Acts 14 opens with the words: “At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue.”
Why?
Didn’t they know they were just going to stir up trouble? That had certainly been their experience up to now. So why do it?
Because these people would be the best for constituting the Church in a new area. They worshiped the same God. They read the same scripture. They practiced the same moral ethic. All they needed was to become Christians.
But if they worshiped the same God, read the same scripture, and practiced the same moral ethic, weren’t they already Christians?
Evidently not. What was needed was a profession of faith in Jesus as the son of God, a submission to Jesus, his lifestyle and teaching, and a uniting with Jesus through baptism. To be a Christian, those things are still needed today, and our best prospects for bringing people to Christ are those who may already be near, just not there.