HT: What brought you to your current position?

KC: I have attended a Nazarene church since birth, and through the years I have participated in a variety of ways, including short-term mission projects and JESUS Film Harvest Partner trips. I attended a Nazarene college (MidAmerica Nazarene University) as a business major, and toward the end of college, I started working at a local bank.

The book Following Jesus: Prophet, Priest, King, is a compilation of twelve reflections addressing various aspects of following Jesus in the contemporary world. The twelve chapters contained in Following Jesus, each written by a different author, were compiled and edited by Timothy R. Gaines and Kara Lyons-Pardue. Dr. Gaines currently serves as university pastor at Trevecca Community Church and associate professor of religion at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr.

“We all know who you are. I know where you live.” The words of the taxi driver shocked me when he interrupted my directions to home upon entering his cab near downtown Daejon, a provincial city in central South Korea. At that time, there were only a few foreigners living in this city of over a million people.

“We all know who you are. I know where you live.” The words of the taxi driver shocked me when he interrupted my directions to home upon entering his cab near downtown Daejon, a provincial city in central South Korea. At that time, there were only a few foreigners living in this city of over a million people.

God, whose very nature is love, desires to have an intimate love relationship with His people. He wants us to experience the reality of His presence moment by moment in our lives: “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me” (Hosea 6:6, TLB).

We begin to know and love God through personal revelation that comes to us by faith. This dawning of relationship takes place in our lives as we come to the light. Jesus is the Light. When we come to Him, we are enlightened. When we come to Him, we come to truth.

There is no doubt that Paul’s ministry embodied Christ crucified. When Paul describes his mission in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, he makes it clear that his motivation and methods were consistent with the gospel of Christ crucified. It is in the character, the methods, and the conduct of the missionaries, along with the goal of the mission, that we see cruciform nature of Paul’s ministry. For the sake of this reflection, we shall however, limit ourselves to only the character and methods of the ministry.

The Character of the Ministry

“If you want to ask Jesus into your heart tonight, please come forward. Just come forward, and kneel right here in the aisle.”

I was watching the children’s evangelist land the proverbial plane at the end of a camp service.

“If you want to be sure you’re going to heaven, come kneel. I’m going to teach you a simple prayer called “ABC.” We ask Jesus into our hearts, we believe He is Lord, and we confess our sins to Him. That’s all it takes, friends!”

As the Candleholder in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast wraps his arm around the Clock in a comforting gesture, he delightfully sighs, “Ah, to be human again. Think what that means!” Clocks, dishes, wardrobes, and a host of “humanlike” furniture begin to celebrate at such a towering thought. They spin around the halls crying out in a song of redemption, almost bursting with the hope that one person’s curse that has affected them will now be broken by the loving act of another!

As the Candleholder in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast wraps his arm around the Clock in a comforting gesture, he delightfully sighs, “Ah, to be human again. Think what that means!” Clocks, dishes, wardrobes, and a host of “humanlike” furniture begin to celebrate at such a towering thought. They spin around the halls crying out in a song of redemption, almost bursting with the hope that one person’s curse that has affected them will now be broken by the loving act of another!

The day had been exhausting. Jesus, clearly tired due to the physical punishment and the suffering of the terrible night, was taken before Pilate. The governor was accustomed to facing all kinds of people. Everyone bowed before his might. The humble Jew who stood before him was not like others he was used to dealing with. His presence and His story put Pilate's political leadership in jeopardy. The baffled governor asked a question that resonates to this day: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” (Matt. 27:22). This is a question that can not be ignored.