In his book, The Scent of Love, Keith Miller proposes the reason why the early Christians were such phenomenally successful evangelists.  It was not because of their charisms – such as the gift of speaking in tongues – and not because Christianity was such a palatable doctrine (to the contrary, it is about the most unpalatable doctrine there is), but because they had discovered this secret of community.  Generally, they did not have to lift a finger to evangelize.  Someone would be walking down a back alley in Corinth or Ephesus and would see a group of people sitting together talking about the strangest things – something about a man and a tree and an execution and an empty tomb.  What they were talking about made no sense to the onlooker.  But there was something about the way they spoke to one another, about the way they looked at one another, about the way they cried together, the way they laughed together, the way they touched one another that was strangely appealing.  It gave off what Miller called the scent of love.  The onlooker would start to drift farther down the alley, only to be pulled back to this little group like a bee to a flower.  He would listen some more, still not understanding, and start to drift away again.  But again he would be pulled back, thinking, I don’t have the slightest idea what these people are talking about, but whatever it is, I want a part of it.

Randy Turner, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Laurel, Mississippi