I Need to Know More People with True Joy

Faith Alexa Hansen is a 19-year-old student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center studying nursing. Raised in McCook, NE, she was taught to keep Jesus the most important priority in her life. After high school, Faith moved to Omaha for school where she knew almost no one.  

She started attending Christ Community Church with her sister and went for about two years without making any significant relational connections. A friend from Lincoln suggested that Faith get connected with CCC’s college ministry, 8:08 College Community. Her friend helped connect Faith to Jake Peterson, a Resident working with 8:08. Jake connected Faith to myself, Emily, where we quickly formed a friendship. 

Faith and I met for coffee one day at a Scooters. Faith was gleaming when she heard I just wanted to get to know her and did not have any other agenda. It seemed unfamiliar to her for someone to simply desire a relationship so out of the blue. 

As Faith shared her story with me, it became pretty evident that she had a growing desire to know Jesus more intimately. She was yearning to know more about the power of the Gospel and how it brings JOY rather than momentary happiness that she had become accustomed to before. For Faith, this looked like complete reliance on Jesus for joy and understanding rather than finding fleeting happiness in her circumstances or herself. 

Although Faith grew up knowing Jesus’ name, she had never experienced the community of people who loved Jesus. When Faith started coming to 8:08, she immediately grew an affection for the community. She noticed how everyone she met was so intentional with the questions they asked and that made her feel at home. She realized this type of community was lacking in her life! 

However, as Faith continued to come to 8:08 each week, I noticed that she would wait for me in the parking lot so she wouldn’t have to walk in by herself. (We’ve all been there!) Even though Faith loved coming to 8:08, she still played it safe by waiting for me. That all changed after Faith went with 8:08 to a conference in Kentucky over winter break called Cross for the Nations. While there, Faith got to know a lot of other guys and girls in 8:08, and those friendships have only continued to grow throughout the spring semester. Now, Faith has made it her goal to help other students, who may feel intimidated at first, feel the depth of the community that she has found within 8:08.

After she returned from Cross Conference, Faith began serving in 8:08 on Thursday nights. She has learned how to read her Bible and how to serve others, whether it is at school or work. Next year, she has applied to be a student leader! This summer, Faith is joining 12 other 8:08 students who are going to San Diego, CA, for a summer mission trip. During the 10-weeks she will be living in San Diego, Faith is excited to continue to learn about what it means to love Jesus and others out of an abundance of joy. Overall, God has grown Faith so much since she started coming to 8:08, and she knows this is only the beginning. 

Faith shared that her favorite thing about being in 8:08 is the relationships with other people. “I would mentally be living life simply content. Not joy-filled.” Faith has learned that her true and lasting joy comes from Jesus alone! Joy is what Faith knew she needed when she first began coming to 8:08. When I first met Faith, she told me, “I just really feel like I need to know more people with true joy in their lives.” God has done so much in her life since then, and she excitedly declared, “Now I feel the abundance of grace, joy, peace, and have a constant desire to be selfless. It is easy to understand where the term ‘radiant joy’ comes from now!”

For Faith, she has experienced this joy by obtaining a deeper dependence on the Bible. When she began to read the Bible on a daily basis, she noticed a change in the way she treated others (with more patience) and the way she reacted to hard times (with eagerness to see God’s hand). Isaiah 61:10 says “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.” Faith has found great delight in Jesus, for he is her source of joy. 

Faith credits all of her growth in the past year to God’s relentless pursuit of her life. If she had not taken a step of faith and said ‘yes’ to getting coffee with me or agreed to go to Cross Conference, Faith would not have been able to experience the joy of being fully known by other believers. 

Romans 8:26 says “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us…” As Faith continues in her relationship with Jesus, she puts her trust in the Holy Spirit for guidance. She relies on the Spirit to guide her every day. I am beyond grateful that God has blessed me with the friendship I now have with Faith! And, I am so excited to watch her continue her relationship with Jesus and other believers. 

—Written by Emily Bledsoe

Let’s Make Evangelism Not Scary

Evangelism. WHOA, that’s all I had to say, and I know I probably just lost half of you. In our culture, evangelism has many negative connotations. But before you abandon this blog post to go look at cute puppy videos because “evangelism isn’t for you” or you’re “bored because you know all there is to know about evangelism,” I’d ask you to stop right there and observe your initial reactions to that word. Did your heart rate increase? Did feelings of rejections and a memory of a failed evangelistic conversation come to mind? I’d encourage you to process those feelings and thoughts further with God. What’s beneath your boredom or angst when it comes to evangelism?

What is evangelism?

In its most basic form, the English word evangelism is taken from the Greek word euaggelion, which means either (n) gospel, good news or (v) announce good news. For example, I could literally evangelize or “announce good news” about the delicious pizza from Tasty Pizza that I had for dinner last Friday.

The actual good news that we are talking about in regard to Christian evangelism is: God is loving and personal, so he created humans to have a relationship with him. However, humans chose to rebel against God. This lead to the corruption of sin within our lives and throughout our world. Jesus Christ, humbled himself and became human; he lived the perfect life that we were unable to live and took the punishment for our rebellion upon himself on the cross. When he rose again from the grave, he defeated sin and death, thus restoring the possibility for humans to have a relationship with God. This means that we can respond by repenting of sin and choosing to place our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! This is GOOD NEWS!

Why practice evangelism?

My assumption is that if you are a Christian, the Good News of Jesus Christ has probably changed your life. SO evangelism is simply declaring who Jesus is and what he has done! Jesus’s last words before his ascension to heaven were to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). We practice evangelism because the Good News of Jesus Christ is too good to keep to ourselves.

A study by Barna found that 96% of Christian Millennials agreed that part of their faith means being a witness about Jesus. 94% of Christian Millennials agreed that the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus Christ. But strikingly HALF of Christian Millennials (47%) said that it is wrong to share their own personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith. How can the Christians that said “the best thing is knowing Jesus Christ” be the same Christians that said it is wrong to share their faith? Where does this disparity lie?

President of Barna David Kinnaman says, “The data shows enormous ambivalence among Millennials, in particular, about the calling to share their faith with others. Cultivating deep, steady, resilient Christian conviction is difficult in a world of ‘you do you’ and ‘don’t criticize anyone’s life choices’ and emotivism, the feelings-first priority that our culture makes a way of life.”

At the root of all of this, it is clear that Christians do not simply have a behavior problem of not evangelizing. Christians have a belief problem. Do you believe that humans are eternal beings? Do you believe in the reality of hell? Do you believe that time on earth is short? Do you believe that Jesus died for the classmate sitting next to you in your chemistry class? Do you believe Jesus longs for a relationship with your brother who is currently running away from his faith? Do you believe that the gospel truly is GOOD NEWS? If you’re still not convinced that evangelism is for you, then I’d challenge you to spend some time with God yourself and answer these questions. Don’t just give the “churched, Sunday-school” answer, but honestly answer them for yourself.

“And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? [...] As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15).

What keeps Christians from practicing evangelism?

I want to dig deeper with you and look into some of the common lies and fears that hold us back from engaging in evangelism.

“What if someone asks me a question that I don’t have an answer to?”  

That’s perfectly okay! One of the best responses to people’s hard questions is to say, “I don’t know, but I’d love to keep asking that question with you and find the answer.” In a way, this response is full of humility and allows people to see that you are just another human being with limited understanding like them. This answer also normalizes the pattern of asking questions and seeking truth. Whatever you do, don’t make up an answer. Not knowing is okay!

“It’s not as easy for me to talk to people as it is for others.”

One of my favorite passages on evangelism is 1 Corinthians 2:1-4,

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Paul, the great evangelist, confesses his inadequacies in speaking, but Paul sees that as a good thing because that meant that his message was not dependent on his charisma, but on the power of God! The same God who was working in and through Paul is now at work in and through your life.

“People don’t want to talk about God.”

I was under the assumption that people just didn’t want to talk about religion or what they believed. When I started sharing my faith with my friends and sorority sisters, I could not have been more wrong! People are so open to talking about the purpose of life, what they believe, who God is, and so on. The truth is people often want to talk about this stuff, they just don’t have anyone to talk to about it. If someone came up to you and asked you what you believed in a non-threatening way, would you respond negatively or positively?

“I don’t want people to dislike me.”

Personally, this one was my biggest fear. I struggle with people pleasing, so the possibility of a person disliking me after an evangelistic conversation was terrifying. I was struggling with two things. First, I worshipped other people’s approval more than God. Second, if my identity truly was in Christ, then why was I trying to hide the most significant thing that defined who I was. I began praying that God would change my heart. Galatians 1:10 became my prayer, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

How can Christians engage in evangelism?

To follow up with the list of common fears and lies, I want to provide you with a few resources that are accessible to you as a Christian.

Curiosity

The first one may surprise you, but one of the best evangelism tools is our God-given ability as humans to be curious. As part of our innate humanness, we have been given the ability to wonder. In his book God Space, Doug Pollock explains, “In the land of wonder, we give up the notion that we need to have all the answers, We return to a humble mind-set in which asking, seeking, and knocking are normal. Wondering helps us move into spiritual conversations authentically by eliminating canned or awkward transitions.”

Here are some key questions that are helpful when talking with friends, classmates, etc. to make the conversation “go there.”

“Hey _____, I know we’ve been friends/roommates/classmates for a while, but I’ve been wondering, what do you believe? Did you grow up having any religious or spiritual faith?

“I’ve noticed you mention that you feel like some things are missing from your life right now. I was wondering if you’ve found something capable of filling those voids?”

Your story

Another great evangelism tool is your story. Even though it is subjective in nature and no one’s story is the same, nobody can deny your personal witness of what God has done in your life. As much as the Pharisees tried, no one could deny the blind man’s testimony of Jesus Christ, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). It is important to have a current example of how Jesus is changing your life - whether big or small. The gospel isn’t just about what happened when you first became a Christian, it’s also about what God is doing in your life right now! We get to share how the Good News of Jesus Christ is impacting our lives in our current reality TODAY!

Resources for sharing the Gospel

When it comes to the practicalities of sharing the gospel, there are a few resources I’d love to recommend.

First, it is important to never look past the pure goodness of Scripture. Ephesians 2:1-10 is a great passage to walk someone through to explain the gospel.

There are also a couple of great apps that you can download onto your phone:

The Big Story is an app developed by James Choung, an InterVarsity staff. The Big Story explains the gospel of the kingdom by asking engaging questions and drawing illustrations.

God Tools is a resource developed by Cru. On this app, there are a variety of interactive dialogues including ‘Knowing God Personally’ (a basic presentation of the gospel), ‘Honor Restored’ (a presentation of the gospel for people from honor-shame cultures like Asia), and ‘Satisfied?’ (a presentation on the Holy Spirit for those who claim to be Christian).

Power of the Holy Spirit

The last but certainly not the least is the Holy Spirit who dwells within all of us who are in Christ. Evangelism is way less about us and way more about God’s Spirit working through us.

To conclude this blog, I want to remind you that the definition of ‘successful evangelism’ is taking a step of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to announce the Good News of Jesus Christ and leaving the results up to God.

Alive in Christ

Meet Kyle Doerr, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Kyle loves Jesus and is committed to reading and studying his Bible. He regularly and prayerfully yields himself to the leading of the Holy Spirit and confesses his sin and responds in repentance and faith. He immerses himself in the family of God and has gospel-centered, Christ-exalting relationships with men and women. Kyle is burdened for lost people, both locally and globally, who don’t know the everlasting joy of salvation in Christ. Kyle is following and becoming more like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.

However, Kyle has not always been this man. It wasn’t long ago that Kyle was wandering and lost without a purpose and identity, and chiefly, without Jesus. Kyle grew up in a Christian home. He attended a local church, listened to sermons, sang songs about God, and closed his eyes and bowed his head. On the surface, like many Nebraskans, he lived the good life. He didn’t have much to worry about, didn’t fear about tomorrow, was an exceptional athlete in high school, was a good student, and had a semblance of faith in a higher power. 

For all of Kyle’s goodness and success, there was something tragically wrong. He was without hope in the eyes of God. He didn’t trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to free him from the penalty and power of sin and grant him new life. He was oblivious, indifferent, spiritually dead, and bound for a Christless eternity. However, God looked upon Kyle and delighted in him. He chose him, sought him, and saved him. 

In the winter of 2017, Kyle reached a low point. “I had gone through a difficult breakup, felt a sense of worthlessness and emptiness, and knew I needed something more than myself. Something much bigger than me.” He reached out to his friend Morgan, who recommended Christ Community Church. Morgan connected him with Adam, an 8:08 College Ministry student leader. Adam connected with Kyle and they went to dinner and then a UNO hockey game. A friendship was born, woven by God’s sovereign grace. Despite all their similarities, Kyle noticed that he and Adam were fundamentally different. He shared, “Adam had a massive desire to chase after Jesus, while I didn’t.”

Adam invited Kyle to meet other students in the 8:08 College Community, where he was immersed in unfamiliar territory. He saw Christian students who lived as though they weren’t the most important person in their story. These students considered themselves as secondary characters in their own stories and God as the main character. Their lives showed that they trusted and delighted in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer and King. This was peculiar, but irresistible. Kyle didn’t run away, but rather found himself hungry to know more. 

When I met Kyle after a Thursday night college worship gathering, I sensed an eagerness and anticipation in him. He was slowly but surely responding to the work of the Spirit in his heart. I could tell by his demeanor he wasn’t afraid to talk about God, engage in a real conversation about faith, and be honest. His hard heart was being softened, the scales were falling from his eyes. We later met in March 2018 at a coffeehouse, shared our stories, and found common ground. After some time, I asked Kyle what I ask every college student I meet. I asked him what every Christ-following, God-fearing, Spirit-filled believer should ask the people they form a relationship with: “My life has been changed by Jesus Christ—can I tell you why?” 

I will never forget what happened next. I was reminded that my calling to proclaim grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is not dependent upon my goodness or sin, my charisma or stammering, my persuasiveness, my appearance, or my intellect. I proceeded to share what mankind has regarded as foolishness for thousands of years, but what God has regarded as wisdom and truth and salvation forevermore! I shared the good news with Kyle. Author and pastor Timothy Keller summed it up this way: “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” After two hours of conversation, I invited Kyle to respond in faith to the free gift of grace extended to him in the finished work of Jesus. 

Kyle’s response was nothing short of miraculous: “In that very moment, my heart was screaming nothing but to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and lay down my life for him. On that very afternoon, I prayed to God and surrendered my life to him. This was the greatest decision I have ever made in my entire life and I truly believe this is the best decision anybody can make in their entire life.” 

After much rejoicing in his new life, Kyle experienced the struggles of sin, the trials of life, relationships,  and academic performance which attempted to steal his joy. Shame and guilt were pervasive in his heart, and the default condition of Midwestern religiosity set back in. Kyle’s faith was tested and he was tempted to return to a church-attending, song-singing, head-bowing, good-feeling faith where he didn’t need constant rescuing, he was basically good if he tried hard, and God was “a little closer” than before, none of which solved his problem of spiritual death.

By his grace, God faithfully and gently ministered to Kyle’s heart in this season. He shared, “It is indescribable in words, but I realized the sufficiency of Scripture. I trusted two passages specifically. Ephesians 2:4–5 says, ‘But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.’ Titus 3:4–6 says, ‘But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.’ God has encouraged me abundantly through his Word in these passages. I’ve realized that Christianity is not people who make bad decisions making better ones. It’s not ‘bad’ people becoming ‘good’ people, or morally questionable people becoming morally flawless. No—Christianity is about God bringing dead people to life through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

Kyle Doerr was brought to life in Jesus Christ. To publicly declare his new life, he was baptized on November 25, 2018. His desires, plans, and worldview are completely different, and this is not because he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and took religion a little more seriously, but because he has been reborn, redeemed, and adopted by the King of Kings. To God be the glory!

Thank you, Christ Community Church, for your love, generosity, prayer, and participation in seeing 8:08 College Community obey the Great Commission here in Omaha.

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Glenn Lawson is the College Pastor at Christ Community Church

For more info about CCC's 8:08 College Ministry, visit cccomaha.org/college or follow 8:08 on social media @808CCC.

If you've recently committed your life to Christ, or if you've never been baptized as an adult, learn more about baptism or sign up to get baptized at cccomaha.org/baptism.