Sessions Include:

Shadow Christians, Lesson #1
God Loves Us Tenderly

Shadow Christians, Lesson #2
God Values Us Highly

Shadow Christians, Lesson #3
We Experience God’s Power

Shadow Christians, Lesson #4
We Share the Gospel

Shadow Christians, Lesson #5
We Are the Ministry Workforce

Shadow Christians, Lesson #6
We Do the Dirty Work

My study of characters in the biblical shadows, unnamed but incredibly significant, led me to two important conclusions:

God chooses and uses shadow Christians.

He relates to them intimately and tenderly, places high value on their anonymous contributions, and uses them as his essential workforce to accomplish amazing things. The answers to the questions above, along with these conclusions, leads to another more personal conclusion:

You matter.

Celebrating Your Role

You are likely a shadow Christian. You don’t have thousands of social media followers, have never spoken at a conference, and have never been asked to share your opinion on public issues. You serve in anonymity, and because of that, you may feel what you do is insignificant. You wonder whether what you do, even in ministry for God, really matters to him or makes any difference. Those doubts are baseless. You are as vital to your family, church, and community as the unnamed people in the Bible were to God’s plans in their era.

You may also suffer from a spiritual inferiority complex. Since you aren’t well-known and don’t consider yourself particularly talented, you may wonder why (or even if) God wants to have a personal relationship with you. Given the global fascination with celebrities, it’s easy to believe popularity equals significance. That’s the way the world system functions but not God’s kingdom. God relates to people without regard to popular (and often misguided) evaluations of their loveliness, desirability, or talents. God values people by a different set of standards.

If you struggle with these perspectives, keep reading to discover biblical predecessors who made an impact even though their names were left out of the story.

Iorg, Jeff. 2020. Shadow Christians: Making an Impact When No One Knows Your Name. Nashville, TN: B&H Books.

We have just completed a study of Jeff Iorg's book, Shadow Christians. It is available on Amazon as well as part of the Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service.