This Moment in Time
By Pastor Warner
“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the King; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer”
Here we go, once again, as “my heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the King; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer” (Psalm 45:1).
The Hebrew word the psalmist uses for stirred in this verse conveys the thought of stirring the contents of a cooking vessel or pot similar to a saucepan. He says his emotions are being stirred up and moved about in a noble theme for the King. We might ask ourselves, What’s cooking?!
So, let me tell you what’s cooking at Door Church this year, as we pursue our theme for 2026: Bringing the Good News. This is the noble theme that is stirring my heart – and it’s much more than Pastor Warner simply having an excitable personality.
I’m sure that back in the very earliest days, as people saw me holding forth to a handful of people in a dumpy old building about touching the world for Jesus, they may have thought, Well, he certainly is a positive young man! But let me assure you that this theme is not about gimmickry or marketing.
My sincere desire is to echo the message proclaimed by the risen Lord Jesus to every one of the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Those messages were specifically crafted for each church and were addressed to the “angel of the church,” which most scholars agree refers to the pastor or elder of the church.
As each new year approaches, my practice as pastor (shepherd-leader) is to seek God for a sound, biblically-based focus; to hear “what the Spirit says to the churches” and adopt a theme that will serve as a reference point for our faith moving forward.
Notice, the message from the Spirit is directed to the churches (plural). The objective scriptural truth that emerges must relate to all churches, yet maintain particular emphasis as touching our local church in 2026. Bringing the Good News emerged from 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul’s admonition to his son in the faith, Timothy, to “do the work of an evangelist.”
“Here we see the very nature of the Gospel: euaggelion, the Good News – or better still, the greatest news the world has ever had!”
Here we see the very nature of the Gospel: euaggelion, the Good News – or better still, the greatest news the world has ever had! “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Robert J. Morgan said, “The world around us offers us nothing but bad news. You and I need the Good News that will never stop being good news! It is authentic, anticipated, and centered around Jesus. It is the news that will never stop being good news. And it’s the Good News we need in this weary and war-torn world.”
And this Good News is forever joined at the hip with the work of bringing that news to others. “Do the work of an evangelist.” Not the office of an evangelist; not an itinerant preacher traveling from place to place; but the work incumbent upon every believer: “Work at telling others the Good News.”
Telling others the Good News isn’t weird. It isn’t being religious, It is the natural outgrowth of tasting God’s goodness. You want to tell others! The noun becomes a verb: euaggelistḗs!
Like the song says, Let’s talk about Jesus more and more!
The words of the missionary C.T. Studd have always resonated in me: Some men want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. He captures here the essence of his conversion story and his life as a missionary. The Christian life is more than ecclesiastical comfort and convenience. It is for the purpose of sharing the Gospel with others!
For my wife Mona and me, it wasn’t complicated. The whole incentive for us coming to Tucson, Arizona was to take the truth and reality of Jesus Christ – the fire of revival that we were saved in – and transport that life to Tucson to replicate it. By God’s grace, this vision has been built into the DNA of our church’s life, growth, and impact over the last fifty-three years.
First and foremost, the heartbeat has always been the power of personal evangelism.
Let me simplify this: I’m talking about the art of sharing the Gospel naturally in everyday life and conversation.
The Institute for American Church Growth surveyed over 10,000 people to ask the question: “What was responsible for your coming to Christ and this church?” The IACG reported that 79% answered: a friend or relative invited me.
Far more than a simple study on church growth, this statistic highlights the hinge of destiny in so many people’s lives. Someone invited them to church. Someone brought them to the Good News.
Since this is an article rather than a sermon, I will distill my three points down to two important considerations.
Staying on Mission
“The Gospel is not nice spiritual advice, it is NEWS!”
When Paul wrote to Timothy Do the work of an evangelist, it was his spiritual father telling him, “Don’t forget to work at telling others the Good News.” You can hear him saying, “My son, stay on mission.” Here is something you can build your life around, and it’s always best to start young.
Yes, there is a mission. The Church doesn’t exist to sing songs, choreograph Sunday worship experiences, and give motivational TED talks. The Church exists on this earth to live out a new allegiance to King Jesus, exalt His name, bear His mission, and equip its members to serve – with the ultimate aim of always proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel.
Jesus said we are salt and we are light. Both are terms of influence. Isaiah 52:7 makes this observation: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news; who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
The Gospel is not nice spiritual advice, it is NEWS! The Hebrew equivalent is the word basar, which has a military context. It describes a messenger who returns from the battle with news of victory. We are sent to proclaim the announcement that King Messiah has won! The Cross of Christ and His empty tomb are trophies of triumph – and we get to tell others that the victory over sin and death has been won!
The Gospel has always needed a vehicle. Paul asks in Romans 10:14: “How can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?” I am genuinely encouraged by the number of people in our congregation who are responding to Christ’s call to duty. They are employing their lives, their gifts, their influence, and their voices to bring the Good News.
Throughout the Scriptures, I find that this mission of bringing the Good News has always been the saving instinct in the heart of every Christ follower. Repeatedly, a genuine encounter with Jesus moved people to share that experience with others. Whether on the first Christmas when the shepherds became the first evangelists, or at the empty tomb, where the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus were the women who came there before daybreak to anoint His body for burial. He is not here, He is risen! the angels told them. They invited them to come and see, and then go and tell.
Just imagine the demoniac of Gadara who had been delivered from a legion of demons. Mark tells us that as Jesus was preparing to leave, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. Jesus redirected this instinct and told him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (Mark 5:19-21).
The woman at the well in Samaria, who had finally found soul-quenching satisfaction in her encounter with Jesus the Living Water, left her water pot and went into the city to tell others, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
It was this dynamic that built our church. John’s gospel begins with these dominoes dropping: “One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus” (John 1:40-42).
That sequence has continued to occur over and over for decades, and it is still our mission today.
Recently, Randy Hunter passed away after a four-year battle with blood cancer. His wife, Patty, recounted to me that Randy was persuaded that God could heal him; but above all, he wanted God to use him. So throughout the multiple doctor and hospital visits, chemotherapy and transfusions, he thinking was, “Okay, there must be someone here that God wants me to talk to about Jesus.” The priority of Jesus conversations continued for Randy right up to the final stages of that disease. His determined desire was to get out of the hospital and go home, because he knew there were people he had to talk to.
Staying on mission is priority because we’re all prone to what is called mission drift. Augustine described sinful human nature as homo incurvatas in se (life turned in on itself): hearts that without God are bent toward the god named Ego.
Solomon prayed that God would incline our hearts to Himself, or bend our hearts like a bow outward toward God and His will. I pray this for myself continuously since I know that left to myself, without the Holy Spirit’s influence, my heart drifts from God’s ways.
The same is true with any church. Years ago John Holland, who was the district supervisor for the Foursquare Gospel Church, and a friend, told me what he perceived over years of church oversight.
He said that it takes seven years for the average church’s focus and function to turn inward on itself. I can’t verify his timeline, but I can say with conviction that an evangelistic focus at the forefront of a church’s life is something that must be fought for and maintained.
James Emery White verifies this when he says, “So let’s be clear. The church is in decline because we are turned inward instead of outward. Our hearts are not breaking for what breaks the heart of God, which is people facing a Christless eternity. And sadly, only a simple ‘invite’ is all that is often needed: ‘Come and see, come and hear, come and explore.’”
Bringing the Good News is a reminder that we can become so focused on church life (which is a good thing) that we can end up losing our evangelistic edge.
The Gospel Needs a Voice
“Christianity in the 21st century doesn’t have a marketing problem. We have a sales force problem. We don’t believe in our product enough to share it with others.”
There is the constant tension between social action and humanitarian endeavors and Gospel proclamation. The world needs both, but those good works are not complete by themselves. They need a voice attached to them.
For many years, I heard a lot about “lifestyle evangelism,” meaning that if you just show people Jesus by how you live and by your overall happiness, then they will want what you have.
Listen: I get it. Certainly, I must show people Jesus by the way I live, and by God’s grace, I have been trying to be this kind of authentic witness for all of my Christian life. But not once in all those years have I had anyone come running to me asking, What is it about your life that is so different, because I sure need some of it!
I’m not going to quit living out my faith, but I’m just saying you need to put some words to it at some point.
The Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6 makes this plain: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
Then, it demands that we diligently teach these words to our children. How? “You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up” (verse 5). Whatever time it is, morning or evening, and wherever you go, at home in your house, or out and about, it will present numerous opportunities to talk about Jesus. So, be on the lookout for divine appointments, and be intentional about Jesus conversations.
This introduces one of my heroes in the Bible. She is the unnamed young servant girl to the wife of the Syrian general, Naaman. The Bible tells us Naaman was a leader who had great acclaim in his home country, “but he was a leper.” He was afflicted with a vile disease for which there was no cure. This terrible curse was reversed because one day the young girl who served his wife gave voice to the faith that was in her heart: “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3).
I love this witness because the girl didn’t give her mistress a lengthy apologetic, but a heartfelt invitation. Let’s face it, the reason we still struggle and have a hard time sharing our faith is fear, yes. But often it’s the simple awkwardness of How do I go from talking about sports, culture, and the Arizona Wildcats to… Jesus? J. Warner Wallace in his book, Cold Case Christianity, calls this the fear of the first sentence. Once we get past this, everything becomes easier. You don’t have to have an outgoing personality. Learn some simple helps, develop some ice breakers, learn how to ask targeted questions.
Divine potential and supernatural power are often wedded to human instrumentality. The clearest declaration of this reality is given to Christ’s ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:20: “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’”
The wonder of it all is that the God who is not willing that any should perish is actually making His appeal through you and me – pleading with souls to come back to God. What a wonder! Heaven’s invitation coming through common human beings who belong to Jesus Christ.
My heart is stirred with this noble theme. We need to contend for a culture of invitation to be created and sustained in our churches.
Phil Cooke recently asked in his newsletter, When was the last time you invited someone to church?
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit does not operate in a vacuum, he noted, but works with those who seek to bring the Good News. He highlighted that in a secular culture, it is easy to think most nonbelievers are indifferent, or even hostile, to the idea of attending church. But new research reported in Relevant Magazine indicates that 80% of non-churchgoers say they would attend if invited.
From this evidence Cooke extrapolated, “Christianity in the 21st century doesn’t have a marketing problem. We have a sales force problem. We don’t believe in our product enough to share it with others.”
This seems to suggest we need to do a major rebalance of our lives.
We look up in worship. We look in at wellbeing. We look out in witness. The first two take up the majority of the emphasis in the modern church today, despite what our Mission Statement may say.
“Rebalance your spiritual portfolio, my brother and sister. Make your determination and insert your name in the blank: “_______, work at telling others the Good News in 2026!””
This reminds me of the conversation Evangelist J. John had with Matt Redman, his friend and a well-known worship leader.
“Hey, Matt, when we get to heaven, are we going to worship for eternity?”
“Yes,” said Matt. “That’s what we’re going to do.”
“Matt, are we going to be able to evangelize when we get to heaven?”
“No,” said Matt. “We won’t be able to do that.”
“Well,” J. John concluded, “if we can’t evangelize in heaven, but we’re going to worship for eternity in heaven, why don’t we do a little bit less worship down here?”
Rebalance your spiritual portfolio, my brother and sister. Make your determination and insert your name in the blank: “_______, work at telling others the Good News in 2026!”