February 3rd, 2026

Dear Friends,

What’s it going to take for the church’s gospel to become relevant? What do we need to do to see the church succeed? What kind of evangelism will actually make a difference in people’s lives?

These are good questions but they are not new questions. I’m now entering my 47th year as a pastor and I’ve heard forms of these questions from my earliest days in ministry.

There are answers to these questions — good answers — but I’m not sure that you’re going to like them. But, my job isn’t to give you what you like but to tell you the truth. So, here goes.

Jesus was quite clear about what following him meant, what witness was. “If you want to save your life, you will lose it. If you lose it for my sake and for the sake of the kingdom, you will save it.” “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

His method was simple. He served. He exercised compassion. He suffered with the suffering and for the suffering. In short, he came to die for the sins of the world. That death produced, and produces, life. That death formed the church, guides the church, sustains the church. It’s not our clever programming or contextualized witness (though these things are definitely part of being good stewards of our calling to be witnesses, making disciples). Jesus’ death as a martyr (the word means “witness” by the way) and our confession of that death and resurrection is the foundation of the church.

Andrew Root writes: “When Christianity faces death, it lives. … Being bankrupt, embracing poverty, is where the church finds its renewal. The church’s beginning comes from the renewal that emerges from the bankruptcy of the loss and confusion of the cross. … The mission of the church is to be present at the end of cycles of death, participating in the redemption of the world by ministering to the world. Renewal is found not in the innovation of new resources but in dying for the sake of others. New life is in the confession that dying itself is infused with God’s ministering presence.” (Evangelism In An Age Of Despair)

So take heart! The success of the church doesn’t depend on us, in any way. It is the church of Jesus Christ, the Lord of All. Our calling is to trust him, to follow him into the suffering of the world, and to live lives that are literally shaped by the emblem of his suffering, the cross. We can enter the world in hope, not because we know what to do or how to do it but because Jesus is alive and at work. He invites us to simply join him.

Blessings!

Doug