Outside the Lines of Tradition

But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
–Acts 11:20

My mentor Dr. Howard Hendricks wrote a book titled Color Outside the Lines: A Revolutionary Approach to Creative Leadership. In it, he said, “Ministry has never been more demanding or more determinative than it is today. . . . The Christian community in the Western world needs a larger corps of leaders who model creativity in every aspect of service for the Savior.”

I couldn’t agree more. We saw examples of this creativity during the pandemic. Many churches embraced technology and found creative solutions to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The early church didn’t have modern technology, but they were willing to operate in ways that weren’t conventional. In Acts 11, we see that the Christians in Antioch colored outside the lines of tradition to reach people with the gospel.

Remember that after Stephen’s death, God used persecution to scatter the church so the gospel could be planted throughout the world. Some believers took the message of Christ to Antioch, the third-largest city in the Roman Empire. Antioch was an idolatrous, pagan city. But verse 19 says the Jewish Christians who went there preached only to their fellow Jews. They were still bound up in their prejudice against non-Jews. It’s not that they didn’t believe Gentiles could be saved, but they didn’t want to have any part of it.

In verse 20, we see a shift: “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.” We don’t know the names of these men who were willing to buck tradition and bring Gentiles into the church in Antioch. But God knows their names, and He blessed their efforts. Verse 21 says, “The hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.” Because the men from Cyprus and Cyrene were willing to color outside the lines of tradition, the body of believers in Antioch began to grow. These unnamed men did not receive lasting fame or recognition on earth, but their actions echoed in eternity.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Coloring Outside the Lines,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2022.

Howard G. Hendricks, Color Outside the Lines: A Revolutionary Approach to Creative Leadership (Word, 1998), 189.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.