How many faith traditions are you familiar with? Have you noticed that many countries and regions have a dominant faith? Even if you never visit those areas, you may encounter individuals who are members of that faith. Does it seem to you that people practicing their faith as individuals in a minority follow their faith more graciously than when they have majority power? How do you think your faith looks to them? Would they see the same principle in effect concerning Christianity? I have commissioned you to preach the gospel message to every creature.

Do you have a “graduate degree” in Christianity? Many believers take their faith seriously enough that they make a diligent study of it over a period of many years; more years than they spent in formal education. This is worthwhile and admirable. Have you noticed that academics speak to each other in terminology that the layman doesn’t understand? One risk of the increase of knowledge is that it makes your faith inaccessible to outsiders. Don’t assume that they are familiar with the terminology that you are so accustomed to.

Are you familiar with the passage that says you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? It is easy to memorize and just think of it in terms of your whole being, but you can also unpack each item. To love God with all your heart and soul addresses the passionate aspect without which love cannot exist, and these are mentioned first for a reason. Yet your mind is also involved in the full expression of love, and you can practice your faith with intellectual rigor, but there is still another part. Love is not content to be idle and passive.

When you partake of communion, what passage of scripture is most commonly used? Are you accustomed to hearing, do this in remembrance of me, or so let a man examine himself? These are valid and applicable to the situation. What about except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you shall have no life in you? This is just as pertinent and applicable but rarely used because it is so offensive to human sensibilities. My own disciples were offended and some of them quit following me but others remained because I had the words of life.