Yesterday for worship I snuck into the sparsely populated balcony of my church and sat with the folks who hope no one notices they are there. Many of them are simply late for service. But some of them are checking out church for the first time and don’t want to be seen.

One of these was the young man who sat a few seats down from me. He came in late and tentatively looked around. With a simple “excuse me” as he scooted by, he found a chair comfortably away from everyone else.

If I needed any confirmation this was his first time at our church, it came 20 minutes into the service. I passed the offering plate to him, and he looked at it blankly. He flipped it upside down and examined its underside. Then he looked up at me with the same expression I have when I'm trying to figure out complicated math.

He was lost. Maybe in more ways than one.

In my daily walk with God, I strive to read the Bible, pray and serve others to the best of my ability. That expresses itself in assisting people on work projects, holding doors open for strangers and even trying to share a kind word.

And those are good things. But this morning I fear that they’re not enough.

In an increasingly biblically illiterate society, being polite isn’t enough. It’s getting harder for people to connect the dots of service back to God because many people have no experience with God or the Bible.

When non-Christians see people of faith living lifestyles of service, they may be intrigued. But they may be left looking at it like the young man with the offering plate. We must be willing to take the next step.

We must be willing to share the gospel verbally. We must say the name of Christ. We must tell people that we live differently because we serve a God who loves people in a wonderfully radical way.

Are you willing to share the good news this week?

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” -Romans 1:16