not that we should look to be martyred, but that we should call people to cross-shaped lives of self-denial. Why is the church in the West not growing rapidly? Perhaps one reason is that we haven’t made that decision to die. For it’s in dying, whether dying as a martyr or dying to self, that we show the worth of Christ to a watching world. He matters more. A friend of mine was talking about a missionary to the Middle East – let’s call him Omar – who converted to Christianity from a Muslim background.