Course Correction

By Doug Lucas

(From our series “The Best or Worst Advice I’ve Ever Received.”)

The best advice I ever received was from Professor Tom Gemeinhart at Kentucky Christian College (now KCU) in 1977. Over the course of the first nine weeks in his class, “Principles and Methods of Missions” (which I had to take as a requirement), we studied the Great Commission as found in five different books of the Bible. We analyzed the story of the watchman on the wall in Ezekiel. We looked at Jonah, Barnabas, and of course Paul. In fact, by the time we were done, we had analyzed a total of 52 passages in detail, from Genesis to Revelation. He ended the nine weeks, essentially, by quoting that now-famous Oswald J. Smith question, “Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?”

Those weeks changed my life. I made a major course correction, and the entire rest of my days have been spent trying to live out that simple calling. Thank you, Tom Gemeinhart.

Doug Lucas serves as president of Team Expansion.