Military Wellness Collective
Military Wellness Collective is made up of four friends — two retired Marines (Joshua and Brian) turned church planters and their wives (Brittany and Kelli)— who have lived life both in uniform and on the home front. Together, we share real stories, hard-earned wisdom, and practical, biblical encouragement to help military members, and their families thrive in every season. Whether you’re navigating deployments, adjusting to life in a new town, or simply seeking hope in the middle of your military journey, our mission is to equip you with truth from God’s Word and tools for a healthy, resilient life.
Military Wellness Collective
EP 6: You can and should share your faith in uniform.
Can Christians share their faith while in uniform? The resounding answer from our veteran hosts is not just "yes," but "you must." This candid conversation dismantles the misconception that military service restricts religious expression, revealing the surprisingly few limitations that actually exist.
Military veterans Joshua and Brian, with over 40 years of combined service, provide practical wisdom for navigating faith conversations in uniform. Rather than starting with assumptions about restrictions, they encourage believers to assume freedom to share their faith while using wisdom about when and how. The military's unique "hurry up and wait" culture creates natural opportunities for meaningful conversations about life's biggest questions.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is the balance between boldness and wisdom. The hosts address how Christians can avoid becoming the "morality police" while still living distinctively. Simple choices, like different language patterns or the willingness to confess mistakes, speak volumes in military environments where such behaviors are uncommon.
Perhaps most encouraging is the recognition that faithful witness may not show immediate results. Joshua shares a powerful story of a former Marine who contacted him after 20 years to share how witnessing Joshua's faith journey ultimately led him to become a pastor—proving that seeds planted during military service can bear fruit decades later.
Whether you're actively serving, a veteran, or simply interested in faith conversations in challenging environments, this episode offers practical insights for sharing your faith with wisdom, respect, and genuine love. What conversations might God be preparing you for today?
SHOW NOTES:
1. The Bible, read through the Gospels and get familiar with sharing YOUR story!
4. Amazon.com : finding common ground book
http://instagram.com/militarywellnesscollective
Hey y'all. I'm Brittany. I'm going to be today's host and I'm joined by Joshua and Brian, and we're going to talk about sharing the gospel in uniform and what that looks like, and both of these men had full military careers and you heard their testimonies on the last episode.
Speaker 2:if you didn't catch, that I had a partial military career.
Speaker 1:Well, but reserve is still military, don't discount it. Ten active eight reserve equals 20. Yes, and Joshua did 20 years active duty. So we're going to just jump right in, and I want to start off this episode by simply asking this Can you share the gospel in your workplace while you're in uniform?
Speaker 3:Short answer yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Tell me more about it. What does that look like? Long answer yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes. All right, not only can you, but as a Christian, you have an obligation to and a commission to from Jesus, and so commissioned to from Jesus, and so we must do it Now. There is wisdom in how and when and in what settings, and there are a few settings where it would be. There's a lot of settings where it'd be unwise, there's ways in which we do it that's unwise, and there are very, very, very, very few settings that it's illegal or against the UCMJ to do so.
Speaker 2:What I would like, the mindset I want to jump in with, is assume you can share the gospel anywhere and everywhere and do so in the most wise way that you can figure out with the Lord and good counsel and everything else, and then think about okay, where are the places where I can't? Like? Start with 100%? I can do it everywhere, anywhere, and then go down from there. I'm concerned that a lot of people say I'm not allowed to, so they kind of start at zero and they work their way up from there. Let's start at 100 and work our way down.
Speaker 1:Which is interesting.
Speaker 3:you say that because that would feed into our fleshly tendency to be complacent and apathetic and almost give us an excuse to say well, this is uncomfortable, that I'm a Christian, and especially in a realm for you guys in uniform where there's not a lot of christians around you statistically there's very, very few yes, that's interesting that you say that and there's a lot of people in the military, a lot of people in the government workforce, in state, county, federal level, that all think that there's this separation of church and state and you're not allowed to do it because it's considered proselytizing or whatever and you can get in trouble for it. And what you just said, brian, is the absolute truth. Though you are allowed to, it is encouraged, it is a good and right thing to do. There is a time and a place where it's wise to. There is a time and a place where it's wise to, and there are very, very few instances where it falls into a no, you can't do it in this way.
Speaker 3:And we get all this training in the military about different ways of living in the workplace and doing certain things. One of them is like sexual harassment, sexual assault, and there's this, there's this category of like hey, how, how do you know when too far is too far, and? And there's this, there's this gauge and there's this. There's this video or explanation out there of like a cup of tea and like this is how this works, and all these things out there about, about when it's okay and when it's not okay to do certain things and that breaks down kind of similarly to presenting the gospel.
Speaker 3:When it gets to a point where the person you're talking to says, hey, I don't want to hear about this. If you bring this up again to me, it just makes me feel like all of those things, then you stop and then you don't do it anymore. But all the way up until that point it's okay, good and right to do. But there's some other circumstances, command-wise and leadership-wise, where it's not a whether or not you can, it's whether or not you should.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's wisdom in that, so there are ways to go about it. We certainly cannot. Maybe we talk about some of the cannots.
Speaker 2:So, you're in charge of people, However you know, two people, a thousand people, 10,000 people, whatever it is. You cannot say, all right, the plan of the day today is to go to my church and hear the preacher. You can't do that and you should not do that. What you can do is offer. You could say, hey guys, I'm going to church over here this weekend. You're welcome to join me if you'd like. Or hey, chaplain Bob over there is gonna have a thing and I'm gonna go to it. Like you can do that. You can have things. It's honestly best if there's multiple things going on and you can invite people to join you and also highlight a couple other things that are going on. And so we do well to do that and find ways to sprinkle in gospel truth in everything we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's interesting because sometimes, when we think of sharing the gospel, we think we have to come at people and you might not have a close relationship with this person yet and you just like spew out you're a sinner. If you died, you're going to go to hell. You're a sinner, if you died, you're going to go to hell. You need to repent and accept Jesus, okay. Well, what does that mean? You have never shown me that. I believe. Y'all, in uniform, just like in any other place, you need to be living out the gospel so that when you speak the gospel, it's received well.
Speaker 3:Does that make sense? Would you agree with that? I don't remember who said it, but it was something to the effect of always be proclaiming the gospel and sometimes use words that kind of a.
Speaker 1:Thing.
Speaker 3:So living it out is definitely a good and right thing to do for people to see, but also, like a lot of times Before, you, leave the example.
Speaker 2:So live a godly example, live a godly life. You're not going to do it perfectly, but live a godly life. I fly a fair amount and I always know where the gate is, that I'm coming back to Jacksonville, North Carolina, coming back to Camp Lejeune because 80% of the people on that flight are going to be Marines. Back to Camp Lejeune because 80% of the people on that flight are going to be Marines and when I hang out with them and near them, I literally I'm like man. A Christian would stick out like a sore thumb in this group right now in a good way.
Speaker 2:And so that godly example is an absolute, like people will start to ask questions and or try to peer pressure you into doing things like no man, I'm not going to do that. Why not man?
Speaker 3:And then you can proclaim yeah, and in that godly example you're going to mess up. And if I just want to, if I can encourage anybody out there, being a godly example being around people doesn't mean you have to be perfect, Okay, Right other. Being a godly example being around people doesn't mean you have to be perfect Okay, and not if you mess up but, when you mess up. Even in that mess up, whatever it is, is an opportunity for you to proclaim Christ in your repentance of that.
Speaker 3:Because I think people seeing somebody being real and then the reaction to oh man, I screwed up. And then the turning from that, the repenting of it and how you proclaim through that is even more of a testimony sometimes than just being this like high and mighty perfect guy.
Speaker 2:Right. Don't act like you have everything all together and you never make mistakes. Part of what I'm talking about with a godly example includes confessing when we sin against somebody which is so crazy and that never happens in the military.
Speaker 1:My friend.
Speaker 2:Andrew was just telling a story. He had to go and confess. I forget exactly what had happened not important but he confessed and asked forgiveness from both a peer and a boss of his in uniform. And just hey, I was wrong, I shouldn't have done that. I'm asking your forgiveness. He did that in uniform to his fellow Marines and his boss. It was such a cool story.
Speaker 1:And that goes a long way with people who don't believe Like. As believers, we're supposed to be confessing our sins one to another and seeking forgiveness, and when you do that to someone who, that is not a normal thing. The world does not teach that it's like this is my way I did this. You know it does speak the gospel to them. What were you going to say?
Speaker 3:babe, I was just going to say that the proclaiming the gospel also, it's not just oh Jesus is death, burial and resurrection.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:You're also talking about real things every day in the military, and whether it's in an office or you're out in a motor pool or you're out shooting guns or whatever topics come up, and I don't know if many of you know this, but in the military there's this common saying of hurry up and wait. You're hurrying up a lot and then you're just waiting a lot, right being on a gun line waiting for the next fire mission. A lot of times we're just on standby and we're just waiting and we have some real. I mean, when you're just sitting there in the middle of the field no electronics, no anything to like keep you occupied, you're just laying around waiting for the next thing you can get into some deep conversations about all sorts of different topics and it's in all of those different topics of biblical Christian worldview that come out. Those are the topics that get people curious about Christianity.
Speaker 2:And on the gun line, there's no off-limits conversations.
Speaker 2:Oh, no when you're talking about that we're sitting around waiting for the word, we're waiting for a fire mission, we're waiting to get on a plane. There's so much waiting in the military, and you're almost always waiting with other people. You're standing on post, you're doing all those things, and there's no off limits conversations. There's no. You know, thou shalt not talk about politics and sex and religion. No, no, no. Those are generally the three things that get talked about as much as anything else, and so we. The Bible speaks into all three of those realms, and so we do well to speak truth.
Speaker 1:There's a good starting point Speak truth according to God's word which you would have to know, god's word, so you have to be immersed in it yourself. Okay, sorry, just throwing that in there.
Speaker 3:We just keep bumping into that. We just keep bumping into the Bible for yourself. It's almost like the. Bible is God's word and it's important Right.
Speaker 2:So speak truth, find opportunities to speak truth into situations you talk about proselytizing. That one always makes me laugh because they're like well, you're not allowed to proselytize which. There's a word like what in the world do we mean? Try to get somebody to believe what I believe. People are doing that literally all the time. Like literally all the time. Alcoholics want me to become an alcoholic. People who are promiscuous sexually they want me to affirm them and do similarly. People who are Republicans want me to be Republican and yell and scream about it. And people who are Democrats want me to be a Democrat and yell and scream about it. And so, like everybody, democrats want me to be a Democrat and yell and scream about it, and so, like everybody's trying to do that.
Speaker 2:And so it's just weird that Christians are the only ones that listen to that and are like oh, we're not allowed to do anything Like stop.
Speaker 3:Stop. But it's also weird that in the military we think we can't do that Right, when the military spends how much money on chaplains and like this and like these pillars of of health, spiritual fitness, and there's there's physical fitness, and then there's emotional fitness, and then there's spiritual fitness, like or yeah, yeah, and there's, there's all these pillars that like get taught in the military that they spend all this time and money doing and it's like, well, wait a minute, we can actually talk about this.
Speaker 2:Do you know why they did that? Do you know why? Because it's real. Well, because we're veterans now and you think active duty military is a dangerous occupation. Being a veteran is a more dangerous occupation, statistically being a veteran is a more dangerous occupation.
Speaker 2:Statistically, we have joblessness, homelessness, suicide, suicide being the more serious one and the dangerous one. And so the military does studies on how do we stop active duty and veteran suicide. And they did this study and they found out that if you attend a faith gathering on a regular basis any like, if you are actively practicing your faith by going to a gathering that's a Christian church, that's a Roman Catholic church, that's a synagogue, jewish synagogue, that's a Mormons, that's like any, any gathering at all you are 82% less likely to take your own life. And so they're like we got to do something about this spiritual fitness thing. They're also realizing like we need a moral and ethical force and so there's got to be some sort of foundation to this thing. And so they're kind of being a little bit responsive and reactive with.
Speaker 2:This is my assessment of why the government does some of this kind of stuff. But they're doing it because it's true Like we need moral, ethical people serving in the military. So let's talk about biblical ethics, let's talk about biblical morality it is the source of truth and let's invite people to church. You're saving lives. Invite people to church and save a life.
Speaker 1:I love that. So what we've established is you can talk about it right, we are hijacking.
Speaker 2:I wanted to go into it. No, this is fantastic.
Speaker 1:You have established very clearly. So if you're listening to this and you're buying into the propaganda of I can't share my faith, or you're using it as an excuse, I want to encourage you. No, you have a responsibility to the gospel and I just want to challenge you. Do you love Jesus? Because if you do, you talk about things you love. It shouldn't be this planned out. I have to share the gospel with my fellow military members. I have to share the gospel with my fellow military members. Now, I've never served, but I have watched Joshua do this in uniform and just in general life. Talk about things you love. If you have to conjure up a way to talk about it, I would encourage you to be in the word and prayer more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it should come from the overflow not from you trying to gem up something within and listen, my first three years on active duty I was not talking about my faith, and one of the main reasons I wasn't was because I kept falling back into sins and I wasn't doing the work of mortifying those sins and I was being carried along kind of back to Ephesians 2 that we talked about in the last episode. I was following the course of the world, I was following my own flesh and that silenced me with the gospel, and so what we need to do is also be serious about killing sin, and that generally will start to open our mouths up. Not that we're going to get perfect, but kill sin and open your mouth, and those things really work in tandem really well.
Speaker 1:So have either of you ever wanted to share the gospel and it been in a restricted area. And how do you handle that? So you're in a situation that somebody is sinning and you want to confront that, or does that make sense? What I'm asking, so we've talked about you can do this, you can do this, I know we talked about there are places you should do this.
Speaker 1:What do you do when you can do this? You can do this. I know we talked about there are places you should do this. What do you do when you can't Like if it is one of?
Speaker 3:those can't zones. How do you reconcile that with the command to share the gospel? And now I can't. There was a few years ago. They came out with this thing called the strategic corporal. I don't know if you remember this and basically the idea was okay, you have a squad that's in the middle of this village and you have a riot of people coming down one street towards you and down the other street, the other cross street, you have this like force that's starting to attack and you can see them forming and coming forward towards you, and then on the opposite side, you have peaceful civilians doing something, peaceful like doing whatever, and it's kind of this all right, you have all of these things. How do you handle all of those different situations and how do you do it? Well, and it came down to this like moral and ethical dilemma. Right, you know some people would show up there and just be like, yeah, well, there's an attack going on, they could all be doing it, so just shoot them, all you know.
Speaker 1:And it's like whoa, whoa no, no, that's not the right thing to do as a civilian I'm thankful, and then others would would like pull back all the way.
Speaker 3:Others would just say, and the whole point was hey, you need to adjust what you're doing and how you're doing it to what's happening down each of these streets. And the question always came up well, why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, why is your way right and my way is not right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, why, yeah, why is your way right and my way is not right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And just in the short, time I say short time, 20 years that I have been in the, the, the moral and ethical dilemmas that we run into that are very real, not just here in the united states but across the world. They get more and more complex and our society seems to get more. There's more gray areas and like excuses for things and and the, the moral fabric as it erodes, you have more and more corporals in that situation that are going to make the wrong decisions because they don't have a moral framework that they're working off of. So I'd say all that to say, giving those classes talking in those classes, being in those classes, it's very hard not to. Hey, you can mention like hey, I'm coming from a Christian worldview, okay, here's where I see these topics. Right, and there's others in the room that aren't coming from a Christian worldview. Okay, here's where I see these topics.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And there's others in the room that aren't coming from a Christian worldview and it's like, okay, the Christian worldview actually goes along with what our government's worldview is and yours is not. And there's this like this interesting conversation that happens but it can't be. You know, christian versus non-Christian. In these conversations You're trying to convince everybody and get them on the same page as far as their morals and ethics. So in those classroom settings of discussing those things it does get a little sticky.
Speaker 1:So you're not saying so. Even when it is restricted, or what you would view as a restricted area, there is always a way, then to bring your Christian worldview into it. You have the freedom to do that in every situation.
Speaker 3:Not in every situation, but I can bring it up. I just can't use it. So it's kind of like if you're in an argument or a debate, you can't use the position of authority and use scripture if the person you're talking to doesn't see that as a position of authority. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can use testimony.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Like you saying, I'm coming at this from a Christian worldview and I'm coming from a biblical ethic like we can do that.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:We can share testimony, we can speak truth, but it will not be the trump card Right. It will not be. This is going to win the argument Right. So, like in our churches, hopefully, a right understanding and interpretation of the scripture is the trump card right. Well, god said, therefore, this is what we do. That doesn't work, obviously, in the military. So we have to be compelling with our truth. We have to be wise as serpent, innocent as doves. We have to be shrewd about it sometimes, but speak truth and find and this is where we have to we talked about this at the end of last episode renewing our minds. We have to get smart about these things. We have to get smart about these topics. There's some great biblical ethics conversations as well.
Speaker 1:So I love what I'm hearing both of you saying. What I'm taking away from this from an outside perspective is there really is no restriction. It's how you're presenting it. If you're using a testimony, like you're saying biblical world, like, hey guys, I'm coming from this perspective and in that moment you're not trying to persuade somebody, but you did just plant a seed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the restriction is is you can't go hey squad if you're a corporal leading a squad. We're going to do it this way because this is the Christian way to do it.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, that makes sense. That's what I'm trying to get to. To me, it's a how.
Speaker 2:There's never a no, it's a how you do it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So that's got to be the calculus we're going through. It's not binary, it's not like this is a yes or this is a no, as far as bringing my faith into it. I'm a Christian.
Speaker 1:I can't not bring my faith into the room with me. It's who I am. I love that. So Elizabeth Elliot always said being a Christian does not make me or what did she say? Being a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian. Being a Christian makes me a different kind of a woman, and so I feel as that could be applied to this uniform. Talk to you like, what does life look like in the uniform Makes me a different kind of a woman, and so I feel as that could be applied to this uniform.
Speaker 3:Talk to you like what does life look?
Speaker 2:like in the uniform.
Speaker 1:It makes you a different kind of Marine and that impacts and changes everything. Like Brian said, you can't separate it. So I love what y'all are saying here. That question can we do this? The answer simply is yes, and you should be, if you love Jesus. He commanded you to take the gospel to these places. He commanded you to take the gospel to these places.
Speaker 2:Here's the most difficult on this topic for me it was for me so early on in my life in the military it was I was falling back into sin, I was following the course of the world and so that was silencing me. But as I started to be more and more vocal and find, okay, this is what I'm supposed to be doing Now, how do I do it in this situation? In this situation, and obnoxious, and not understanding the wisdom and the prudence and the thinking through how I need to go about it, so they became like morality police, like instead of speaking biblical truth in love, they were the morality police. You know you really shouldn't say that. I'd rather you not say that around me. What are you talking about? Like that's crazy. We don't need to police everyone up. Instead, like speak the truth. That's why testimony is really powerful. To say this is who I am and then to just love other people where they are not. Don't say that word around me. You could, if you have the opportunity, you could leave if they're saying a word that makes you uncomfortable for whatever reason, or you could build up your strength and courage and speak into those situations.
Speaker 2:And so I had a couple situations where there was someone who was claiming to be a Christian and being extremely unloving, and extremely yeah, unloving is the best word I can come up with. They were just being really unloving towards their fellow Marines, soldiers, service members. I was in a Marine soldier mixed area at the time the most egregious that I was seeing and that was challenging, and I tried to bring it up to the brother and he just wanted nothing to hear about. All he had in his mind was boldness. All he had in his mind was boldness. I got to be bold, you got to be more bold. What are you doing? I'm like got it. I hear boldness. I don't think I'm being a coward in this. It's there's. There's a wisdom, there's a wise of serpents.
Speaker 1:I just yeah, I think it's really important to remember. We had a older pastor always tell us you cannot expect lost people to act saved. So if you're trying to apply your morality to them and they don't have the Holy Spirit, apologetics would teach us to remove the obstacle for them. Help them remove their obstacle, not try to make them morally comply. That is not a transformation of the heart and that is not what we're after when we're sharing the gospel you had similar examples to what Brian had, except when you're in authority. Yes.
Speaker 2:And it is against the laws that are in place at that time, then you do.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You do. You know, if someone is stealing from the government and you're in authority over them, then you do that, but that's also a law too.
Speaker 1:right Like that aligns with biblical truth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're living in the world, not of the world, so you're separate, but you're also not expecting the world to become like you. You're going to pray for them, you're going to love them, but you're going to be in the world with them. This is so just one small example of where this really causes Christ to stand out is in our language and how we speak to people and how we lovingly walk through things and being in the military. Sometimes you have to be firm, but doing that in a way that is also showing your heart in it. And not just that, but like the words we use in the military, there's a lot of cussing going on. There's a whole lot of four-letter words being thrown around like crazy.
Speaker 3:As a matter of fact, I think the Marine Corps prides itself sometimes on inventive swearing and like coming up with all sorts of ridiculous things to say and to have that one person in a squad or a company or a unit that doesn't participate in that doesn't hate on them for it, but it doesn't like rebuke everybody, like you were saying, being the morality police but doesn't participate in it speaks so loudly to that unit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how Peter denied Christ was with his language. So in the military, if you simply change your language, you're affirming Jesus and not participating in the denial that might be taking that a little out of context, but I see that very clearly.
Speaker 2:No, it's a shame that we've gotten this far in two episodes about the gospel and not said the gospel is good news, right. So we've been using the word as though everybody knows what it means. Gospel literally means good news, the news. You're right, we do need biblical example, but we also have to speak Like try to watch the news where you can't see the little words at the bottom and you can't hear it.
Speaker 2:It's nonsensical, you're just seeing things right, and so at some point, we have to open our mouths and we have to speak, and we have to speak the truth in love.
Speaker 1:So I find this fascinating because in our years in the military and watching Joshua do this and preach the gospel, you know, not all the time do you see the fruit of the harvest, and so I want to encourage you, military service members you might not see the harvest You're going to move in a few years, but you're planting seeds that someone else is watering and the harvest may come. And we just had a really cool picture of this a couple months ago from Joshua's first duty station, our first four years in, when they were going back and forth to Iraq. Can you just share that story really quick before we close this off?
Speaker 2:So 20 years ago? Yes, literally 20 years ago, 20 years ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was just really cool and I just want to encourage you guys with this story that when you plant seeds, praise God. We got to see this, but how it just encourages me. How many more seeds were out there that when we get to heaven we're going to see. So be faithful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so 20 years ago I was in my first unit and we had deployed a few times to to Iraq and and there was a there was a couple of guys in that unit that that I remember interacting with multiple times and just we did a lot of life together because we were in the field. When we weren't in the field, we were training and we weren't training outside or in in the different camps, we were deployed together.
Speaker 1:You were at war together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I spent more time with some of these guys my first four or five years in the Marine Corps than I did with my family and my wife for sure.
Speaker 1:We did the math one time, for sure.
Speaker 3:And I had no idea the impact on some of them. But just this past year there were some videos that went around for the Annie Armstrong Easter offering.
Speaker 1:Which is part of the North American Mission Board.
Speaker 3:And they filmed some things from our church and it went out to a whole bunch of different places. And I had a guy reach out to me from middle of the country and he was like he reached out and said, hey, it's so, and so you remember me. We served together back 20 years ago. And I was like, wow, I do remember that. And he, he, I reached out to him, he sent me his number and he me on one of those videos, reached out and I reached back out and he was like man, seeing you live in those first couple of years after you became a Christian, it sparked some things in me that caused me to return to the faith essentially. And now he's a pastor up in one of the one of these churches in the in the middle of the country and, man, how encouraging it was to to see a little glimpse of. Oh okay, so you may not see what's happening in people's hearts and minds, but God might be working on them in miraculous ways that you don't, you don't know about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just really encouraged by him reaching out because they I remembered bringing him to church a few times- he knew Joshua before he was a Christian.
Speaker 1:So, like Brian has mentioned your testimony and your story, he also saw the transformation in Joshua's life and then heard the gospel came. I thought he's just a wild worldly. Marine Didn't really think much about him for the next 15 years, you know, until we get this email and he's like praise God, I'm married, I have four kids, I'm a youth pastor. Like I was like, oh my goodness, you know. So be encouraged. Those seeds you're scattering, you don't know what's going to happen with them. You are called to sow them. So be faithful, real quick. Any resources that we want to leave these people with that we're going to drop in the show notes that we want to leave our friends with. Do you have any resources that would be helpful for this?
Speaker 2:Read the Bible for yourself. We keep running into that one. I would encourage you learn how to share your testimony, learn how to explain the gospel through testimony and learn where some of those gospel passages are in the scriptures, so Ephesians 2, romans 5, the whole first 11 chapters of Romans. So I'm just going to go there and I want to be able to explain the gospel in lots of different ways using the Bible. If people are saved from the word of God, they're going to keep going back to the well of the word of God, and so I just want to push there, yeah.
Speaker 3:I have two book recommendations and honestly, I only know one of the authors. So first one is Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. So first one is evangelism and the sovereignty of God. Ji Packer really helps with understanding this back and forth of okay, so if God is the one saving, what's my part in this? That kind of like working through that? Well, and the other one is a book called Tactics. I don't remember who's the author.
Speaker 1:I'll put it in the show notes.
Speaker 3:On the cover. There's like a chess piece. Who's?
Speaker 2:the author.
Speaker 3:I'll put it in the show notes. On the cover there's like a chess piece and he does a really good job at talking about hey look, you may be the one sowing or dropping the seeds, but you may not see the fruit of it. He talks about putting a pebble in someone's shoe, and the way in which you do that is you just give them something interesting to think about, to get a compelling thought towards Scripture, towards God, so that when they leave that pebble in their shoe, they keep thinking about it until they address it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one other book is you were talking Finding Common Ground Really interesting book. It's peculiar, not real popular in some ways, but it's just about workplace. Evangelism is really what it's about.
Speaker 1:It's really good If you are listening to this and you're asking yourself well, what is the gospel? I think I've believed it, but I need to understand more clearly. Paul Washer wrote a great book called the Gospel of Jesus Christ and just really points back to the books of the gospel and the scripture and really just illuminates and shows what the gospel is so well. As always, we're going to drop these resources down in the show notes. If you have questions, reach out.
Speaker 2:We'd love to hear from you. In episode five we described the gospel and shared our testimony.
Speaker 1:Yes, so go back and listen to episode five if you haven't. We love you guys, until next time.