Bishop’s Stortford Baptist Church were our gracious hosts for a weekend of ministry. Solas haven’t worked much in this area, so it was great to meet new people and serve alongside a great church there.
On the Friday night they invited me to speak at a youth event. About twenty young folks came – and they were really pleased with that number because not only was it during the school holiday when many were away -but there was also another big event on in the town that evening! Rather than asking me to speak on a given topic or Bible text, they asked for an open question night when the young people could fire any question they wanted at me! The young people who came were really great too and had so many questions that we overran the time and were still going when the parents were queuing up outside to collect them! Some of the kids there had a faith, others were there to find out more; but they were really engaged and remarkably thoughtful. So it was a real joy to help them think through some of the big questions they raised and what the Christian faith has to say about them. Hearing on e-mail after the event how appreciative the young people had been, was another encouragement!
Then on the Saturday we held a Confident Christianity conference with the church. We often invite guest speakers to join us for these – people with particular expertise in an area of evangelism and Christian witness. We were joined in Bishop’s Stortford by Sara Stevenson, actually for the first time at one of our events. Sara is well-known for her work at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. I spoke about conversational evangelism using the title, “How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot”, and on way sin which we can engage the apathetic and disinterested with the gospel of Christ. That obviously meant that we spoke about the approach we have used in the Have You Ever Wondered? book.
Sara’s first session was called “Sharing your faith in a Culture Opposed to Christian Morality” which looked into helpful ways of addressing ethical objections to the gospel. She followed that with a session on engaging refuges with the gospel – an important mission field in the UK in 2024. Then as usual we opened the floor to Q&A which led to some good further interactions and lots of good conversations afterwards. Our friends at 10ofThose were there with their excellent mobile bookshop too, which seemed to be very busy which was encouraging too.
Amongst the hundred-strong congregation was at least one person who told me that he isn’t a Christian. Some Solas events are designed for and promoted to people who are not Christians. Typically our café-style outreach events address the kinds of questions that people outside the church have about the Christian faith. But Confident Christianity events are really intended for Christians, to encourage, equip and embolden them in sharing their faith – so it was an interesting choice of meeting for him to come to. We had a lovely chat at the end, and he said he had come to give someone (who is a Christian) a lift there, and thought he would hate it; but said he had found it really interesting! It’s a reminder to all of us who speak in church-settings that you never really know who is going to be in your audience and not to miss opportunities to present the gospel.
