—By Michael A. Graham
Introduction
This week I’ve been working in Romans 16:1–16. At first glance, it appears to be a list of greetings, names, and quick notes. But as I prepare to preach, I began to see something more: this is a living snapshot of real people touched by real grace.
These are people Paul knew and loved — men and women, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free — all bound together by the gospel.
As I sat with this list of real people with real stories who had received real grace and who were walking through real challenges, I remembered something Jack Miller said about the four common features of a fruitful and effective leader.
Jack observed that the most effective leaders consistently shared four common features — ways of living shaped by the gospel:
- They work hard to make the gospel clear and connected to the real lives of the people they serve.
- They go where people are — making themselves available in the places where people actually live and work.
- They embrace risk and enter hard places for the sake of love, even when it costs them.
- They live in deep dependence on God through prayer — and they pray in ways that move real situations.
Two clarifications up front:
These are “common features,” not the classic “common features of the church.” The Reformed tradition rightly names the three marks of the true church: the pure preaching of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and faithful discipline. Jack’s language is descriptive, not confessional. These features don’t replace the marks; they flow from them and support them. In Romans 16 you can feel all three confessional marks humming in the background, and you can also see these four practical features at work in the relationships themselves.
Pedestal‑living. As I prayed through this text, another theme kept surfacing. When we drift from these features—especially from going to people where they are—we tend to slide into a kind of insulated, curated life I’ll call “pedestal‑living.” From that height, we lose sight of people’s real conditions, and we miss where Jesus stands. Jesus does not save anyone on a pedestal. He comes low. He meets people among the poor in spirit, the weary, the burdened, the overlooked. When we go with the gospel to where people are, we meet Jesus there.
With that frame, here is how Romans 16 helped me see the four features not only as a useful summary, but as a road map that keeps a church moving toward people in the love and power of Christ.
When we are not actively engaged in these four features, we don’t stay neutral — we drift into a kind of insulated bubble where we observe life from a safe distance. Pedestal-living keeps us from seeing people clearly, keeps us from seeing our own need clearly, and most importantly, keeps us from seeing Jesus clearly.
If we are not going with the gospel to where people are, we are also not going where Jesus is — and when we do go, we find Him there. The one place He is never found is on a pedestal.
That’s why, in Romans 16, the second common feature — going where people are — rose to the surface for me in a fresh way. In this passage, it is unmistakably visible in Paul’s greetings and relationships.
But as I’ve thought and prayed over these four common features together, I’ve also seen how #2 tends to keep the others moving.
When you go where people are, you see where the gospel needs clarity (#1). You find yourself in situations that call for costly love (#3). And you carry burdens into prayer (#4) that you would never have seen from a distance.
At the same time, clarity, risk, and prayer will keep sending you back into people’s lives. All four common features go together — but #2 often has a way of making sure the others don’t stall, and of drawing us out of the safe insulation of pedestal-living.
Common Feature #2 — Go Where People Are
Statement of the common feature:
Fruitful ministry moves toward people. It makes space for them in real life, in real places, on their terms. Paul built ministry on going to people — into their homes, workplaces, and communities.
In Romans 16:
This chapter is filled with evidence of Paul being present where people actually live. He greets Prisca and Aquila, who hosted a church in their home (v.3–5). He names Epaenetus, “the first convert to Christ in Asia” — someone Paul clearly met where he was. He greets Mary, who “worked hard” for the believers, and Urbanus, “our fellow worker in Christ.” These greetings point to shared meals, conversations, and work done side by side. His availability in their world allowed the gospel to connect deeply to their lives.
How it works in ministry:
Going where people are shapes the way ministry happens. It means listening to them in their own context. It means entering their space — whether that’s their living room, workplace, or a coffee shop table — and seeing how the gospel speaks to their hopes, fears, and pressures.
This is also the common feature that keeps the others alive:
- Making the gospel clear and relevant (#1) grows from hearing the questions and struggles people actually have.
- Taking risks for love (#3) grows from being in places where love costs something.
- Feeling the full weight and urgency of prayer (#4) grows from carrying people’s real burdens because you’ve been close enough to see them.
Connection to the other common features:
When you go where people are, clarity sharpens, risk becomes part of love, and prayer moves from routine to lifeblood. This common feature continually energizes the others and helps them flourish together.
Why this matters for pedestal-living:
When we stop going where people are, we drift into pedestal-living — life lived in a protected bubble, insulated from the reality of people’s lives. From that height, we see people from a distance rather than as individuals with names, faces, and stories.
Going where people are brings us down into the details of their lives — the joys they celebrate, the burdens they carry, the wounds they hide. It reveals how much of our life has been shaped by distance and convenience. And it reminds us that the gospel we carry is the same gospel we need, because the people we serve often hold a mirror to our own hearts.
Where we meet Jesus:
Jesus came to us as Immanuel, God with us. He walked dusty roads, entered crowded homes, and sat at tables with the overlooked and the despised. He met people in fishing boats, beside wells, in synagogues, and on city streets. He still meets people in the same way today — where they are.
When we go to people with the gospel, we meet Him there. We encounter His heart for the world in the very places where He is already at work.
Reflection:
Paul lived in a way that brought him into contact with people’s stories. Those encounters became the context for the Spirit’s work. Going where people are is more than a ministry approach — it is an expression of the gospel itself. In Jesus, God came to us. We follow His pattern when we make ourselves available in the lives of others.
Common Feature #1 — Make the Gospel Clear and Connected
Statement of the common feature:
Fruitful ministry works hard to make the gospel both clear in content and connected to the real lives of people. This means ensuring people understand what the gospel is and how it meets them where they actually live.
When Jack Miller spoke about making the gospel clear, he meant a clarity that is both full in content and personal in application. In his A New Life overview, Jack identified four elements that must be present for the gospel to be truly clear:
- The facts — People must know the essential truths about who Jesus is, what He has done, and why it matters. These truths form the foundation for belief.
- The assurance of God’s personal love — The gospel holds out the promise of God’s love for the undeserving. This creates faith: the personal promise of God Himself.
- The saving power — The message is more than information. It is God’s power to change a person’s standing before Him and to transform their heart and life.
- The gospel as a preached message — It is proclaimed with persuasion, gentleness, and the authority of faith. It is God’s public word of grace with power, given for the world to hear and believe.
The Five Facts of the Gospel — with Scripture:
To remove all doubt about the message we proclaim, here is the gospel as summarized in A New Life booklet:
- Why did Jesus say He came into the world?
A loving God sent His Son Jesus into the world so that we may have a new and abundant life.
— John 10:10; John 7:37–38
- Why are so many people without this new life?
We are self-centered and God is not at the center of our lives.
— Romans 3:10–12, 23
- What separates us from God?
A bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master.
— Romans 6:23; Jeremiah 17:9; John 8:34
- What is the greatest gift of the Father’s love?
Jesus, the God-man, suffered all the torments of hell as a substitute for His people. He was legally condemned by God as their representative, removing the barriers of a bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master. Risen from the dead, He now lives to give us a new record, a new heart, Himself as our Master, and the free gift of eternal life now.
— John 3:16; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 6:23; John 17:3; 1 Peter 1:3–5
- How do we receive this new and abundant life?
By turning in sorrow from our sin and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we continue in this new life? In the same way we began — “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
— Acts 3:19; Acts 16:31; Colossians 2:6
In Romans 16:
Paul’s greetings are full of people who had received this gospel in all its fullness. Prisca and Aquila (v.3) knew it so well they could explain it “more accurately” to Apollos (Acts 18:26). Epaenetus (v.5), the first convert in Asia, was living proof of the gospel’s power to bring new life. Each name on Paul’s list is someone who was brought from a bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master — into the joy of knowing Christ and walking with Him.
How it works in ministry:
Clarity answers, What is the gospel? Connection answers, Why does it matter here and now? Both work together. You gain this connection by being close enough to people to hear their questions and see their lives — which leads directly to common feature #2, going where people are.
Connection to the other common features:
Going where people are (#2) brings you close enough to speak with clarity into real situations. Being close means facing situations that demand costly love (#3), which will lead you deeper into prayer (#4). Prayer will keep your heart anchored in the truth when ministry becomes complex.
Why this matters for pedestal-living:
When we withdraw from people’s real lives, pedestal-living takes root — life lived at a distance from the needs, stories, and struggles of others. The gospel becomes abstract, a concept rather than a living word applied to living people. Making the gospel clear and connected dismantles pedestal-living by requiring proximity, sympathy, and personal investment. It puts us where people actually are, and where Jesus already is.
Where we meet Jesus:
Jesus made the gospel clear and connected as He moved toward people — a Pharisee in the night (John 3), a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4), a tax collector in a tree (Luke 19). He spoke the same kingdom truth in each encounter, yet applied it in a way that touched the heart and circumstances of each person. When we labor to make the gospel clear and connected, we meet Jesus in the very places He promised to be — among the lowly, the needy, and those ready to receive His word.
Reflection:
Paul’s ministry in Romans 16 is a case study in clarity and connection. Every greeting represents a shared gospel foundation. Every relationship shows the fruit of a message having been understood and being lived out. If we want real people to experience real grace, we must labor to make the gospel both clear in content and connected to the details of their lives — which is also where we will encounter Christ Himself.
Common Feature #3 — Embrace Risk for Love
Statement of the common feature:
Fruitful ministry accepts that loving people will cost something. It enters hard places, takes risks, and chooses relationship over safety. This is deliberate, gospel-driven love that knows the value of the person outweighs the risk of engagement.
In Romans 16:
Paul’s greetings are threaded with the language of risk. He speaks of Prisca and Aquila, “who risked their necks” for his life (v.4). He mentions Andronicus and Junia, who had been “in prison” for the gospel (v.7). He greets those who “worked hard in the Lord” (v.6, v.12), whose labor cost time, energy, and likely resources.
These are acknowledgments of concrete actions — moments where these believers stepped into situations that could have damaged reputations, drained resources, or threatened their safety, yet they did it for the sake of Christ and His people.
How it works in ministry:
The closer you are to people (#2), the more you see their needs, and the more those needs pull you into costly situations. Risk for love is rarely theoretical. It happens in moments when you choose to step into someone’s difficulty rather than walk away.
Risk for love also reveals something deeper: the presence of pedestal-living.
Why this matters for pedestal-living:
Every one of us lives, to some degree, on a pedestal — insulated by routines, preferences, and the illusion of control. From that height, we see situations through a filter of self-protection, which keeps us from entering into the reality of other people’s lives.
Going with the gospel to where people are brings you down into the mess, pain, and complexity that real love requires. Sometimes you recognize your pedestal and step down willingly. Other times, you discover it only when God strips away your pride, comfort, or control.
It may come as a storm, a sudden loss, or an unexpected confrontation. Those moments can feel disorienting, yet they can be the Spirit’s way of setting your feet where people truly are — and where Jesus Himself is already at work.
Where we meet Jesus:
Risk for love always leads us to the place where Jesus is. He entered this world knowing the cost — rejection, betrayal, the cross — and still came near. In His ministry, He did not keep a safe distance; He touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, and wept at the tomb of a friend.
When we embrace risk for love, we meet Him in the same places — among the lowly, the wounded, and those in desperate need of grace. It is there, not on a pedestal, that we share in His heart for the world and experience His power to love through us.
Connection to the other common features:
Risk and presence feed each other. The more present you are (#2), the more opportunities for risk you will face. Those risks will send you back to the gospel for clarity (#1) — to remember why this love is worth it — and into prayer (#4) — to draw on God’s strength for what lies ahead.
Reflection:
Jesus took on the ultimate risk for love. He came into the world with full awareness of the cost and gave Himself completely. In Him, risk is not an unfortunate byproduct of ministry — it is the very shape of ministry.
When we follow Him into costly love, we are not only serving others — we are being transformed. Risk for love strips away our self-protection, deepens our dependence on Christ, and draws us closer to the heart of the One who embraced the cross for us.
Common Feature #4 — Depend on God in Prayer
Statement of the common feature
Fruitful ministry is sustained and advanced by prayer. Prayer is not an accessory to ministry — it is the work of ministry itself. Prayer is where the real battles are fought and won. Leaders and churches who bear lasting fruit make prayer their first and constant labor. They pray with expectation, specificity, and perseverance because they know the gospel advances by God’s power, not their own.
In Romans 16
Romans 16 is a chapter of greetings, but it flows directly from the prayer emphasis of Romans 15:30–33, where Paul urges the believers to “strive together” with him in prayer. The chapter break is artificial — the greetings are the fruit of those prayers. The relationships Paul names in Romans 16 were birthed, nurtured, and sustained in prayer.
This was also the heartbeat of Romans 15:30–33: Paul didn’t simply pray for these believers; he prayed for their praying. He invited them into shared spiritual combat, asking them to enter the struggle of gospel ministry on their knees. That prayer partnership undergirds the affection and unity we see in Romans 16.
When you greet someone with genuine gospel affection — especially across differences or past conflict — it is often the fruit of prayer. Prayer softens hard hearts, bridges divides, and keeps love warm when distance or difficulty would otherwise cool it.
How it works in ministry
Prayer is where clarity (#1) is protected, where presence (#2) is guided, and where costly love (#3) is replenished.
Prayer takes what we know of the gospel and what we experience in ministry and lays it before God, asking Him to do what only He can do. In prayer we remember:
- The people we serve belong to God before they belong to us.
- The burdens we carry are ultimately His to bear.
- The fruit we long to see is something only the Spirit can produce.
When prayer is alive, the other common features are renewed. When prayer fades, they begin to wither.
Why this matters for pedestal-living
When we go with the gospel to where people are (#2) and love them in ways that cost us (#3), the experience reveals how much pedestal-living still shapes our lives. Prayer is where that revelation meets God’s grace. It is where we come low before Him — acknowledging pride, exhaustion, or fear — and receive mercy and strength to keep going.
Sometimes we see the pedestal and step down willingly. Other times, God removes it in ways that feel humiliating — through failure, rejection, or circumstances that strip away control. Prayer is where we discover that even in those moments, He is not shaming us but shaping us. The God who created all things is also the God who redeems all things, including our weakness, mistakes, and suffering.
Where we meet Jesus
Prayer brings us into the presence of the risen Christ, who “always lives to make intercession” for His people (Hebrews 7:25). We meet Him in the low place of dependence, where He stooped to serve and where He remains with us. Even when we cannot see the reason for our pain, His eternal love — proven at the cross and in the resurrection — assures us that He is working for our good. No act of love in His name and no tear shed in His service will be wasted.
Connection to the other common features
- Clarity (#1): Prayer keeps us anchored in the gospel’s truth.
- Presence (#2): Prayer opens our eyes to see the opportunities God has placed around us.
- Risk for love (#3): Prayer strengthens our resolve to step into costly situations and sustains us when they cost more than expected.
Prayer binds these common features together, keeps them alive, and continually renews them.
Reflection
Romans 16 is more than a list of names; it is a portrait of relationships sustained by prayer. Behind each greeting is unseen intercession. Behind each act of costly love is strength supplied in prayer. Behind the unity of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female is the reconciling work of God, preserved through prayer.
Prayer is asking God to do what only He can do — and then watching Him do it. For Paul, that meant praying for churches he had never visited, for believers he knew well, and for his own heart to stay steadfast in the mission.
For us, prayer must be more than the thing we turn to when there’s time. It is the air we breathe, the battlefield we enter together, and the place we continually draw near to the One who first drew near to us.
Conclusion: Real People, Real Grace — The Four Common Features of Fruitfulness and Effectiveness
Romans 16 is not filler. It is a Spirit-inspired picture of how the gospel moves through real people into real places. Every greeting in this chapter is a testimony to the way God works when His people live out these four common features of fruitful and effective ministry.
These features are not a program or checklist. They are a way of life that grows out of the gospel itself:
- Making the gospel clear and connected so that people understand exactly what God has done in Christ and how it meets them where they live.
- Going where people are so that clarity is more than words — it is delivered through presence.
- Embracing risk for love so that presence becomes more than proximity — it becomes sacrifice.
- Depending on God in prayer so that sacrifice is sustained by His strength and not our own.
When any of these features is active, it strengthens the others. When all four are active together, they form a road map that takes us out of pedestal-living and into the low places where Jesus is.
That’s the constant tension this passage exposes: pedestals insulate us; the gospel sends us. Pedestals keep us where it feels safe; the gospel leads us where people are. And Jesus — the One who left the highest place to come all the way down to us — meets us there.
The more we live out these four common features, the more we find ourselves walking into the very places where Jesus has always been: among the poor in spirit, the weary, the broken, and the least of these. We discover that the same grace we bring to others is the grace we need ourselves.
This is why Romans 16 still speaks so clearly. It is not just a record of greetings; it is a call to live the gospel in such a way that real people in our lives encounter real grace through us. It is an invitation to step down from whatever pedestal we are on, go with the gospel to where people are, and find Jesus there — working through us, changing us, and drawing others to Himself.
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