Editor's Note: This seven-part series explores the "veneer" of each channel of culture. It is inspired by the latest Q book by Jason Locy and TIm Willard: Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society. If these ideas resonate with you, consider picking up a copy and diving deeper into this conversation.

I have much to learn about the Church and the interplay of evangelism, specifically in terms of how full-time, dedicated evangelists can and should undergird the work of local churches. I'm committed to uphold and encourage those within the Church. After all, one of the key components of the Palau Association is to “work with, through, and for the local church.” Yet, given the myriad of issues and "veneers" among the community of believers, it would be naïve to think navigating those waters would be so simple.

As I reflect on the many veneers that exist in the church, it would be the height of hubris for me to not first look within and wrestle with the way these facades play out in my own life (Matthew 7:3-5). After all, the veneers we deal with are just more examples of a loving God working in and through sinners, like me.

The first, and perhaps most obvious veneer I encounter within myself, as well as the church, is that of acceptance. That is, the desperate need and attempt to be accepted by our peers and those we seek to serve. I just finished a seminary course at Multnomah University on vocation and calling. Of the four personality indicators, I was off the charts skewed toward the need for unanimous reassurance and acceptance from others. I can relate to Paul when he told Timothy that of the sinners whom Christ came to save, he was the worst.

God has generously allowed me to travel around the world and speak before hundreds of thousands of people. If I am not centered on the Lord, totally surrendered to him and his calling and rule in my life, this type of constant visibility and desire for acceptance easily lends itself to pride. (How embarrassing is that? But we all know it’s true in our lives.) And worse yet, our celebrity-driven culture only feeds this tendency, pushing us to seek acceptance, praise, even service from those we should actually be serving.

When I look at the current church culture in America and see it sometimes embraced and other times ridiculed from overseas because of this very thing, it causes me to check my spirit. Yet, I can see this struggle emerging more and more. While these issues of acceptance and pride are cyclical and swirling—"there is nothing new under the sun"—we must struggle against it together in order to break free.

Another veneer I see infiltrating the Church is that of nuance. While I have spent the past 18 years serving the Church in unified, citywide evangelistic outreaches, I am often surprised by the reaction of believers, and even pastors, to our organization's simple approach to evangelism. I'm a straightforward thinking guy and believe that I need to anchor my ministry in clear biblical concepts. Sadly, that simple-minded, laser-focused approach is not always accepted by the Church. We feel the need to sugarcoat messages and add culturally relevant adaptations. In other words, we nuance the message to death. And, sadly, it’s not always for the purpose of more effectively sharing the Good News. Instead, the adjustments and nuances are simply there to ease sensitive brothers and sisters whom we don't want to offend.

Though I understand how important it is to be thoughtful in our cultural expressions of evangelism, I believe we often get so stuck in the discussion of how to evangelize that we never get to evangelism itself. No one would dispute that we need to incorporate elements of relevance into our evangelistic ways and means. Throughout church history, we find Christians using creative means to bring the Word of God to new lands.

I also understand the missiological aspects we must be wary of as full-time, dedicated evangelists and pastors—balancing word and deed in a symbiotic relationship of love and truth. It is why our ministry has incorporated community initiatives known as Season of Service into our evangelistic festival model.  The success of Season of Service not only opens up doors in our city, but it also allows us to share the reason why we are serving. It's not bait-and-switch. It's pure service, a commitment to the full message of Christ.

[WATCH: Kevin Palau and Tom Krattenmaker talk about season of service at Q Chicago.]

Even with all that effort, we can still become bogged down with details and nuances. We can easily veer off course, burdened with evangelistic strategies. We can stumble in our work, stuck in the confines of the "culturally cool" factor. Eventually these ideas become a veneer—just one more comforting excuse to not share the Good News. I think this quote conveys my passion well: "The strategy of a man like St. Paul was basically simple," writes British Theologian Michael Green in Evangelism in the Early Church, "he had one life, and was determined to use it to the greatest extent and at the best advantage possible in the service of Jesus Christ. His vision was at once personal, urban, provincial and global."

This is my personal prayer: that I can move and act within my calling with a clear-minded simplicity as I strive toward the goal. That I would recognize the pitfalls that surface in an age where acceptance and pride can blur our focus. May we, as church leaders, strive to keep Jesus' command to "go" ever in our minds as we serve his bride by leading it ever closer to him.

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Are there any "veneers" in the church that you feel Andrew missed? Do you agree/disagree that nuance constitutes "veneer" in the church?

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