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PEP Talk with Mark Mittelberg

When most of us think of an “evangelist”, it’s usually a heroic example like Billy Graham or else a bit of an oddball operating on the fringe of our church. We don’t see ourselves as Billy and we don’t want others to think we’re the oddballs, so we shy away from evangelism altogether. Our guest on PEP Talk today wants us to realise that different types of evangelism can match our unique personality and gifts. It’s a liberating idea that means we rely on other members of the Christian body as we support each other in reaching out with the gospel.

With Mark Mittelberg PEP Talk

Our Guests

Mark Mittelberg is a bestselling author, international speaker, and the Executive Director of the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University. Mark recently released his all-new book and training course, Contagious Faith: Discover Your Natural Style for Sharing Jesus with Others He also wrote the leadership-oriented book, Becoming a Contagious Church, which presents an innovative blueprint for church-based evangelism, as well as several books on apologetics. He lives with his wife Heidi near Denver, Colorado.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

Frontlines EXTRA! The Filmmaker

Across all kinds of trades, professions and sectors of industry, Christians are at work. At Solas, we’ve been speaking to people who say that rather than leaving their faith in Jesus at the door when they sign-in, it is very much part of their working life. It has been inspiring to see the way in which this has affected the work people do, and led to great conversations with colleagues about Jesus. For this edition, Gavin Matthews spoke to filmmaker Phil Todd.  

GJM: Hi Phil, thanks for speaking to me today about your work and your faith. So tell us first of all something about your job, your roles and responsibilities.

Phil Todd: Hi Gavin – good to meet you! Well, I would describe myself as a filmmaker, but that word means different things to different people. My work is really divided into three categories. The first is that I am a film-editor. People hire me to come and help them shape what they have already filmed in the post-production side of things. Then the other side is that I have helped to set up a film production company called “Fellowship Film” and through that company we are developing and producing feature films and offering production services. We formed Fellowship Film in 2017 and have made two feature films so far, “The Gaelic King” a fantasy action-adventure set in Scotland in AD 800 and then more recently “Jessie and the Elf Boy”, a family comedy set in modern-day Edinburgh. Then we have also started doing some smaller stuff, like filming music videos for independent music artists; and offering post-production services to people who have maybe made a short film and need help to get it finished and packaged for festivals or whatever. I also do some consulting, giving advice to people making independent films. Then we’ve run workshops for young people to prepare them for acting on screen…. So I do a whole mixture of stuff, including a bit of acting, which I was trained in!

Producing feature films is what really excites me, but that takes a long time when you are an independent film company without the resources to do things quickly.

GJM: So producing, editing, directing and running a business as well! And of all those things, what do you enjoy the most? What’s the bit you look forward to and which gives you the most satisfaction when it’s complete?

Phil Todd: Well actually it’s editing! It was Robert Bresson who said, “You make a film three times. Once when you write it, once when you shoot it, and then once when you edit it.”  So to me that’s the most exciting time, because that’s the film that people will actually see. No one sees the script, or what was actually shot – but they will see the film that you put together in the end. So, there’s something quite exciting at that moment when you have everything filmed and you sit down to finally put it all together and create order out of chaos!

GJM: So what kind of challenges to do you face in your work? One of the things keeps coming up in this Frontlines series is the variety of different challenges people face. For one person it might be the relentless workload being placed upon them by an employer, but for a self-employed person it could be chasing the next contract and keeping the work coming in. So, what are the challenges in your work, and how does your Christian faith affect how you respond to them?

Phil Todd: Yeah, there are a number of challenges I face. One is actually just maintaining the motivation to keep going! Firstly from a business perspective it is quite hard to make a film company actually work. That’s especially the case at the moment as the whole industry is in flux. The so-called “streaming wars” between the big platforms are dominating everything, as they each seek to gain and keep subscribers. It makes it a hard environment for independent filmmakers to thrive in. So I (like a lot of artists) often come back to the basic question: ‘why am I doing this?’ This is in a context where much of society does not value creativity. It is often seen as a luxury, rather than as essential and so is the first thing to be cut in a funding crisis. So the challenge is having to be very entrepreneurial as well as creative to make the company viable. In terms of how my faith impacts that, when I look at the person of Jesus – he was amongst other things,  a great storyteller. And I find that really encouraging because as bearers of the image of God we are creative and we tell stories and make works of art. I think it is inherent in who we are. So my faith encourages me to keep going because this is part of what we have been made to do.

I also think that film has the potential to impact people in quite a powerful way and that it is important that Christians are working in this field. I think it perhaps gives us the opportunity to do something for God there, which wouldn’t otherwise happen., Traditionally the church has not engaged with the arts as it could have done and the arts have suffered as a result because they have been left without that voice of truth. So, there is a certain amount of ground to be reclaimed there. It’s important for Christians to keep going even though it is challenging at times.

GJM; So how does being a Christian affect you as a filmmaker and the choices you make? How would you be different as a filmmaker if you weren’t a Christian!?  How does your faith affect the kind of stories you tell and the way that you go about the work?

Phil Todd: Well at Fellowship Film one of our top values is “people over product”. That’s because often in the film industry the ‘product’ is seen as the ultimate thing and people are used simply as a means to an end. So it’s considered normal to step on other people to get where you want to get to, or to very quickly fire and replace anyone who isn’t getting the job exactly right. But we wanted to be a film company that wasn’t so cutthroat, where people feel valued and encouraged to do their best work. So for us it is as much about the people as it is about the film we are making. That is deliberately counter-cultural and rooted in my belief in the sanctity of human life and that everyone is worthy of respect.

In terms of the type of films I’d want to be involved in, I want to tell stories that are full of hope, light and truth. That doesn’t mean that all the films we make will be like Jessie and the Elf Boy, which was our family film. It’s colourful, bright and light-hearted – and films don’t always have to be that. Films can also be dark, but the way we’d approach that would be to face the darkness in order to bring out hope. I was inspired to want to become a filmmaker by The Lord of the Rings, and one of the things that I love about those films is that even though you have a world which is almost completely consumed by darkness, the heroes strive to bring the light and to overcome against incredible odds. I think that’s a powerful narrative – and the narrative of the Bible and indeed of the world.

GJM: You are working in a predominantly secular industry, but are known as a Christian. How do people react to that?

Phil Todd: Well it’s funny because at Fellowship Film we have decided to try and make films for the mainstream market rather than for a specifically Christian market. Ironically there is a thriving faith-based market in North America so from a business perspective we might be better off making faith-based films! Our distributor for Jessie and the Elf boy is Jewish, and he told us to put more faith-based material into our films because it will make it more attractive to that faith-based market! I’m slightly wary of that because we are making fantasy films, and there is already a supernatural element to our stories. I really don’t want to muddy the waters. In that film we have “Elf”, and to put a praying-Christian in a film alongside a fantasy character like an elf would be confusing to some people.

Generally, people aren’t surprised to find Christians working in the film industry, but they are surprised to find us working in the mainstream, not just for niche Christian markets. I have done a couple of documentary films about notable Christian figures in history, which were very much aimed at a Christian audience; so I think there is definitely a space for that. However, I am trying to be a Christian and a filmmaker rather than a “Christian-filmaker” if that makes sense!?

GJM: And that relates to what you said earlier about not surrendering the field of the arts to secular worldviews. It’s interesting that in the world of fantasy, writers like Philip Pullman bring their worldview overtly into their stories! It’s a narrative polemic that he wants to bring to bear on his audience.

Phil Todd: And I think that’s what you have to do as a creative – to be honest about who you are and what you are bringing to your art and to the viewer so they can make their own mind up. In fact having stories of both perspectives actually enables the viewer to do that. So we do need Christians bringing good stories with that perspective on the world. I think God used people like Tolkien and CS Lewis in ways that they might never have anticipated when they wrote their stories. But they have in fact opened the door for a whole range of people to engage with the Christian narrative.

GJM: And have those general worldview perspectives ever led to you having conversations about your faith more specifically? Have good stories, hope and redemptive narratives ever led on to conversations about your faith in Christ more specifically?

Phil Todd: It’s always good to meet people who love the fantasy genre and to have those kinds of discussions, there are a lot of opportunities there. The way that we have worked has definitely had an impact on people too. In fact the actress who played the lead role in our film The Gaelic King, was going through quite a lot in her life at the time we were making that film. She really appreciated the community that we formed as we created that film. She was also one of my neighbours in Edinburgh and our church was running an Alpha Course there. I invited her to that and she ended up becoming a Christian and then married my cousin – so she is part of the family now!!  It was an incredible story about how God really worked – and it wasn’t even something we set out to do in the making of the film – but He used the work as a way of reaching that person! I love it when God does something that I’m not expecting and which has eternal significance!

GJM: And have you ever had any pushback or opposition, people saying you should keep your faith totally private’?

Phil Todd:  I haven’t really encountered too much of that. I think in the arts people are quite open generally. A common assumption is that artists must be true to themselves and express who they are, so there is an openness there. Sometimes projects have stalled because we have been let down by people who didn’t share our values though – that was certainly the case with our second film.

GJM: So what motivates you to want to do things like invite people to Alpha and that kind of thing? What inspires you to speak openly about your faith in Christ?

Phil Todd: Experience – I’ve seen the difference that it has made in people’s lives when they encounter God. But I think I’m much less formulaic in the way I share my faith than I was when I was young. I used to try and move people along a conveyor belt that went Alpha-Conversion-Church Membership, whereas now I more often look to see what God is already doing and to partner with Him in drawing them to Himself – rather than trying to force a particular model on them. So, I am always on the lookout for opportunities to encourage people to meet God for themselves.

GJM: So finally  – what advice would you give to a young Christian entering the film industry?

Phil Todd: Don’t go alone, find fellowship! That has been key for me. We are called Fellowship Film after The Fellowship of the Ring, but community, and comradeship is just so important. It’s important in achieving anything in life, and its important in being a Christian too. You can’t really flourish as a Christian in isolation. We are part of the body of Christ which means that we need the other members. The Christian life is a collaborative endeavour, just like filmmaking.

GJM: Thankyou Phil – there’s lots in there! Thanks so much for talking to us.

You can find out more about Phil and Fellowship Film by clicking here.

The Gaelic King can be found here.

Click here to see Jessie and the Elf Boy

Sharing the gospel and curry! Hillbank Men’s Event

At Hillbank Church prior to COVID, we would have men’s outreach evenings around three times a year. Throughout COVID, our focus, like most churches, turned inward and the job of shepherding the flock took precedence over reaching the lost. Since then, things have very much taken off and our church has grown – meaning church maintenance has kept us all very busy. But truthfully, we have struggled to prioritise evangelistic outreach and have been eager to address this.

After Gavin preached at one of our Sunday services a few months back, we decided to press on with a men’s evening and invite him to speak. We have many in the church who are regularly engaging with non-Christian friends, family and workmates throughout the week and we wanted an occasion where they could invite these people to an informal event where they could enjoy food and hear something of the Christian message. We know events like these are central to the heart of Solas so we were really pleased Gavin could be part of the evening. Around 30 guys came along, maybe a dozen or so would have been non-Christian. Many more were invited but we’re aware that events like these won’t appeal to everyone. We enjoyed a curry together before Gavin spoke.

Gavin’s message was on point. He looked at the topic of Men of Integrity. He initially spoke about how integrity is in short supply in the public sphere, looking at examples in politics and pop culture before considering how, in reality, all of us fall short in this area. Suffice to say, everyone could in the room could relate to this. Gavin went on to share how only in the gospel of Jesus can we know true acceptance and forgiveness from God despite our failures. The message was simple, clear, relevant and very easy to listen to. No prior Bible knowledge was required which was a great help for the guys who came along.

Our hope going forward is that events like these help to serve as one step among many in our evangelistic engagement with our non-Christian friends.


Matthew Blakeman is Community Pastor at Hillbank

How Do We Know What’s True?

How do we know what’s really true? Especially when it comes to the big questions of life — like where everything came from, whether life has a meaning, and how we should live? Steve Osmond explores why when it comes to what’s true, what you believe really matters.

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PEP Talk with Sean McDowell

This week on PEP Talk, Andy chats with US author and speaker Sean McDowell about reaching students and young people with the gospel. What themes pervade the lives of young people on both sides of the Atlantic? From science to identity to the goodness of God, Sean provides insight into how we can equip our children and young people to respond well to these questions.

With Sean McDowell PEP Talk

Our Guests

Sean McDowell is an Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University in California. He is a speaker and author, co-author, or editor of over twenty books including Rebel’s ManifestoChasing Love, The Fate of the ApostlesSo The Next Generation Will Know (with J. Warner Wallace) and Evidence that Demands a Verdict (with Josh McDowell). Find out more at seanmcdowell.org

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

Islam and Oslo

With family links in Scandanavia, Andy especially enjoys occasional ministry trips there. In this short video he gives an update on his recent trip to work with IFES and a Bible College in Norway. With IFES he was sharing the gospel and dialoging with Muslims, and then helping young Christians to grapple with the apologetic challenges they will face as they go to Higher Education.

Evidence for Belief – Andy on the ‘My Faith at Work’ podcast

Andy Bannister was Simon Ward’s guest on the My Faith at Work Podcast recently, for a wide ranging discussion about the Christian faith – and the evidence for it. You can play the episode with Andy on by pressing on the link above. Alternatively follow this link to the webpage for the programme and listen there, as well as see all the other interesting guests that SImon has interviewed.

Perfectionism, grace and drums – Undercurrents in Whiplash

Several years ago, I asked a Chinese friend why only one of her elite post-doctoral group of pure mathematicians were from the UK. The answer I got was shocking. “I have a daughter in primary school in Scotland, and you do not understand education here. Most of what my daughter does in school is play; her academic work is constantly interrupted by parties, games, outings, assemblies; and the school day is so short. In China at that age, I studied maths every day at school and for many hours before and after school too – here it is all play, play, play!”

I was confronted with the question: what price is worth paying for perfection?

Whiplash is a film about individuals being crushed by the relentless drive for greatness in a particular field. It could have been maths, or sport; but the film is set in the world of jazz – in which the key figure Andrew Neiman (played by Miles Teller) is a drummer. The pressure to become “one of the greats” is certainly an internal drive for Neiman; but is taken from obsession to destructive levels by his teacher Terence Fletcher (J. K Simmons), whose drive for perfection destroys students. Perhaps worse still, Fletcher seems convinced that his students must be broken repeatedly to push them beyond ordinary human limitations. “The two most dangerous words in the English language are, “good job”” he notes. As such, Fletcher’s teaching method not only demanded iron discipline and technical excellence, but also involved a form of psychological warfare against his students. Films have occasionally shown army recruits being broken in this way; but rarely with the ferocity which Simmons brings to the part of Terence Fletcher.

The two central performances in Whiplash, are superb. Teller is excellent as the driven, intense, gifted, yet vulnerable young drummer; who learns to confront his demons both inner and external. Simmons is truly horrific as the dangerously out-of-control Fletcher, who values winning and perfection above people. Simmons’ viciously foul-mouthed and blisteringly intense denunciations of errant students is like something from the Maoist cultural revolution; it is gruelling watching – but impossible to turn away from. In Fletcher’s world, if he destroys fifty people, but makes one genius, he’s a happy man. Like all the best movie villains, Terence Fletcher makes compelling viewing. In one scene (spoiler alert!), Fletcher weeps over the death of a student – a great player who he had ‘broken’ and made legendary. “He was a beautiful player”, laments the teacher. We later discover that the young man had killed himself – the parents blaming Fletcher for the psychological torment he endured at his hands. Yet still, even as Fletcher appears to show some normal human warmth, or even vulnerability his words are chilling. “He was a beautiful player”, seems to suggest that Fletcher wept not for the loss of a person, but for the loss of his talent.

The film leaves us with an ambiguous conclusion; on one hand Nieman finally emerges as a great drummer; and gains the respect of his fellow musicians and his sinister teacher. However, we are left with a question mark. Would he have achieved such greatness without Fletcher’s psychological battering, or would he have consigned himself to a more contented mediocrity? Leaving aside the much-debated issue of whether practice-makes-genius or not; the issue here is – what price is it worth paying in pursuit of a goal?

Neiman is shown giving up on most aspects of what it means to have a normal balanced life; he has no friends, has given up on sport, and loses his girl in his thirst for perfection. He ends up as a specialist, but with a malformed life. These questions are pertinent in parenting and education. We may not be as extreme as Fletcher; but when is it right to push our kids; and when is it right to let them just meander along contentedly? Are our schools so fearful of the kind of Fletcher-dynamic depicted in Whiplash that they fail to inculcate any kind of love of excellence in our children at all? “Gold-stars all round – and who cares what mark you actually scored?!”

Central to the almost unbearable dynamic of this film is the way that the master propels the apprentice towards perfection under the constant threat of rejection. Being the ‘core player’ in the music school’s prestige band was an honour entirely at the disposal of Fletcher and expulsion from the band something he could execute on a whim. The film depicts the pursuit of perfection as the ideal of greatness and significance; but it also portrays a self-destructive fear of rejection as the necessary stimulus for its achievement. This seems to leave us in an impossible dilemma in that either greatness doesn’t matter on one hand, or that people don’t on the other.

This is a remarkable example of what we might term “un-grace”.

In contrast, relationships which are founded on the concept of grace, (rather than accomplishments) work in exactly the opposite way to the dynamic between Fletcher and Nieman. In grace-founded relationships, (be they human-human, or Divine-human), the pursuit of greatness, is predicated upon the foundation of compete acceptance of the person; which in turn produces a mutual striving towards what is good. The force that propels the student (or disciple) forward, is not the fear of rejection and humiliation from behind (as with Fletcher); but the embrace of the other willing them forward towards a beautiful conclusion. That could be a parent leading a child towards career goals, but we also see it in the Christian story of God embracing us ;ole a Father- and leading us towards holiness, purity, and Christlikeness.

Grace is the very idea that meticulously high standards and goals are not to be lowered, but that people are to be loved and valued even while those high standards are being worked towards. The fear of rejection is not the great stimulus to progress; but the grasping of a magnificent vision is.

Whiplash is a great film which unsurprisingly won prizes at The Sundance Film Festival upon its release in 2014, followed by five academy award nominations. The plot is intriguing, the dialogue alarming, and the acting intense and frightening. Allegedly based on the author’s real experiences at a leading American musical college; it demonstrates the nature of abusive power-relationships, where the people are forgotten in the pursuit of some goal or accomplishment. Simmons’ searing portrayal of Fletcher will remain the most poignant memory of Whiplash, and a sombre reminder of how ugly humanity looks when we use people to serve things, rather than things to serve people.

I am intrigued when I speak to people who imagine that God looks something like Terence Fletcher. After all, God is perfect and demands perfection – and is a judge who offers both rewards and punishments. Mercifully though that is where the comparison ends. The Christian faith says that God will embrace and accept us as we are, to then lead us towards perfection. He doesn’t lower His standards but lifts us towards them. Most remarkably of all, at the cross of Christ we see that the person who gets broken to achieve that is Him and not us. There is a price worth paying for perfection, and the message of grace is that that Christ has paid it for us. The genius of Whiplash is that it shows us what perfection without grace would look like, how destructive that would be and how much we need it in human relationships but ultimately from God.

Whiplash is available on DVD, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Good News in South Glasgow

At Solas we love working with local churches to put on low-key outreach events in their communities, to share the gospel with people who don’t come to church, essentially. We often use neutral venues to do this, sometimes they take place inside church premises too.

Our friends at South Glasgow Church opened their doors, and offered food, a friendly welcome and good hospitality to their neighbours and invited them in. They asked me to speak on a topic they thought would interest people in their community and chose “the pursuit of happiness” for the evening. It’s based on the idea that we look for happiness in all the wrong places.

It’s actually one of my favourite evangelistic topics to speak on because it is so accessible and understandable to people with no background in church, working knowledge of the Bible, or a Christian worldview.

I got the basic framework for this talk from a friend in Canada, and it really is very helpful for people. It’s based on the ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who suggested that there are four levels of happiness and that true satisfaction in life only comes when all four levels are addressed.

The first level of happiness is ‘animal happiness’. That’s the happiness that comes when our basic needs for things like food and sex are met. However, only pursuing these things leads people into dissatisfaction and unhappiness because of diminishing returns. If you eat a doughnut, it’s great, but if you eat another and then another eventually you feel ill. And of course, our culture encourages us to treat sex the way we treat food and that has just caused chaos. There’s nothing inherently wrong with food and sex either – just that we are clearly designed for more than just those things so if you try and live at that level you end up simply unhappy.

If level one doesn’t satisfy you have to move up to level two. Level two , is the comparison game in which you gain a degree of satisfaction by doing better than somebody else at something -perhaps by winning in a sport, coming top of your university class, or climbing the career ladder. Again, there is nothing wrong with competition per se, in fact healthy competition can be a fun part of life. If it is the only thing you are living for though, you will have a problem because you won’t be at the top for ever. Eventually someone will join the sports team who is faster than you, or someone else will be promoted over you, or be the boss’s favourite and one day you will flunk an exam. It is also exhausting, if you have to justify your miserable existence by constant performing. If you try and gain happiness through the pursuit of level two happiness, you’ll just end up unhappy.

So, if you are unhappy at level two, what do you do? You have to go up to level three happiness! Level three happiness comes from living for others, pouring your life into somebody else. Parenting and charity work are two great examples of very rewarding things that we do, which can produce this kind of happiness. The problem here is that you can’t totally live for others, not least because if you do your job really well, they will no longer need you. ”The Empty Nest Syndrome” is what we call the sadness some parents feel when their job is done and the kids no longer need them. Worse than that, the great atheist philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche pointed out that if you are serving others in order to pursue happiness – you’re not actually doing it for others but in fact being selfish! It’s a very pointed critique, and all means that if you try this you will ultimately end up being unhappy.

The only answer is to find level four happiness. That means finding something truly bigger than you to stake your identity, meaning and happiness on. For Christians that is all about realising that life should ultimately be about worship. That is discovering happiness in loving, knowing, worshipping and being known by the God of the whole universe who created us and designed us for relationship with Him. The great thing about that is that it is not competitive in that you don’t have to earn it God’s love. Also, you can’t outgrow it, and when you have learnt to locate your satisfaction there it liberates you to enjoy other things. Parenthood, charitable work, competition, food and sex – become things that we do desperately trying to justify ourselves – but become good gifts that we can give thanks to God for because they are in their proper place. In contrast I knew a guy who told me that prior to becoming a Christian he had lived at level three. He had placed his family on such a pedestal and idolised them in ways they could never live up to. He said that he almost destroyed his marriage, and drove his kids away before he became a Christian and started to put things the right way round.

It was good to see that there were some non-Christian people who were there for event in South Glasgow. And I have found that with that talk I very rarely get any push-back. It always seems to open up really thoughtful, positive conversations.

If you would be interested in running an evangelistic event for your community along these lines, them have a look at this article entitled, “Taking the Gospel Outside the Four Walls of the Church” : Café Style Evangelism in Six Easy Steps. If you’d like to invite a Solas speaker to help you on the night, please do get in touch. We work all over the country, with churches large and small. We’d love to hear from you.

Jenny Hamill from the church wrote, ” It was great to welcome friends from the local community to our evening with Andy. As we considered ‘the pursuit of happiness’ there was opportunity to listen, question and even debate a little!  The message of hope in Jesus was clear – that we experience true joy, whatever our circumstances, when we know Him as our Saviour and friend.”

PEP Talk with Jon & Penny Thorp

Sometimes you just need a bit of enthusiasm to get out there and do it! Today on PEP Talk, Andy chats with a couple engaged in old-fashioned street evangelism and tract distribution.  Having seen God work through these in their own lives, Jon and Penny encourage their church family to be actively speaking to others at work, in the community and on the High Street.

With Jon and Penny Thorp PEP Talk

Our Guests

Jon & Penny Thorp met through their work driving buses in West London. Penny was saved through an addiction recovery program and Jon came to the Lord in 2019 after knowing Penny for six years. They are now married and active at Feltham Evangelical Church.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.

From Athens to Swindon – Andy at Pattern Church

Pattern Church in Swindon is the church that my family and I have been attending since we moved to the area last year. It’s a fairly new church plant in the Church of England, which was supported by Holy Trinity Brompton. It meets in an old factory dating back to the days when Swindon was a massive railway town built around the headquarters of the Great Western Railway (GWR). Half the town was these enormous engineering facilities, for the railway. That has nearly all gone now, but those enormous buildings remain and Pattern Church have got one of them and built their worship centre in. The name “Pattern Church” comes from the history of their building as the Pattern Factory which held all the engineering templates for the GWR.

It’s a lively church with lots of young families. It’s also got lots of new Christians in it too – people who are very new to faith. Being planted by HTB they have loads of ALPHA related mission going on, something really central to their ethos.

They asked me to preach at Pattern Church with a mandate to really help and encourage Christians to share their faith with their friends and work, home and school. One of the things about ALPHA is that it depends on people in the church bringing their friends along, which in turns depends on them having helpful conversations outside the church!

So I drew some lessons from a favourite passage of scripture to do this, Paul’s visit to Athens as recorded in Acts 17. In Athens Paul first of all toured the town and learned about the culture by careful observation. He looked at the sorts of things that dominated Athenian life, which were idols and temples and the busy religious life of the city. He then looks for a connecting point with culture and finds it in the ‘idol to an unknown god’ and doesn’t begin by criticising or denouncing it; but he builds off it. He commends them for their religiosity and proceeds to tell them about the unknown God. So I showed how that is a model for today, finding the things that our friends are into (not unknown gods in the literal sense) but things like justice, identity, the environment, or meaning. The task then is to show people the way in which that thing is great – but that these things makes little sense on their own. In fact – they only really make sense when embedded in a Christian worldview. Many people are looking for good things, but looking in all the wrong places.

It’s the approach we have taken here on the Solas website with the Have You Ever Wondered? series, starting with people’s everyday concerns and showing how they work in a biblical framework.

If you are a Fecbook user, you can watch the talk on this link, starting at 44 minutes.

The Road to Emmaus – and Maddiston!

It was good for Solas to renew our friendship with Maddiston Community Church. Maddiston is a village in the Falkirk area of Scotland’s centrla belt – and we’ve known the folks down there for many years.  I went down to Maddiston to speak about the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples on the road to Emmaus for Solas – and to conclude the church’s series on the book of Luke. You can watch the whole message here.

Maddiston Community Church is the same fellowship that used to be known as Maddiston Evangelical Church. I asked them why they changed their name and they explained that while the term ‘evangelical’ accurately describes their theology, the term is widely misunderstood by folks in the community around them. An extreme example is a man who thought that it meant it was some kind of right-wing American import, with some connection to Donald Trump!

Thanksfully I wasn’t invited to Maddiston to talk about politics, but to talk about the transforming message of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what happened to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road as they trudged wearily home from Jerusalem after the crucifixion. Their hopes were dashed, and their understanding of how the Kingdom of God would arrive, lay in pieces. The very last thing they were expecting was to meet with Jesus – in fact they were going the wrong way completely. In addiiton to that they couldn’t see Jesus, they were dissiluioned with religion, confused about God and their efforts to figure it out themselves had failed. At Maddiston, we looked at the way in which the risen Christ overcame all these problems for the disiples – and how he can do the same for us today.

You can watch the talk in the link above, and read the original story in Luke’s gospel here: