Whatever the reason, as pastors and church leaders, we cannot allow ourselves to be content with the hesitancy our people have to share their hope in Jesus. It wasn’t just to leaders that Peter wrote, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” He wrote these words to encourage all believers to talk about the hope they have in Jesus and to be ready to explain it.

I for one am grateful that God has put it on the heart of our district leadership for Eastern PA to be all about “developing kingdom workers for increasing Gospel impact.” I am especially excited that one of the areas we focus on with that development is relationships!

When I have the opportunity to talk about our district’s vision, it usually comes with two responses. The first is, “Wow! That sounds great. It would be amazing to see churches grab a hold of that.” With that first response there is usually a visible excitement in people’s faces, but often that excitement fades a bit when they get to the second response. It usually comes in the form of a question, “How are you planning to pull that off?”

That is truly the big question. A culture of development sounds wonderful, but how do you create that kind of culture?