumped me. I didn’t go to a reputable university. I was a lonely commuter to a community college. I found myself lazy, arrogant, and lusty.

But God drew me close. I met him in the New Testament. Romans blew me up. Grace came alive. I spent my early college days blasting Switchfoot with the windows down, glad that God had loosened my grip on the world.

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Psalm 73:25-26

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Count me among the Christians who are absolutely stubborn in their belief that God is good:

Even staring at death.

Even suffering injustice.

Even in great pain.

Even under another’s abusive authority.

Even while having involuntary identity.

Even when feeling trapped.

Even when dreams are dashed.

Even when realizing regrets and permanent failures.

God is good. He is right in all that he does. He owes me nothing. He is working all things together for our good. He loves his people. He loves me. And he can do what he wants. God is good.

• RSVP if possible (no biggie).
• Bring a water bottle, a Bible, and a pen.
• Warmly greet the brothers and ask for names 10x. We need reminders too.
• We assume you have a healthy relationship with your local church. We can’t love and serve you in the same intimate way believers from your local church can.
• Don’t bring deceptive tracts. We are overt, not stealthy.
• Feel free to shadow an existing conversation.
• Please avoid a believer/unbeliever ratio that makes the unbeliever feel uncomfortable.
• Feel free to pick unbelievers off of group discussions that are on the edges.
• Please don’t audibly insert yourself into an existing conversation unless explicitly invited.
• If you hear our dialog partner say 10 things worth refuting, but don’t hear us react, it’s probably because we’re being patient and gentle, trying to go down a path and stay focused.
• We can be cheerful and even goofy with strangers. We’re trying to be friendly.
• If a crowd forms, we may preach.
• If you feel like preaching, do it! But please be considerate of existing conversations around you.
• If you preach, speak slowly, inflect your voice, and stick close to Scripture.
• 95% of what we do is simple one-on-one or small group interactions. It’s boring by worldly standards.
• We often guage body language in deciding whether to continue to engage beyond handing out tracts.
• We are nervous too, managing our own fears. Hoping to ride a wave of occasional bravery.
• If someone says something ugly or rude, we feel you. You are a human being made in the image of God. You were meant to be treated with respect and kindness.
• Retorting or reacting isn’t typically a wise way to deal with angry or foolish passerbys. Let them go. We want peace
• Work hard. Get rejected a lot. God almost always provides a good conversation.
• Being a mere friendly presence helps us.
• If a young child wants to take a tract, defer to their parent. Get their permission.
• Old people get extra gentleness.
• You’re among Christian weirdos. If you have a different idea on how to start conversations, go for it!
• We love having a diversity of men, women, old, and young among us. Spanish speakers too!
• Evangelists are easy to please. If God gives us one good conversation, we are satisfied.
• If you only come to pray and be with Christians, that is 💯% ok. It adds to our joy and encouragement.
• If you mess up, we love you. We love newbies. We trust God’s providence. God loves working through you. Your fresh bravery encourages us.
• We love fellowshipping in-between interactions! Abrupt interruptions are normal though. Expect them. We may jet off mid-sentence to hand a tract to a passerby.
• We like praying before and after as a group.
• We like talking doctrine and theology.
• We love warmly greeting brothers in Christ we meet from around the world.
• We love making friends in the context of evangelism.

Tonight’s Temple Square theme: drama & spiritual warfare.

As I arrived there was a large group of young believers praying — mostly from Chicago. We scattered and covered different spots around Temple Square. I don’t know how their night went, although I did see a young man from their group at the North Gate named Ben. He was bold! He kept kindly handing out tracts and weathering repeated rejection with an excellent, kind attitude.

Continue reading “Evangelism report” →

• Do you believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, that he died on the cross for our sins, and that he rose again from the dead?
• Are you trusting in Christ alone for your salvation?
• Have you repented of your sins, and do you submit to Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Therefore I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Every Sunday morning is a members meeting. The kind that guests are invited to visit.

The church gathering is that of locally committed, mutually affirming, publicly recognized believers in Jesus.

They are washed by the word. They practice the ordinances, and are led by elders and served by deacons. They are ministered to by people of various gifts that Christ has lavished his people with. They practice the one-anothers, and act in unity by one Spirit. They greet each other in the Lord. They are called out from the world to form an outpost of the kingdom.

How important! How fitting! How beautiful that we gather and govern as Jesus, our True Emperor, laid out in his holy word.

Lord, please encourage believers who are not a part of this to be convinced, to joyfully repent, and to dive in.

• Mary Magdalene separates from other women at some point. Either on the way to the tomb, or at the tomb (before the angels are encountered), or on the way to tell the disciples (before Jesus appears to the women).
• Matthew 28:2-4 is a flashback. The earth quakes and angel descends earlier in the morning, frightening the guards. By the time the women arrive, an angel is inside the tomb. It is from within that he says, “See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).
• The women initially don’t tell anyone (Mark 16:8), but then decide to (Luke 24:10).
• Parts of the story are simplified or consolidated. Simplification: one angel is noted (Matthew 28:5) instead of two otherwise specified (Luke 24:4). Consolidation: the women “told these things to the apostles” (Luke 24:10). This consolidates Mary Magdalene reporting to Peter and John, and the other women reporting to the rest of the disciples.
• “The sun had risen” (Mark 16:2) could anciently mean essentially: at dawn.

See also: “A plausible harmony of the accounts and sequence of events” of the resurrection