July: Prayer, Fasting, and Evangelism Month
Theme: “Ready to Witness”
Sermon Series: “Ready to Witness”
Texts: 1 Peter 3:15, Acts 17:22-31, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Sermon #1: Ready to Witness Through a Three-fold Plan
Text: 1 Peter 3:15
SCI: Don’t Defend Your Faith to Win Arguments--Defend Your Faith to Win Converts
Billboard: Be Ready to Share Your Faith!
Sermon #2: Ready to Witness Through Bridge Building
Text: Acts 17:22-31
SCI: Tearing People Down Is Not Witnessing—Building Bridges to People Is Witnessing
Billboard: Build Bridges to Share the Gospel!
Sermon #3: Ready to Witness Through Divine Truth
Text: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
SCI: Divine Weapons of Truth Can Bring Down Mental Walls of Lies
Billboard: Witness Through Divine Truth!
Sermon #4: Ready to Witness Through the Power of God
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
SCI: We Don’t Witness Through Brilliance—We Witness Through Dependence
Billboard: Witness Through Dependence!
Each Sermon Central Idea is developed in the form of an indicative.
Each Billboard is developed in the form of an imperative.
Sermon Series Overview and Outline
Prepared by Pastor Trevor Crenshaw for July 5, 2026 – July 31, 2026
All outlines are subject to divine adjustment.
Helpful Quotes
C.S. Lewis: “To be ignorant and simple now — not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground — would be to throw down our weapons, and betray our uneducated brethren who have no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”
Timothy Keller: “You must listen to the world’s answers well enough to be able to show how Christianity fulfills the longings that the world’s answers cannot fulfill.”
R.C. Sproul: “Defending the faith to the best of our ability is not a luxury or an intellectual hobby. It is a task appointed to all Christians.”
Alister McGrath: “Apologetics is not about winning arguments. It is about clearing the ground so that the cross of Christ can be seen clearly, without obstruction.”
Charles Spurgeon: “A man’s life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take both together, and they match, then they give a double blow to the enemy.”
D.L. Moody: “Out of a hundred men, one will read the Bible; the ninety-nine will read the Christian.”
Lesslie Newbigin: “The congregation is the only hermeneutic—the only reliable interpreter—of the gospel. If the church is not a community that embodies the gospel, no one will believe the message.”
Dallas Willard: “The first and most important thing we can do for others is to be a person who is living in the presence and power of God.”
Francis Schaeffer: “If we treat people as machines, we destroy them. We must treat them as individuals made in the image of God. An intellectual argument without tears is not a Christian argument.”
Rebecca Manley Pippert: “We don’t need to be brilliant or aggressively pushy. We just need to care enough about people to ask good questions, listen well, and speak honestly about what Jesus has done for us.”
Michael Ramsden: “The goal of a conversation about faith is not to win an argument, but to leave the door open for another conversation tomorrow.”
John Stott: “We must not only preach the gospel with our lips, but we must also manifest its power in our lives. Our witness must be marked by the humility of Christ, not the arrogance of the world.”