For the next four weeks we are going to focus on the core business of the church called "evangelism." The word itself turns off a lot of good people, but it is interesting that the business world is now making use of that term in describing roles various executives exercise. It is my hope that in the next four weeks we will all develop a new appreciation for evangelism through some things that perhaps you never read or seen or heard before. The paradigm that I hope we will rediscover together is that evangelism can be as simple as taking a walk across a room. That's something that all of us can do. With a little help and a little guidance and some very inten-tional living all of us can do that. And if we all would do the small thing that we can do as a church, we certainly would touch a lot more lives.

As people who are trying to be fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ that's exactly what we want to do. We want to touch the lives of people that we know; people that we love; people who are living lives farther from God than they want to be. And The Single Greatest Gift that Christ followers can give to the people that are around them is to help them get closer to the God who created them, who loves them, and, who has a purpose for their life. When you boil it all down, that's what evangelism amounts to-constantly watching for ways to give this Single Greatest Gift to someone living far from God.

To be the gift-bearer in someone else's life begins with our openness to being used by God. When you are open to being used by God, do you know what happens? God uses you! I hope that's your desire-to be utterly used up by God! And the first step in getting useable to God is to be willing to remove ourselves from our "Circles of Comfort" and to stretch out a hand to a person we are in touch with who needs the hope and the help that we can extend. This is what it will take in order for us to give The Single Greatest Gift to someone that we know. Are we willing to leave our "Circles of Comfort" and enter what Bill Hybels calls "The Zone of the Unknown?"

Have you ever been there-in "The Zone of the Unknown?"

It's in "The Zone of the Unknown" where God often does His best work. It's in "The Zone of the Unknown" where we strike up conversations that have the potential to literally change peoples' lives. Are you willing to take a few steps across a room and reach out and introduce yourself and find out the name of the person who is standing all alone? Christianity is full of stories where that has taken place, and that simple act of kindness has set in motion the process that impacts an individual's destiny, and perhaps even that of their family forever.

Bill Hybels writes in his book, "The day Christ followers like you and me stop taking walks across rooms in this manner, the day we stay glued to our ‘Circles of Comfort,' refuse to make the walk, refuse to enter ‘The Zone of the Unknown'-the day Christ followers like you and me stop doing that sort of stuff, it's lights out for the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is the beginning of the end of redemptive history. It's the slow defeat of the church-the bride of Christ. It's the end of the dream of Christ that people on earth would come to know Him."

I hope you will hear this today loud and clear:  One of the top priorities of the Holy Spirit is to turn every single person here, every single Christ follower here, into a "Walk Across the Room" kind of person. Everyone!

Regardless of your age, regardless of your gender, regardless of color, your personality type, your spiritual gifts, your experience in Kingdom building up to this point...if you are a living, breathing Christ follower, the Spirit is asking you to walk. Whether it's at work, school or in social settings, at the gym, at our kid's basketball games, in the midst of our crazy schedules, wherever you are, whenever, will you simply take the risk of leaving your "Circle of Comfort" and enter into that "Zone of the Unknown?" Because that's where you're going to be able to bestow The Single Greatest Gift on someone living far from God.

But there's more, because unless you have some supernatural power on your side, those encounters can be empty and meaningless. In order for us to be effective in "The Zone of the Unknown," we must be led by the Spirit. We must listen to the Spirit's promptings every step of the way.

Being "Walk Across the Room People," means that we walk when the Spirit tells us to walk, and we don't walk when the Spirit says not to walk.

Now I know what I am saying is making some of you extremely uncomfortable. This is way out of your "Circle of Comfort" and you need to know what I'm talking about is sometimes uncomfortable for me, too. There is an anxiety about moving out of our "Circle of Comfort." But I want to remind you when you are living in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, when there is vitality and openness in our spirits to the promptings of His Spirit, good things will happen. Some of you have already experienced this first hand. If you have, I think you will agree with what I am saying.

As Christ followers take walks across rooms, as they explore "The Zone of the Unknown," as they have initial conversations with people whose eternities are hanging in the balance, as they strain to hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as they frantically try to figure out what it all means-that's what Christian life is about. That's living a spiritual life at the highest level!

And why do this? Because of the walk Jesus took for you. Jesus left the ultimate "Circle of Comfort," heaven itself, and He took the longest walk a person could ever take, all the way across the cosmos to reach out His redemptive hand to people like you and me so that we could have our relationship with God restored, to live with Him forever. He took a walk across the cosmos, not only so that we could be redeemed but also so we could see how it's done. And in these days, right here in our every day lives, what He tries to do with us between now and the time we join Him in heaven is to teach us that what He did, leaving that circle, making that trip and reaching out to you, is precisely what He wants you to do. Jesus put it this way.  He said, "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you!"  In so many words He is saying, "I want My followers to be ‘Walk Across the Room' kinds of people. Following My lead and doing exactly what I did, whenever I give them the opportunity to do it." And You don't have to worry about any prepared speeches; you don't have to try to motivate by guilt or obligation; you can cast all that stuff aside and just take the hand of the Holy Spirit and walk. If you stay open with an eye focused on people and an ear tuned to His small voice, you'll be amazed by what unfolds.

God is saying to each one of us today:  "I'm going to ask you to walk across the street; I'm going to ask you to walk across the restaurant; I'm going to ask you to walk across the office; I'm going to ask you to walk across the cafeteria, or a locker room. I'm going to ask you to take that walk, to leave whatever "Circle of Comfort" you are in and take the walk, enter the unknown, and something really exciting is going to happen...but I need you to walk!"

The Single Greatest Gift that you and I can give a human being is in helping them get closer to the Savior who declared that His mission was to find every person who was lost and bring them home...and you know what? He established the church to call and enlist us in doing just that!

So in these four weeks, we are going to talk very, very practically about how to excuse ourselves from a "Circle of Comfort" in order to be willing to 1). Enter the "Zone of the Unknown," We are going to learn to 2) listen to the Spirit's promptings as we look across whatever room that we are in and open our eyes, and open our ears, and discern if there is someone on the other side of that room that we ought to be paying attention to. And then 3)we'll just walk across that room. We're going to talk about how to pray and what to pray...we're going to learn how to talk normally with people who need a normal Christian to talk to them in a normal way, without sounding "churchy," without having a superiority complex, without droning on and on about things that they don't yet appreciate; and as we do this together, we will discover how God uses us to help point the way.

I want to give you a few personal guarantees:

• 1. We're all going to grow in our relationship to Christ.
• 2. We're going to grow in our relationship to each other.
• 3. We're going to get better at pointing people to faith.
• 4. We're going to have a great time doing it.

I hope you'll stay with us and I hope you'll be a part of one our small groups. Don't miss this opportunity to link up with other people who will be exploring this adventure in community instead of in isolation. You'll find these groups to be approachable, insightful, practical, and extremely encouraging. And I want to express my appreciation to the author of the materials we are using, Pastor Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois.

Jesus has said, "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you!"  And it all begins with a willingness to "Just Walk Across the Room."  Amen!