Let me explain a new word I coined–explan-actions. It means “to show and demonstrate your faith with your actions, not just to proclaim them with your words–to go beyond making plans and having good intentions and to begin to implement a daily lifestyle of caring about and serving other people.”

Modern Christianity is desperately lacking in explan-actions–actual demonstrations of the presence and power of the living Jesus, instead of merely presenting lectures and ceremonies about religious plans and ideas. Churches give too many explanations of theology and far too few explan-actions that demonstrate the reality of the risen Jesus. They consistently ignore the Bible verse that declares: “Faith without works is dead,” and settle for one-man Sunday talks instead.

According to the Bible, the body of Christ is made up of many parts, not two parts–a preacher giving religious explanations and a congregation passively listening to the preacher’s presentation (clergy and laity). When the body of Christ is set up to be 1% mouth and 99% ears, it vastly veers away from many Bible verses.

All Christians need to be engaging in explan-actions, not just while attending church, but in every area of life. We all need to demonstrate the reality of Jesus with explicit actions that convince people of God’s presence and kindness. We need to do more than to passively hope that people will somehow absorb it implicitly.

Here are a few examples of explan-actions:

• Doing unexpected acts of kindness.
• Considering other people’s needs and feelings before your own.
• Asking someone you have offended to forgive you.
• Refusing to cooperate with evil.
• Sacrificing to serve someone.
• Offering to pray with someone who is hurting.
• Openly humbling yourself.
• Refusing to lie or be dishonest.
• Giving money to someone who needs help.
• Peacemaking.
• Showing mercy by forgiving all who have offended you.
• Loving your enemies.
• Blessing those who curse you.
• Pursuing justice for all.

When the Gospel of Christ is demonstrated by consistent explan-actions, it unites people by leading us out of darkness into the light of Christ and transforming our heart so that we can see the truth that sets us free from the deceptions that cause divisiveness. When we see the truth that all people are loved by God and created in His image, we will embrace them as fellow human beings, regardless of our differences. By the power and presence of Christ living inside us, we will even obey Jesus’ command to love and to bless our enemies through explan-actions.

Christ-bearers have a special kinship as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Even if they’ve never met (and come from different backgrounds and racial groups), they recognize an inner, spiritual relationship when they encounter each other in the Spirit. I wrote a book about how God has often connected me heart-to-heart with people who look and think differently than I do. It’s called: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color Kind. Search for it on Amazon.