“I don’t know what to say.”

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard those words.

Not from new Christians. From lifelong ones.

The people who share these words are often the very people every congregation depends on. They’ve worshipped faithfully for decades, chaired committees, taught Sunday School, cooked meals, visited the sick, and quietly kept the church going. But when the conversation turns to talking about JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More outside the walls of the church, many feel completely unprepared.

That isn’t a failure of faith. It invites an honest question about our formation. Have we spent more time teaching people how to serve the church than helping them discover how to bear witness to Christ?

That question matters because fewer people are connected to the church, yet many remain spiritually curious. Barna estimates that approximately 114 million U.S. adults are unchurched, meaning they have not attended a Christian worship service in the previous six months. Yet the same research shows that most Americans are at least moderately spiritually open, and among teenagers 74 percent describe themselves as moderately or highly open to spiritual conversations. In other words, while fewer people are connected to congregations, many are still searching for meaning, hope, and God. 

The implication is striking. People may be less connected to churches, but many are still searching. At the very moment when there is extraordinary openness to spiritual conversations, many Christians feel uncertain about sharing their faith. Barna’s research shows that while about half of practicing Christians strongly believe they have a personal responsibility to tell others about their faith, far fewer feel equipped and effective in doing so.

What does it look like to bear witness to the hope that is already alive within us?

There is no single answer to that question, but it is a question best explored in the company of the Book of Acts.

How do we share the good news authentically? What gives us confidence to speak when we are still growing in our own faith? Who belongs around God’s table? And how far are we willing to let the gospel transform us so others can find a place there too?

These may sound like modern questions, but they are also the questions that shaped the earliest Christian communities. Acts tells the story of ordinary followers of Jesus learning to bear witness. It is a story of the HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine More Spirit continually pushing the church beyond its assumptions, beyond its comfort, and beyond its walls. If we want to become a church that bears faithful witness in the twenty-first century, there may be no better companion than Acts.

Spend any time in the Book of Acts, and one thing becomes clear: despite its title, the story is not primarily about the acts of the apostles. It is about the activity of the Holy Spirit. From beginning to end, the Holy Spirit is the one constant presence, moving through ordinary people and extraordinary circumstances with a single purpose—to make the risen Christ known.

The Holy Spirit of Acts is anything but still. The Holy Spirit initiates, interrupts, redirects, empowers, and sends. Nothing seems able to contain its movement. When StephenThe first Christian martyr. More is stoned and the believers are scattered, the Holy Spirit goes with them, carrying the gospel beyond Jerusalem. When SaulThe first king of Israel. More sets out to destroy the church, the Holy Spirit meets him on the road and transforms a persecutor into an apostleDerived from a Greek word meaning "one who is sent," an apostle is a person who embraces and advocates another person's idea or beliefs. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus called twelve apostles to follow and serve him. Paul became an apostle of Jesus... More. When PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. More is imprisoned, the Holy Spirit continues to work through him, inspiring letters that still shape the life of the church today. Again and again, the Holy Spirit finds a way forward.

What if the story of Acts never really ended? What if the Holy Spirit is just as present in our neighborhoods as on the streets of Jerusalem? What if our calling is not to bring God into the world, but to recognize where the Holy Spirit is already at work and join in?

Living this way invites a different kind of attentiveness. Witnessing in Acts is not simply about speaking. It begins by paying attention to where God is already at work. That attentiveness helps us discern when to serve and when to speak, when to ask a question and when to listen.

The Holy Spirit sends Philip to someone already searching for God. An Ethiopian eunuchAn eunuch is a castrated male, often in the service of a person in power. While the Bible mentions eunuchs many times, the most memorable eunuch is the one who was baptized by Philip in Acts 8. More is reading IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More, asking honest questions, and longing to understand. Philip’s role is not to manufacture faith but to join a conversation the Holy Spirit has already begun. His first act of witness is simply to pay attention. He draws alongside the chariot, listens, and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” and before long they find themselves standing together in the waters of baptismJesus was baptized (literally, "dipped") in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer, at which time he was acclaimed from heaven as God's Son, the Beloved. Much later baptism became one of the sacraments of the Church, the action by which a person is incorporated... More.

The same Holy Spirit leads Paul to a riverside outside Philippi, where LydiaA rich woman who sold purple goods in the city of Philippi. More and other women are already gathered for prayer. Once again, the Holy Spirit has gone ahead. As Paul speaks, the Lord opens Lydia’s heart to the good news. She and her householdA household is a living unit comprised of all the persons who live in one house.  A household would embrace all the members of a family, including servants and slaves.  In the book of Acts, stories are told of various persons and their households, like... More are baptized, and she opens her home to the fledgling church. Witness and hospitality become inseparable, and a new community of faith is born around her table.

A pattern begins to emerge. Faithful witness is less about creating opportunities than recognizing them. The Holy Spirit is already at work long before we arrive. Our calling is to pay attention, join what God is already doing, and trust the Holy Spirit to lead.

Attentiveness doesn’t just change how we witness. It also changes who we imagine belongs. Again and again in Acts, whenever the church assumes it knows the limits of God’s graceGrace is the unmerited gift of God's love and acceptance. In Martin Luther's favorite expression from the Apostle Paul, we are saved by grace through faith, which means that God showers grace upon us even though we do not deserve it. More, the Holy Spirit gently but persistently widens the circle, leading the apostles into relationships they never expected and revealing that God’s welcome has always been larger than they imagined.

The pattern begins at PentecostPentecost was originally a Jewish harvest or pilgrimage festival that fell on the fiftieth day after Passover. It was during this festival that the Holy Spirit visited Jesus' followers in tongues of fire and caused them to speak in many languages, as reported in Acts... More. The Holy Spirit’s first public act is not to erase difference but to speak through them. The good news is proclaimed in a multitude of languages so that each person hears the gospel in the language of home. Rather than demanding uniformity, the Holy Spirit honors the rich diversity of peoples, cultures, and stories. From the very beginning, Acts reminds us that Christian unity has never depended on everyone becoming the same. Our unity is found in Christ.

As the story unfolds, the circle continues to widen. An Ethiopian official, a Roman centurionA centurion was a Roman officer who commanded a military unit made up of one hundred men. Jesus healed a centurion's servant, and a centurion, at Jesus' crucifixion, acclaimed him to be God's Son. More, a persecutor of the church, a businesswoman by the river, a jailer, and countless others discover that they have a place in God’s unfolding story. With each encounter, the church learns the same lesson: the Holy Spirit is already at work beyond the boundaries it had imagined. Again and again, the church discovers that God’s grace is larger than it imagined.

Perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts Acts offers the church today. It teaches us to become people who pay attention—to the Holy Spirit, to our neighbors, and to the surprising places where Christ is already at work.

Every person I have ever heard say, “I don’t know what to say,” has a story worth hearing. That is what has always puzzled me most about that confession. Their lives are already marked by grace, hope, forgiveness, healing, and God’s faithful presence. What they often lack is not a story, but the eyes to recognize it as God’s story unfolding in their own lives.

Perhaps the invitation is simply to notice. To create spaces where we can learn the art of witnessing together—not with the pressure of having all the right words, but with the confidence that the same Holy Spirit who spoke through the apostles is still speaking through ordinary people today. As we learn to pay attention, we may discover that the Holy Spirit has been giving us something to say all along.

Research referenced in this article: Barna Group, What Does It Mean to Be Spiritually Open? (2023); Barna Group, How Are Christians Learning to Share Their Faith? (2023); Pew Research Center, Modeling the Future of Religion in America (2022).