The King of kings and Lord of lords, with every supernatural power at his disposal, said his disciples should go into the whole wide world and convert all nations to Christianity. It would be a monumental undertaking. And he put just one tool in their toolbox: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). He didn’t say legislate people into the kingdom of God or bribe them into it or argue with them about it or scare the hell out of them. He said go and teach. That is the power he gave us. He gave us the incredible power to teach the whole counsel of God as he revealed it to us in the Bible.

That is still the church’s purpose in the world. To teach everything Jesus did and said via everything we do and say. Everything about us teaches: from the clarity of our message to the tone in our voices, to the looks on our faces, to the forms we follow, to the demographic makeup of our gatherings. Everything we do sends a message to all nations about our take on the Savior.

Here is the good news: What we teach people about us-and-Jesus tends to stick with them. Here is the bad news: What we teach people about us-and-Jesus tends to stick with them. The question of reckoning is, “What do we want to stick with people about us-and-Jesus?” That is what we should teach.