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Four simple ways to engage the nations as the world gathers for the biggest event on earth.
By Aaron Myers
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This summer, the eyes of the world will be on North America as Canada, the U.S., and Mexico host the 23rd FIFA World Cup. Teams and fans from across the globe will travel to cities throughout the continent to take in the action.

While the Super Bowl draws over 100 million viewers each winter, the World Cup reaches nearly 5 billion people worldwide. Soccer (football) is the world’s game—played by more people, in more countries, than any other sport. And the World Cup is its greatest stage.

This summer, the nations are coming to us. This global moment is not accidental.  In Acts 17:26 the Apostle Paul says, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find Him . . . “ 
As the world comes to North America in June, many will come from places where there is little if any gospel witness, places where Bibles or churches are hard to find and from countries where Christians are persecuted. It is a Kingdom opportunity and now is the time to begin to prepare to step into the good works which God is preparing for His church to do. We can do that in four simple ways.

Learn
The posture of a disciple of Jesus is the posture of a learner. The  World Cup creates unique opportunities for individuals, families and communities of faith to learn about His creation, the vast panorama of cultures and languages and faith backgrounds. Here are a few ideas:

Who is Playing? - Part 1
The  World Cup begins with group play where four teams play one another and the top two teams from each group move on to the knockout stage. You can see all of the groups and the countries in each group at the Wikipedia page for the 2026  World Cup. This is a great place to begin learning about the countries who have qualified and even where they’ll be staying. The Algerian national team will be staying in Lawrence Kansas, the Saudi Arabian national team will be in Austin, Texas. [Wikipedia: World Cup 2026]

​​Who is Playing? - Part 2
​Now that you know who the teams are and what nations they represent, visit the Joshua Project page for each country where you can learn what the status of Christianity is in each country. Below you can see a screenshot of Joshua Projects page on Algeria and the United States. This visual paints a picture of what missiologists mean when they use the word “Unreached.” In the U.S., 76.5% of people would identify as Christian, and 26.6% are part of an evangelical church. In Algeria, a nation of over 47 million people, only 0.1% would identify as Christian—and there is no measurable evangelical presence. In the United States, a person can encounter a Christian almost anywhere. In Algeria, those opportunities are nearly nonexistent. Joshua Project is an excellent resource to learn about the countries and the people who will be visiting this summer. [Explore at Joshua Project]
What is Soccer?
​It may be a funny question but let’s admit it—most reading this article did not grow up playing soccer and may not be all that interested in the sport. For the sake of the gospel however, I want to encourage you to learn. The unreached of the world love this sport. They love it passionately and so gaining a little knowledge is a simple act of kindness. Learning to care about the things others care about not only increases our ability to have conversations, it grows our compassion and empathy. It may be a bit of dying to self for some of us, but isn’t that what Christ calls us to do? [Learn from Bundesliga]
Pray
Once you’ve learned a bit about the nations coming to the  World Cup, I want to encourage you to begin praying for the teams and the fans that will accompany them. This is an important first step we can take to engage the nations among us. Here are a few ideas to help you foster prayer during the  World Cup.

Prayercast
Prayercast has created some amazing prayer videos for every country in the world. As the  World Cup approaches, begin prayerful watching and praying through the Prayercast videos for each of the countries coming to play. Watch the Algeria Prayercast video below. [Find a Nation at Prayercast]
World Map
Find a large world map and post it in your home where you can see it and then mark each of the countries who are coming to play in the  World Cup as a way to remember to pray.

Operation World
Operation World has resources for prayer for every country on earth including country summaries, powerpoint slides for group prayers and their Pray for the World book. [Visit Operation World]

Mobilize Others
The  World Cup creates a fun and engaging opportunity to mobilize your family, small group, or church into learning, praying and potentially going to the nations. The nations will be all over the news this summer and it will be good news. Here are a handful of ideas for mobilizing others.

The FIFA Bracket Challenge
Americans love their fantasy sports leagues and so inviting a group of friends from church to play FIFA’s bracket challenge creates some friendly competition and with it, an opportunity to get to know the teams and the nations they represent. Use this as a launching point for discussions and prayer about unreached people groups from the countries that are playing. [FIFA Bracket Challenge]

The Church FIFA Wall
Find a wall at church where you can hang a large world map. Put a pin in each country coming to play that attaches to a country information card or page. Have prayer cards and other information available for people to take home and commit to pray. Post all the groups and then the bracket for the knockout stage and keep it up to date as the tournament progresses. Group play begins June 11th and the tournament final is on July 19th so you’ll have over a month to highlight the nations.

Host A Watch Party: 
Invite a group from church or a small group to come together to watch a key match. If your church has missionaries serving in one of the countries that are represented, this could create a unique opportunity to learn more about the country. Bring resources to give to everyone and be sure to utilize halftime to watch the Prayercast video for that country. Cast vision for the spiritual needs and send everyone home with a prayer card.

Adopt a Team: 
Choose a team that is from a country where there are unreached peoples and challenge your congregation to pray. Be sure and create opportunities for learning, awareness and prayer. And of course, as mentioned before, host a watch party. Order small hand held flags from the country to give to everyone. 

Reach Out
With the  World Cup coming to North America, each team will bring with it their fan base. Many already live in the U.S., Canada or Mexico and many more will travel here to take in a game or just to be near the action. There are sixteen locations between the three countries [see map] and you don’t need to buy a ticket to the game to reach out. Fans will be in the host cities and around the stadiums for days during the group stage and they’ll be really easy to find. Just look for the Turkish or Algerian or Saudi flags and jerseys. Here are a few ideas for reaching out.

Sports Event Evangelism
SEE has been taking teams to sporting events for outreach and are preparing to do so again for the  World Cup. If you live near a host site or are willing to travel, check them out. [Learn More and Join a Team]

Host a Watch Party
CRU has created the Victory Beyond the Cup resource to help any individual or group host a watch party right in your community. If you have immigrants and refugees in your community they’ll be watching the  World Cup and this resource will give you the resources and materials to invite the nations into your home or church for a meaningful  World Cup event. [Get Your Host Kit Here]

Give a Gospel
The Pocket Testament League has  World Cup themed, pocket-sized Gospels of John. Order a pack of ten or 100 in English or in any number of languages that will be represented by  World Cup teams. [Pocket Testament League]

Connect Online
Did you know that hundreds of thousands of people from all of the countries that are coming to this global event are wanting to connect with native English speakers online for an opportunity to practice speaking English, to connect and to build new friendships?

Speak Truth Cafe provides unique opportunities for North American Christians to connect with students in a non-North American country, who wants to improve their English conversational skills and is willing to do so by reading the Bible during those English conversations. They would love to help you connect. [Get Started: Speak Truth Cafe]

If you’d be interested in forming an online outreach team within your local church community  to connect with people from Turkey specifically, I’d love to help you get started. Reach out to me through the About page.

Let The Games Begin
The World Cup is more than a sporting event, it is a moment of global gathering. The nations are coming to North America and I hope this article has sparked a few ideas for you and your church to partner with God this summer. 

Let’s learn from one another.
What ideas do you have in these four areas—Learn, Pray, Mobilize, Reach Out?

Share them in the comments section below so we can encourage and equip each other to engage the nations together.

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​How globalization and digital culture may be reshaping the cultural distances in Ralph Winter’s classic framework for evangelism.
​By Aaron Myers
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It was several years ago that I first wrote about Ralph Winter’s E-Scale as a tool for understanding cross-cultural ministry.  As I’ve continued working in cross-cultural ministry over the past two decades—and observed the effects of globalization and rapid innovation in communication technology—I’ve begun to wonder whether it might be time to revisit that article and reflect on how the E-Scale itself may be changing.

If you are unfamiliar with the E-Scale, I encourage you to read my article from 2019.(1) And if you want to go straight to the source, read Winter’s original article as well.(2) Links to both are included at the end of this piece.

In that earlier article, I focused mostly on the left side of the scale, suggesting that efforts to invite non-Christians to attend church are no longer as effective as they once were. As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, the distance between E0 and E1 has grown. The non-believers who once visited our churches are, for the most part, no longer doing so.
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In this article, however, I want to look toward the other end of the scale, where I suspect the opposite may be happening. While the distance between E0 and E1 has grown, the distance between E2 and E3 may be shrinking as global culture becomes increasingly flattened.

As I wrote in another article:
Sixteen-year-olds in China and Mozambique, Canada and Mexico, the U.S. and Vietnam are watching the same TikToks, following the same Instagram influencers, and learning how to fix their iPhones from the same YouTube videos.

They share gaming advice on Discord and openly mock those of us who still use Facebook. They are poised to work together in business and service better than any generation in history.

Their embodied identities are still shaped by their local cultures, but their digital identities are flattening those distinctions as they interact online with people and content from across the world.”(3)
The barriers to cross-cultural ministry appear to be shrinking with each successive generation and each new leap in globalization and technological innovation. English is rapidly becoming the world’s lingua franca. Growing affluence means more people are traveling beyond their country of birth for both education and leisure. More than five billion people now own a smartphone—roughly 60 percent of the global population—and that number continues to grow.(4) Unsurprisingly, smartphone adoption is highest among younger generations.

None of this eliminates real cultural differences, of course but this flattening creates new opportunities for ordinary believers in local churches to participate in cross-cultural kingdom work in ways that were nearly unimaginable twenty years ago. Yet it also presents new challenges.

Many younger people seem increasingly drawn toward a soft universalism or a kind of build-your-own spirituality sometimes described as therapeutic deism. At the other extreme are those who find themselves pulled into ideological echo chambers, easily shaped by more radical ideologies.

Both realities create real challenges for Christians seeking to share the good news of the gospel. And both require the same dependence on prayer, Scripture, and spiritual discernment that cross-cultural witness has always required.
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I am not suggesting that the E-Scale is obsolete. Far from it. But the cultural conditions surrounding it may be shifting. If the distance between cultures is flattening in new ways, it may be worth revisiting this familiar tool and asking how it might inform mission in an increasingly connected world.

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As Gen Z navigates a digital world of doubt, identity, and endless ideas, learn how shifting spiritual trends are reshaping the mission—and opening new doors for gospel engagement.
​By Aaron Myers
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Across the Muslim-majority world, a growing number of young adults are questioning—if not outright rejecting—the traditional Islamic authority structures that shape faith and life. Increasingly, members of Gen-Z in Muslim contexts identify as “Ex-Muslim,” often describing themselves as atheist or agnostic, or simply stating they are no longer Muslim.

When Richard Dawkins translated his atheist manifesto, The God Delusion, into Arabic and made it available as a free PDF, it was downloaded over 30 million times. In Tunisia, 47% of youth now view themselves as non-religious. In the United States, 24% of Muslims born into Muslim families have left Islam.(1) In Turkey, nearly 30% of Gen-Z identifies as non-religious.(2)

This trend mirrors the global rise of the so-called “nones”—those who claim no religious affiliation—and can likely be attributed to many of the same generational forces: globalization, the rise of digital technology, smartphones, and social media. Scholar, writer, and television host Reza Aslan observes, “What the printing press is to Christianity in the 16th Century, that’s what the Internet is doing to Islam now. It has opened up the monopoly over interpretation of Islam that used to solely belong to the religious class.”(3)
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​Today, a young adult in a Muslim-majority country can encounter more Islam-critical content on their smartphone in a single day than their parents encountered in the first twenty years of their lives. As Dr. Tim Orr explains, Gen-Z Muslims “are digitally immersed, globally aware, and justice-oriented. However, they also navigate a unique tension: balancing inherited Islamic traditions with postmodern skepticism and the digital age’s flood of competing worldviews. While many still identify strongly with Islam, their engagement is increasingly shaped by personal exploration, social dynamics, and the pressure to reconcile their faith with contemporary values.”(4)

Like many of their global peers, Gen-Z Muslims are walking away from institutional religion, crafting for themselves untested and often unarticulated spiritual frameworks. These new systems of belief tend to be shaped more by instinct than tradition—“a gut feeling that it's right.” In this post-truth world, “a kind of watered-down post modern existentialism challenges us to invent ourselves, and many Muslims take up the invitation.”(5)

If this is indeed the trajectory of Gen Z—and likely Gen-Alpha behind them—then it is vital that we reconsider our missiological assumptions, both in face-to-face interactions and in our increasingly digital outreach. While the influence of Islam will undoubtedly continue to mark the worldview of many Ex-Muslim Gen-Zs, we can no longer rely on the same assumptions that guided our engagement with previous generations. There is a growing need for deep, generational research to understand this group more fully. We must listen to the voices of Gen-Z across the globe. As the most globally connected generation yet, they navigate cross-cultural spaces with an intuitive fluency born from lifelong immersion in a digital world.

As Gen-Z Muslims search for meaning in a world of shifting identities and spiritual uncertainty, the Church has an opportunity to meet them with the love, truth, and hope of Jesus. May we be ready to listen, engage, and share the gospel with clarity and compassion in this digital age.
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1.  Aaron Sarver, “Secularism: Muslims Leaving Islam,” Zwemer Center, January 18, 2019, https://www.zwemercenter.com/secularism-muslims-leaving-islam/.
2.  Murat Gezici, “Gezici Araştırma Merkezi Başkanı Murat Gezici Sözcü’ye Açıkladı: Türkiye'nin Kaderi Z Kuşağının Elinde,” Sözcü, May 9, 2023, https://www.sozcu.com.tr/gezici-arastirma-merkezi-baskani-murat-gezici-sozcuye-acikladi-turkiyenin-kaderi-z-kusaginin-elinde-wp5867771.
3.  Aslan, Reza. “Religion Gone Global.” The Immanent Frame, May 27, 2010. Social Science Research Council. https://tif.ssrc.org/2010/05/27/religion-gone-global/
4.  4TImorr. “Reaching Gen Z Muslims: A Gospel-Centered Vision for a Searching Generation.” 4TImorr, accessed May 2, 2025. https://www.4timorr.org/reaching-gen-z-muslims-a-gospel-centered-vision-for-a-searching-generation/.
5.  Adam, Ben. Encountering the World of Post-Islam. Regnum Practitioner Series. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2025.

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Practical, Christ-centered ways to learn, love, listen, and share the gospel with the unreached people already living around you.
​By Aaron Myers
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Last week, I introduced Google Maps as a tool for discovering the unreached people living in your city or region. However, finding the unreached around you is just the first step. We need to find ways to engage these communities with love and gospel witness. Today, I’d like to introduce four principles that will lead to loving engagement as you go out into the harvest—the places you’ve discovered using Google Maps.

Four Principles for Gospel Engagement:
  1. Enter every situation with a posture of learning.
  2. Approach every interaction with an attitude of love.
  3. Default to listening first.
  4. Engage with the gospel through discernment.

Learning
As you go out into the community, be intentional about adopting a posture of learning. One of the greatest kindnesses we can show to new Americans—whether refugees, immigrants, or international students—is to take a genuine interest in their lives and cultures. To do this, you’ll need to reflect on your own preconceived stereotypes and be careful not to make assumptions about the people you meet.

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul spent time exploring Athens, learning about its people and beliefs. He discovered an altar to the “unknown god” and used that cultural reference as a bridge to share the gospel in a way the Athenians would understand. In the same way, we should become cultural detectives, searching for the fingerprints of God in different cultures to understand the deep beliefs, desires, and needs of those we encounter.

Action Steps for Learning:
  • Visit cultural markets, restaurants, and events to build familiarity.
  • Learn a few phrases in their language.
  • Read books or watch documentaries about their home country and culture.
  • Connect with those experienced in cross-cultural engagement.

Love
As you enter the community, approach every interaction with an attitude of love. Everyone you meet is an image bearer, known by God before they were born. Their differences do not change this truth.

One of the top reasons former Muslims cite for leaving Islam and following Christ is the tangible love of a Christian in their lives. If you are wondering how to love well in cross-cultural relationships, consider 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

This passage serves as a rubric for love. When unsure how to act or think in a relationship, return to this list and ask the Lord to help you embody these attitudes and actions.
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Action Steps for Loving:
  • Regularly support their businesses.
  • Offer practical help (transportation, tutoring, navigating life in a new country).
  • Celebrate their cultural festivals and important traditions.​
​

​Listening
One of the best ways to both learn and love is to listen to people’s stories. Everyone has a story, and most long to be heard.

I remember taking a pastor into a Somali-owned restaurant one day. After a wonderful meal and two cups of Somali tea, I asked the owner how he liked living in America. He lifted his shirt to reveal a scar on his belly—a gunshot wound. He then showed us another scar on his leg. He told us how Al-Shabab soldiers attacked his village, killing the adults and taking the young boys and men. He was shot twice and left for dead. But someone found him, cared for him, and helped him get to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. Years later, he was granted refugee status and brought to the U.S.

That had happened over twenty years ago. He went on to tell us about his oldest children, twins, who were in university, and about his businesses—a restaurant and a car dealership. With great emphasis, he told us, “I love America.” His story was far more powerful than I had anticipated when I asked, but it was his story to tell, and I was honored to hear it.

Action Steps for Listening:
  • Ask open-ended questions:
    • What brought you here?
    • What do you miss most about home?
    • What traditions are important to your family?
  • If you hear of a hardship or problem, avoid jumping to solutions. Just listen.

Discernment
I once heard it said that evangelicals are often so eager to share the good news that we rarely take the time to hear a person's bad news first. Yet, when we listen, love well, and learn, we prepare ourselves to partner with the Holy Spirit in discerning how best to plant seeds and share the gospel. When we invest this time, we often find that when a person does come to faith, their discipleship journey has already begun organically.

A friend once told me that in cross-cultural relationships, "It's not until the fifth tea that anything significant happens." He didn’t mean the fifth glass of tea but the fifth occasion of sitting down together over tea and conversation—the fifth time of listening, loving, and learning. The more we listen, love, and learn, the more we will see our prayers answered as natural opportunities to share the gospel arise. If we prayerfully persist in being present, God will show up.

Action Steps for Discernment:
  • As you learn, love, and listen, pray daily for the Holy Spirit to reveal what He is already doing in the lives of those you meet.
  • Take time to do prayer walks around neighborhoods where you meet the unreached in your city.
  • Read the book of Acts, imagining what it would look like in your context.

Crescent Project founder Fouad Masri once said, "90% of Muslim ministry is just showing up." So much of reaching the unreached in our cities is simply a ministry of presence.

Step through the door. Say hello. Ask good questions. And then do it again and again and again.
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One of the biggest reasons Christians hesitate to share their faith—with friends, co-workers, neighbors, or even strangers—is a deep sense of insecurity. Maybe you’ve felt it too. The fear of being unprepared, facing tough questions, or things not going as planned can be paralyzing.

Perhaps you feel unqualified.

But Jesus directly addresses this fear in the Gospels. In Mark 5, He crosses the Sea of Galilee into the Decapolis, where He encounters a demon-possessed man. It’s a dramatic moment—the demons, calling themselves Legion, are cast into a herd of pigs, which rush into the sea and drown. Overwhelmed, the people beg Jesus to leave. And so He does.

But…
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. 
                                                                                           Mark 5:18-20
What does Jesus require for someone to share the good news?

Simply this: that God has done something for you.

The man in this story had no formal training—no seminary degree, no deep theological knowledge, no long-developed prayer life. For much of his existence, he was the outcast, the "crazy demon-possessed guy." But then he met Jesus. And Jesus changed everything.

As a follower of Christ, Jesus has changed everything for you too!

Of course, growing in biblical knowledge and prayer is important, but notice—Jesus didn’t require it before sending this man out. In fact, when the man begs to go with Him, eager to learn more, Jesus says no. Instead, He gives him a mission:

"Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you."

And the man doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t make excuses about his lack of training or experience. He simply obeys. He goes and shares his story—and the people are amazed!
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The next time you feel unqualified or uncertain about what to say, remember this: You have more knowledge, more experience, and more access to Scripture than this man ever did. If God could use someone with his past, He can surely use you.
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When Samuel Zwemer left rural Iowa to sail to Bahrain in 1891 there were few in the Arabian Peninsula who had heard the gospel. His work over the next forty years is seen in many ways as the genesis of missions work among Muslims in the Middle East and Zwemer is now known as the “Apostle to Islam.” He responded to the call of God to take the gospel to the Muslim world by leaving everything in order to live in Bahrain and later, Egypt. He learned the language, he started a literature ministry, he mobilized others to join him and he used every available means to share the gospel with Muslims. At the beginning of the 20th century however, those means were limited to the missionary himself and the printed page.

In Western Christians in Global Missions (2012), Doug Birdsall is quoted saying, “The Great Commission is for every church in every culture in every generation. There are no exclusions. But . . . every church in every culture in every generation must determine the way in which they respond to this responsibility -- in a way that is appropriate to time and context.” Zwemer and his contemporaries were faithful to respond to the great commission in every way they knew how for their time and context. Missionaries like Zwemer have been sent by churches to the unreached places of our world for the last 200 years. They have done and will continue to do amazing work and we see the fruit of their labors all across the globe.

Peggy is another believer from rural Iowa who is sharing the gospel with Muslims. She has not yet learned another language and hasn’t traveled outside the U.S. and yet every Tuesday morning she jumps on a video call with a young university student living in a Muslim majority country. They’ve been reading through a creation to Christ set of stories from the Bible as a way for this young lady to practice English, a language that will open up doors for opportunity for better education and future employment. Peggy is the first true follower of Jesus this young lady has ever met. For the first time in her life she is reading the living and active word of God. For the first time in her life there is a Christian who is praying specifically for her and her family.

Peggy’s ministry, appropriate for her time and context, highlights the increasingly blurred edges of sending versus going. In Zwemer’s day, the missionary went and did their work and their sending churches prayed and supported them but had few other opportunities to connect with the work. Missionary work was literally a world away.

Globalization and innovations in technology have quickly brought our world closer together than ever before. A recent search on a commonly used language exchange app found that over 200 people from Turkey, a country that is 99% Muslim, had logged onto the app in the previous 24 hours looking to connect with a native English speaker. Searches of several other Muslim majority countries resulted in much the same reality. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are actively looking for friendships with native English speakers online. And indeed, they are finding friends. They are connecting with secular humanists and new age spiritualists, radical atheists and run of the mill hedonists. As I lead Embassy, an online outreach for Crescent Project, the focus of our work is to see that more and more of them connect with true followers of Jesus.

Jesus urged his disciples to pray for harvest workers to be thrust out into the harvest fields (Luke 10:2). The church is a slumbering giant, a harvest force that needs to wake up to the fact that every believer can be a part of completing the great commission among the nations. A love of Jesus and an Internet connection are all that is required. A new day is dawning when those who are sending are also going and the lines between sending and going are increasingly blurring.
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“It breaks my heart to see friends step away from the faith, but I know that they will not ​​be dragged back forcefully, so I just try to love them and show my faith through my action toward them.”
- A Gen Z Christian in Mobilizing Gen Z
I don’t want to pick on Gen Z here - this is a sentiment that I hear from every generation. Inevitable, Francis of Assisi will be misquoted, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” It’s an interesting misattribution seeing that Francis is recorded as preaching sermons not only to people, but to the birds and animals as well. It creates a false dichotomy, pitting one aspect of the Christian work of sharing the gospel with another. It’s never words versus deeds. It is always words and deeds.

It is an interesting idea to consider though - the idea that if we just love really well and serve others well, those people will want to know about our faith in Christ. 

But here is a question to ask yourself: 

Do you have friends who are not Christians? Are they Atheists, Muslims, Hindus or others? 

Are some of them not loving, helpful people? The type of people who would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it?  

I have lots of friends like that - some much more service minded than I am - and never once have I thought to myself, “Man, they are really nice. I think I want to learn more about their beliefs about God and maybe become whatever faith they are.”

Why do we think our friends will respond any differently? 

Being nice is not the gospel, it’s part of being human. Everyone can do it and does. When we look back at Jesus and the apostles, at the early church, at Francis of Assisi, they weren’t just nice, helpful people. They were recklessly generous with their money and time and words. Jesus’ three years of ministry were filled with the disruption of broken and sinful people barging into his day with requests for healing and help. He doesn’t seem to have been good at setting healthy boundaries. The first Christians regularly sold their possessions to give to the poor, cared for the sick when others dumped them in the streets and reconciled Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female into one body, the Body of Christ. Read any good biography of St. Francis and you’ll quickly realize that he wasn’t just nice and helpful - he was bonkers for Christ and gave everything, in word and in deed, to serve his King.

Michael Frost, in his book “Surprise the World” suggests that the kind of life that actually catches people’s attention is what he calls ‘questionable lives’. These are the lives of Jesus and the apostles, the first century believers and believers, like Francis, all through history. Frost suggests that “our challenge is to find what similarly questionable lives look like in the twenty-first century.”

So, as we interact with those who don’t believe, if we are going to “just try to love them and show our faith through our actions toward them” we may need to pray about what it looks like to have our love and actions become questionable in their eyes.  Being a normal, good person is not enough.

Yes, we should serve others through our love and actions, but Paul tells us that “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ” (Romans 10:17). He later shares in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 that, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” 

God will do the work but he uses our words as the kindling to start the fires of conversion. This is the example of the Bible.  Jesus, and the disciples who followed him down through the ages, all did good deeds for others but they always spoke. They preached. They called people to repentance and to the truth that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the ultimate reality in the cosmos and the only true way to eternal life. If we are hesitant to share the gospel, we may want to reflect on whether that hesitancy comes from our discipleship under the word of God or if it’s more a reflection of our culture.

The reality is that even talking about sharing our faith as a two part process of words and deeds would probably be a foreign concept to the disciples and early Christians and people like Francis. Jesus saved our whole life and our whole life serves him. So of course we should serve and love and help others. Because Christ lives in us we can do nothing but be the most service orientated and loving and helpful people around. And of course we should take every opportunity to share the good news of Christ - whether we know a person or not, whether we’ve loved and served them or not. Their eternal destiny depends on the seed of the gospel being planted in their heart and that won’t happen if no one shares with them. The number one complaint I hear from former Muslims who came to faith after moving to  America is, “Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?”

So as you consider how to live out the fullness of a word and deed gospel message, I’ll end with this – whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col. 3:17).​
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It was several years ago that I wrote about a ministry tool called the E-Scale. Used mostly in cross-cultural contexts, “The E-Scale helps compare the cultural distances that Christians need to move in order to communicate the gospel with others. E-0 refers to evangelism of church-going Christians. E-1 extends to the very same culture through one barrier, that of “church culture.” E-2 evangelism presses into a close, but still different, culture. E-3 evangelism pushes to very different cultures.”(1)

The basic idea is that the closer a person is culturally to the people they are trying to reach, the fewer the barriers there are to overcome. Sharing with an old high school friend has few barriers for communication. Moving to a Central Asian village presents a profusion of barriers to overcome; language will need to be mastered, worldview will need to be understood, customs, history, and more will need to be learned and applied to the sharing of the gospel. The relative cultural distance in this setting is immense compared to talking with an old high school buddy. On the E-scale, a high school friend is E1 where new acquaintances in Central Asia are an E-3.
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​ Missiologists and missionaries alike have discovered the importance of partnering well with national churches and near culture churches in seeing the Gospel introduced into frontier mission fields. Investing deeply in the discipleship of believers who already know the language or who grew up in a culture that was more similar to the target people group than the western missionaries then becomes an important strategic work in frontier missions by reducing barriers to communication.  Some have called this “near-culture missions” which The East West Center for Missions Research and Development defines as “reaching unreached people groups through sending missionaries from geographically, culturally, and linguistically proximate people groups. This has also been referred to as proximate missions.”(2) The more we can harness the innate skills and gifts of local believers to share the gospel the more often the gospel will be shared clearly and understandably. Near-culture missions is an important strategic opportunity that the global church has been embracing.

Reading a new book, Mobilizing Gen Z: Challenges and Opportunities for the Global Age of Missions by Jolene Erlacher and Katy White, I’ve begun to re-evaluate what it means to be ‘near-culture.(3)” It started with a statement from a training document for Steiger International, a ministry focused on reaching urban youth around the world.(4)
The current urban generation, connected by consumerism, social media and the entertainment industry, forms the largest global culture to ever exist. It spans the globe, sharing the same values, listening to the same music, watching the same movies and sharing the same posts. This global culture is largely influenced by one predominant worldview: Secular Humanism—God is irrelevant and man is at the center. In this relativistic culture, we are god and consumerism is our religion.
Many have called Gen Z digital natives. Born between 1995 and 2010, the first of Gen Z were twelve years old when the iPhone was introduced in 2007.  As a generation, most did not choose to have smartphones, their parents simply bought them for them. Embracing them fully however, they have come and are coming through their teenage years with 24/7 access to the internet and social media. While the mental health results of this has been nothing short of devastating,(5) it is clear that they are more connected globally than any previous generation. It has been said that a ten year old in Omaha could very well have as much in common with a ten year old in Rome or Rio or Riyadh than with their own grandparents.

And so if it is true that Gen Z is the largest global culture to ever exist, then Erlacher and White are on to something important when they say, “Given the trends in shared perspectives and values of young people across cultures, Generation Z possesses a unique opportunity. An understanding of generational views in one cultural context may equip them to engage young people more effectively in other contexts.”  Could Gen Z Christians be near-culture missionaries to Gen Z Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist and atheist Chinese around the world?

I’m not sure they are waiting to find out.

Last year I had a zoom call with a fifteen year old in Dallas who was leading discovery Bible studies with teens from different religious backgrounds from all across the globe on Discord, a social media platform used by the online gamer community. My daughter is connected with friends in France, Turkey and the UAE.

No one mobilized them to go, they were already there. 

For all the challenges that Gen Z faces, I am excited to see where they will lead us in the work of completing the great commission. We certainly need to continue to focus on equipping near-culture Christians living inside the 10/40 window, but might it be that Gen Z believers who are already connected with Gen Z friends inside the unreached nations of the earth will be the next powerful force in kingdom expansion.

​Perhaps we need to focus less on getting them to go as we went, and rather on developing disciples who love God and love others and have a heart for making disciples wherever they are . . . because for many, they are already there.
1.  Missionary statesman Ralph Winter and Bruce Koch wrote “Finishing the Task: The Unreached Peoples Challenge” in which they shared the idea of the E-Scale and how to apply it to missionary strategy. This was published in an eleven page article in the Winter 2002 issue of the International Journal of Frontier Missions.
2.  THE BRIDGES OF GOD: Exploring the Strategic Significance of Near-Cultural Mission. This is an extensive article written by David Bogosian filled with clear definitions and examples from both the Bible and modern day missions efforts.  Accessed Nov. 22, 2023 (http://ewcenter.org/?p=8786).
3. Erlacher, Jolene; White, Katy. Mobilizing Gen Z : Challenges and Opportunities for the Global Age of Missions. William Carey Publishing. Kindle Edition.
4.  Steiger International website, “Is There More?,” downloadable PDF, 9.
5. It is beyond argument that giving pre-teens and teens smart phones and social media right as they are navigating what we all know as the most difficult time of our lives - junior high - has had devastating results on the mental health and overall quality of life for Gen Z.  Jonathan Haidt writes about these issues at his Substack, After Babel.  See also the Varkey Foundations global study of the general health and well being of Gen Z. Through over 20,000 surveys from 20 different countries there is a wealth of information in their report which you can read HERE. 
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In the first few chapters of John an interesting pattern emerges.  The numbers of those following Jesus begins to grow as his followers simply invite their friends, family or, in the case of the woman at the well, entire village to "come and see."

  • They don't invite them to read a book about Jesus.
  • They don't invite the to come to church where someone else - a professional most likely - can tell them about Jesus.
  • They don't try and explain who Jesus is theologically or convince them of their sin.
  • They don't simply focus on doing kind things for the person in hopes that one day they'll be asked why they're so nice.

To be sure, none of those activities are wrong and God uses all of them to help people come to faith - they are simply not the example of Jesus' first followers in the first four chapters of John (John 1:39; 1:41-42; 1:45-46; 4:28-30).

For them, "come and see" was enough.

It seems they knew that if they could just get their friend to spend some time with Jesus - even a cynic like Nathanael - that would be enough.  And Jesus is still enough today.  Like his first followers, we can ask our friends to come and see Jesus by sharing the stories of Jesus from the gospels and by inviting them to read these stories.  

We can do this by inviting them read through one of the gospels with us or we can invite them to into a discovery Bible study using one of several story sets:
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My default has been to invite people to church or to open up deep philosophical conversations with my far from God friends. God has of course used both of these tactics, but increasingly I'm learning (and trying to learn) to default to simply asking them to come and see Jesus for themselves by inviting them to read the gospels with me. 

How about you?  How have you been inviting people to Jesus lately?
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If you have had the opportunity to listen to more than a few testimonies of people who were raised in lostness and came to faith, you have probably started to notice a couple of themes.  One of those themes is the importance of a follower of Christ in their life.  They met a Christian who through word or deed or both had an impact on their journey toward faith.  Another that often comes up is the power of the word of God to bring conviction and give hope.  In reading the Bible, they met a God who loved them enough to send his one an only son to save them from their sin, from fear and shame and from death.

In the scriptures, they met the living God.

With this article, I want to provide tools to help you help your friends begin to explore the Bible and learn from the scriptures themselves. The Bible is both the greatest evangelistic tool that we have as well as the foundation for disciple making.   Story Sets are apowerful tool to help your friends read the Bible.

Story Sets
A story set is a set of Bible stories that focus on a particular topic or theme.  These can be used as a basis for exploring the Bible with your friend. Story sets are most often narrative in nature which allows pre-believers to enter into the story of the Bible and into discussion with you around the character and will of God.  The purpose of story sets is to get people quickly into the scriptures, and to begin to teach them how to read the word of God.

How To Use Story Sets
As you connect with people who are far from God or if you are working with new believers, it will be natural to talk about the things that are important to our lives.  There will be events in life that you will want to celebrate with your friends.  There will be challenges in life that come up for which your friends will be looking for guidance.  You will find yourself talking about the bigger questions of the meaning of life and the nature of God.  Story sets give us a framework for introducing the word of God into these discussions.  

For example, let's say you are having a conversation with a young mother and she says, “I got into parenting before I was ready. Other people make it sound so easy. My mother just laughs. My grandmother says everything will be okay. But I’m trying to raise my kids without a map. Please help.”

You could respond, “I’ve found a lot of guidance for parenting in the word of God.  I’ve been so thankful that God gives us examples of parenting in the Bible.  I wonder if you would like to read some of these stories together and see what we can learn from them.”

You could then find or create a story set and read through a story each time you meet.  Here is an example of a "New Parent" story set:
  1. Preparation: Mary and Joseph become parents - Luke 2:1-20 
  2. Dedication: Jesus presented in the temple - Luke 2:21-40
  3. Expectations: A mother’s high hopes - Matthew 20:20-28
  4. Confrontation: Eli’s failure to restore his sons - 1 Samuel 3:1-21
  5. Consecration: Abraham’s greatest test - Genesis 22:1-19
  6. Celebration: Homecoming party - Luke 15:11-32

This particular story set finishes out by pointing not just to some good examples and lessons for parents, but with the story of Abraham and then the return of the prodigal son.  Like this one, most story sets are evangelistic in nature, giving guidance for life while also pointing to Christ.  One of the most commonly read story sets in the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist world is Creation to Christ, a collection of stories, starting in Genesis, that give a general overview of the story of the whole Bible.  

Choosing The Right Stories
How do we know which story set is the right story set to read with each of my friends? This is a discernment process that begins with prayer.  Pray often for the opportunity to read the Bible with your friend.  Pray for wisdom to know what stories in the Bible are the ones that will meet the felt needs of our friends and meet them where they are at.  Choosing a story set also involves good listening.  If we care about our friends, then we will be asking about their lives and as we get to know them, we’ll begin to hear the issues with which they are struggling.  Then we can create or find an appropriate collection of Bible stories for their particular need.

How To Read The Stories
Isaiah 55:11 says, “When my word goes forth, it shall not return empty or void, but will accomplish the thing for which I sent it.”  This is an amazing promise and it encapsulates why it is so important that we help our friends begin to read the scriptures.  God will do the work!

A process to read the Bible that missionaries around the world are finding to be fruitful is the Discovery Bible Study.  It is a simple process that allows the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to be the main teachers.  You don’t have to have all the answers but can trust that as you read the Bible with your friends, the Holy Spirit will guide them.  It also begins the disciple making journey even before they come to faith as you model with them how to read the word of God and apply its teachings to your lives. 
[Learn more about Discovery Bible Study]

The Discovery Process
 1.  Before you jump into the Bible story, be sure and spend some time connecting with your friend.  How are they doing?  How are their father and mother doing?  How is work going?  Spend time being with them.  Don’t neglect this opportunity to extend hospitality.  Share the week's highs and lows with one another.

2.  Next turn to the passage.  Read the passage aloud with your friend.  Re-read it 3-4 times.  Really!  Re-reading helps ensure that they are actually getting into the passage.

3.  Work together to retell the story in your own words.  Don’t explain or interpret.  Just retell the story.  This provides an opportunity to make sure they are understanding the story and creates an opportunity to hear the story one more time.  It also gives you and your friend practice in telling others the story.  We want to be able to go home and say to a friend or family member, "Let me tell you the story I learned today."  If in the process of your discussion your friend says something that is obviously not in the story, just ask the simple question, “Where do you see that in the passage?”

4.  Next begin to discuss the following discovery questions:
  • Discovery Question #1:  What did you like about this story?  
  • Discovery Question #2:  What does this passage teach us about God or Jesus? (His nature, character, desires, will, etc)
  • Discovery Question #3: What does this passage teach us about Humanity?  (Our nature, character, potential, problems, etc)
  • Discovery Question #4:  How can we apply what we learned in this passage to our lives?

5.  Work together to think about what you can do this week to apply what you have learned in the passage.  It can be helpful to actually write down an “I will . . . “ statement.  

6.  Spend time thinking about other people in your life who you could tell the story to this week.  Ask, “Who can you tell this story to this week?”

7.  Last question -- When can we meet again?  Set a time to connect again and to read the next passage in the story set.


Story Set Collection
The following story sets are for you to use with your friends. Most are story sets that others have created and we have collected to share with you here.  These should give you an idea of how you could create your own story sets to respond to the felt needs of your friends or disciples.

54 Trial DBS Series 
The parenting story set above comes from this great resource.  I'd originally seen this collection of stories on a website which is no longer active.  Thankfully my friend Chuck sent me a copy he received from a friend who was connected with Jerry Trousdale.  This is a collection of 54 stores divided into nine major categories with six sets of six stories each. It is a really amazing resource. You can access this story set HERE.

Creation to Christ - Long Version
Beginning with Genesis, this study examines how God's plan of redemption unfolds throughout the Old Testament. It leaves the reader expectant for the fulfillment of the many prophecies found throughout the scripture.
You can access this story set HERE.

Creation to Christ - Short Version
A modified, shorter version of the original Creation to Christ set. 
You can access this story set HERE.

Stories of Hope 
A series of seven stories that introduce the reader to Jesus. 
You can access this story set HERE.

Signs of John
A series of seven stories that introduce the reader to Jesus. 
You can access this story set HERE.

Learning to Follow Jesus 
A series of stories that allow you to disciple a new believer into the basics of following Christ.  You can access this story set HERE.


Other Story Set Resources

Books for Language Learning

Good Books