Lantern House exists to engage the Lawrence community and the university with thoughtful and persuasive communication of the gospel and the Christian worldview, and in doing so, equip the body of Christ to do the same in the world.
When the Apostle Paul evangelized the Jews, he reasoned from the Hebrew Scriptures; when he engaged the Greeks, he quoted their own poets. In Ephesus, he taught daily in the hall of Tyrannus so that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10). Paul’s aim was to become all things to all people, that by all means he might save some (1 Cor. 9:22). His ministry reflects acentral conviction: faithful gospel witness requires thoughtful engagement with faith, philosophy, and culture. Lantern House is built on this same conviction.
Lantern House aims to form whole and mature Christians for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Conduct must accord with confession. Faithful evangelism demands the whole person. This pattern is seennot only in Paul, but also in Ezra, who “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). These three elements—study, practice, and teaching—are captured in our ministry philosophy: mind, heart, and hands.
The witness must pursue deep intellectual formation, studying theology, philosophy, ethics, and worldview. He must be prepared to engage the strongest objections to the Christian faith with clarity, precision, and conviction.
The witness must be marked by holiness, devotion, and biblical fidelity. He must know and love the Christ he proclaims. This is evidenced in by a consistent witness and growing lifestyle as a disciple of Christ.
The witness must be disciplined and active. As Paul writes, “I discipline my body and keep it undercontrol, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” The faithful witness does not remain in theory, but labors in practice.
In engaging Lawrence with the gospel, Lantern House seeks to form mature Christians—equipped inmind, rooted in holiness, and disciplined in life—for a lifestyle and lifetime of faithful, evangelisticministry.
