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Lee McDade, The Army & The Good News..

by Editor

Lee McDade spends his days as a Christian missionary to Britain’s armed forces, which is perhaps a surprising vocation for someone who once said he wanted nothing to do with Christianity or the Army! His official title is “Army Scripture Reader”, an archaic phrase which he tells me goes back to the Napoleonic Wars, when the readers literally read the Bible to the illiterate soldiers in the lines. These days he’s much more likely to be found giving a copy of the New Testament to a soldier than reading it to one; but the role of offering spiritual support to the Armed Forces, with the Army Chaplains, has remained the same, as has the gospel message he shares. And, just like those original Scripture Readers he carries a Bible with him wherever he goes, and often opens it and shares its message.  He works for SASRA , the “Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association”, who trace their work back to 1818, but have been organised under that name since 1938.

When I spoke to Lee, he was in uniform, in his office on Wattisham Camp in Suffolk from where the Army Air Corp fly Apache Helicopters. There, he shares army life with over 2000 people that he’s called to serve. Despite his cheery disposition, Lee is an imposing figure, who sized me up as ‘non-military’ within our first few seconds of meeting (correctly!). All SASRA scripture readers are former military personnel Lee explained, something really important for getting alongside soldiers as a trusted colleague who understands the unique pressures of active service as well as Army culture. As I spoke to Lee, it struck me that he was a brilliant example of what incarnational mission is supposed to be. After all, when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about how much he cared for them he said, “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” (1 Thess2:8) The more I listened to Lee, the more I saw a contemporary example of what that looks like. His commitment to the gospel of Jesus was as transparent as his obvious concern for the soldiers he serves – and his enthusiasm for mission infectious. “It’s an amazing privilege for me to serve amongst some of the best men and women I’ve ever worked with.” Lee says.

Lee has been with SASRA for 13 years. “I wasn’t a Christian when I was in the Army,” he recalls, “In fact, I hated Christianity as a soldier. My last tour of duty was in Bosnia, after which I left, angry and disillusioned. I began searching for answers, and as a result I became a Christian in 1999.” When I asked Lee about how he’d been called into SASRA his answer was intriguing. “I felt called to full-time ministry as soon as I was converted, I just wanted to share Jesus with as many people as possible”, he said. His calling into this work followed a decade later, when life with soldiers beckoned once again for Lee and his family.

Gütersloh, Catterick and Wattisham, are the bases Lee has served, and he says the archaic title “scripture reader” is really helpful. “A what?” is a common reaction when he is introduced, which gives him an opportunity to share his testimony and the hope he has in Christ. “My ministry consists of four P’s”, says Lee. “Prayer, presence, patrol and proclamation – and I do all four of those every day.”

When I asked Lee what a typical day in his ministry looks like he said. “When go into camp, I never know what is going to happen. So I make myself present – available to the soldiers, we are an arm of military welfare. Then I pray and I work with the chaplains. Then I go on patrol, I literally walk round the camp and chat to soldiers and civilian personnel. Where people are interested in the hope I have in Christ, I share that. Then I run Bible studies for anyone who wants to come.”

Every scripture reader works in different ways, but Lee says his favourite thing is just to walk around the camp, and strike up conversations. Opportunities are endless – and all that is in addition to garrison church services, Bible studies, prayer meetings and counselling services. Scripture Readers are often the first person a soldier with deep pastoral needs will confide in, and the welfare and chaplaincy teams value that, and the readers often refer people on for further assistance. “My business is to point people to Christ, and for that I use the Bible, my testimony and their questions as my main tools” Lee says – “I don’t do many formal evangelistic courses, I just open the Bible and share Jesus with them.”

“People are constantly interested in where I get my hope from – and I tell them it’s from my faith in Jesus – that’s what I’m here for” – says Lee. He clearly loves the people he serves, and he loves the gospel but regards the admin of the job as a necessary evil! “I often head for the smoking shelters and other social areas” Lee says, “I know there will be soldiers hanging about there, ready to chat, they are always a good places to be.”

Access to Army camps for Scripture readers like Lee is based on a memorandum of understanding between the MOD, SASRA and the Chaplaincy department, and they operate under the chaplaincy structures. “The fact that we are all ex-servicemen and women is really helpful for that relationship” Lee explained. “There’s a bit of red-tape to go through, but we are officially accepted and the Military (Army and RAF) really appreciate our welfare work with the soldiers. We don’t take our access to bases for granted, we work hard to get and maintain it because our ministry here is unique.”

Lee recalls that his time serving with the school of infantry was especially significant. Most of the soldiers there were young men, between 17 and 30 years of age who asked him all the questions of life. “Is there a God?”, “Why do you believe?”, “Why is there evil in the world?”, are just some of the questions he has been asked. Recruits there were being trained for the reality of war, and that generated all manner of profound questions which Chaplains and Scripture Readers are there to help with. “Your average young person maybe hasn’t thought much about death, but then they go to classes on morality in combat, dealing with mortality and so forth, and it makes them really think.” Lee notes. “When I first joined SASRA we were losing people every week in Afghanistan and we were working alongside young people preparing to go there and serve; and asking all those deep questions. Soldiers will ask anything – it’s a good job we’re all ex-military because nothing shocks us!” Lee said with a wry chuckle.

The ministry of the Scripture Readers can be hard work, punctuated with times of great blessing as well as what Lee calls “desert times”. Yet he says, it is unusual when he doesn’t have at least one gospel conversation in a day’s work. He says he’s learned to persevere through dry periods, trust God and “roll with the punches”. Technology has changed Lee’s ministry too, soldiers who get posted to other parts of the country or the world no longer disappear from his radar; but keep in contact with him through Facebook, WhatsApp and email. Lee says, “The Army is a small world, and veterans like to keep in touch with each other – to talk to people who have gone through similar experiences as them, so I am in touch with a lot of people all over the place.”

“When I share Jesus, some people avoid me, some mock, some agree, some ask questions and some say they want to know more about him and some trust in Him. It’s not a daily occurrence to lead someone to Christ, but it is without doubt the best possible thing to be part of. I’m a great believer in sowing as much gospel seed as possible. I heard the gospel again and again when I was a soldier and rejected it everytime, and only became a Christian years later when that seed bore fruit in my life. So even when people reject it, I don’t lose hope, but keep offering Jesus to them” says Lee.

I found speaking to Lee McDade both encouraging and inspiring, he’s clearly a man with a clear calling, in the right place, doing the right thing. I loved the way he is so committed both Jesus and the people he serves which is really a model for us all to follow in whatever field we find ourselves. As we drew our conversation to a close, because he was needed out on the base, he asked if Christians reading this could pray for him in his ministry. I couldn’t refuse a great request like that!

As you read this, the chances are that Lee McDade is standing in a soldiers smoking shelter, or in the post office queue, telling a young helicopter technician about the love of Christ. “Please pray for good opportunities for me to speak about Jesus”, he says – “and for wisdom and perseverance when things are tough. Ministry is a spiritual battle, a fierce spiritual battle, which can be hard so please do pray. We’re a charity, so you can pray for our finances too!”

Finally, speaking to Lee McDade made me think of Paul’s words in Colossians 1:3-6.

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Nottingham-Trent CU Mission Week

by Editor

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at Nottingham Trent University CU Mission week where I did three events for them. Two of the events were “Open forums” and the subjects they wanted me to look at were around Jesus and the Gospels. Firstly we tackled, “Man, myth or God?”. and examined the way in which if you actually take the time to examine the things Jesus said and did, it is impossible to slot him into the “good man” category. You really do have to either accept that he was who he said he was –God on the flesh – or reject him entirely. Secondly we looked at the reliability of the gospels in which I focused on the evidence that the gospels contains eye-witness testimony of the events of Jesus’ life.

As ever, at Solas events we followed the talk with Q&A – and it was great to see that some sceptics had joined the meeting, a collection of atheists and a Muslim too. We extended the Q&A on the other session I did for them – and did a meeting which was set aside exclusively for engaging with people’s questions. And we got all manner of questions about all kinds of subjects!

One of the most encouraging things has been to hear that a couple of the students who attended the mission have gone onto do some follow-up meetings with the CU. So I was invited back to their small-group to have some more intensive discussions, responding for example to the concerns of a young Muslim who is interested in Christianity. An atheist student is coming to those sessions, with entirely different set of ideas, assumptions and questions too. It was really great to be able to chat to them about the resurrection of Jesus – and why that makes sense and is important. It really was such a joy and privilege to be able to work with the Nottingham Trent CU and their friends.

What Is Christianity All About?

by Solas

What is Christianity all about? Many of our Short Answers videos respond to questions or objections about Christianity: but we increasingly meet people who don’t actually know what Christianity is. In this short film, Solas speaker Gareth Black explains the heart of the Christian faith — and why it is such amazingly Good News.

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The Intellectualism Gap

by Editor

Like many people, I am deeply grateful for Christian apologetics. It’s developed my own faith and confidence that Christianity is true; it’s given me a wealth of resources for communicating my belief in God effectively in the public square. Most of all, it has enriched and stimulated me intellectually. I am the kind of person who has a strong affinity for ideas, for books by dead people which those outside the hallowed halls of academic have never heard of, for arguments and counterarguments, for information, philosophical dialogue… yes, even for footnotes! I once feared that Christianity could never stimulate me intellectually the way that my studies of mathematics, history or biology could. Though my mind was being stretched in physics or literature, my early experiences of church suggested that my Christianity could never invigorate my intelligence to the same degree but was destined to remain at a rudimentary, Sunday-school level. Unfortunately, far too many Christians have assumed the same thing. I was completely wrong, however. And it was being introduced to world of Christian apologetics – as well as to some incredible mentors who taught me how intellectually rich the Bible actually is – that I discovered that Christianity could be as much, if not more, intellectually stimulating than my other academic interests.

Yet as appreciative as I am of the importance of developing our minds as Christians, and as someone now thoroughly embedded in the world of apologetics and academic theology, I have come to recognise the real perils in these enterprises that coexist alongside their promises. I confess that I often find it considerably easier to spend countless hours swimming in the pools of Christian apologetics than spend ten minutes in concentrated, heartfelt prayer before the Lord. In fact, I am regularly guilty of allowing my investment in these areas to only serve to satisfy my own intellectual appetites or, at most, allow me a contribution with a niche Christian apologetics subculture. It never, therefore, transcends to serve meaningful engagement with unbelievers. In other words, Christian apologetics can often become an end in itself, rather than a crucial means by which we might effectively make straight the paths for others towards Jesus and shine the light of the Gospel within public spaces. This is the Intellectualism Gap to sharing the gospel of Jesus.

Of course, we need to be careful that whilst seeking to avoid any pitfalls of Christian intellectualism we do not throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater by angling ourselves towards an equivalent error of anti-intellectual theology. A ‘simple faith’ is not by definition a stronger, more authentic faith and there is no inherent tension between deep Christian devotion and enriching our God-given minds by thinking more deeply and developing our intellectual potential. We need to avoid what John Stott once referred to as ‘… the misery and menace of mindless Christianity.’[1] There is no necessary tension between human reason and divine revelation. Rather, we use our reason to understand what God has uniquely and sovereignly revealed, for as Stott further highlights, the God of the Bible ‘… is a rational God, who made us in his own image rational beings, has given us in nature and in Scripture a double, rational revelation, and expects us to use our minds to explore what he has revealed.’[2] Elemental to Christianity is the command to worship the Lord with our minds (Matt. 22:37; Mk. 12:30).

So we can clearly see that developing our minds is fundamental to what it means to follow Jesus. Yet the bible also cautions us about the potential snares pursuing knowledge as an end in itself can harbour. It can puff people up with conceit or senses of superiority that make it extremely difficult to be loving and generous towards others (1 Cor 8:1). It can even subtly delude us that theoretical knowledge and information about God and faith in God are synonymous. They are, of course, related but we can run into all kinds of problems if we conflate the two.

Christian intellectualism also contains the potential to impede our evangelism. Let’s consider two ways in which it might do so…

First, it can become a weapon of mass distraction. C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters imaginatively captured the hazard to faith of being distracted by things that, on the surface, might appear virtuous or even of spiritual benefit. In Letter XII the senior demon Screwtape advises his young nephew Wormwood that one of the most effective methods of hampering a Christian’s faith is not by temptation to some lurid vice but by continually occupying their attention with otherwise good things, which become ends in themselves and ultimately distract that Christian from real engagement with God. Screwtape writes that the lure of occupying our time and attention with these distractions, most especially if they have a veneer of spiritual substance, can become extremely strong. He reminds the junior demon Wormwood:

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards do the trick.[3]

Lewis’s insight is as sobering as it is brilliant: ‘…the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man [or woman] from the Enemy [i.e. Christ].’ In other words, Satan’s number one priority in the life of a believer is to do all that he can to disconnect them from sincere and meaningful engagement with God as a person, rather than a theory. One of the most effective strategies for this is to encourage them to invest their energies in things that may be moral, even Christian, in their content but which distract them from God himself. It is all too possible that, as beneficial as Christian apologetics can be as a means to augment our personal faith and public witness, it can also become an end in itself whose cumulative effect is, ironically, to subtly circumvent these activities.

What might this look like? It could be that we spend so much time watching videos of our favourite apologists on Youtube or listening to apologetics podcast episodes that we are left with neither the time nor the inclination to build meaningful friendships with actual non-Christians. It could that we are so thoroughly initiated in the niche questions, discussions, and vernacular of our favoured apologetics social media groups  that, either we can only assume, rather than know from real experience what the particular obstacles to faith for the unbelievers in our world might be. It might mean that we can only address such questions abstractly, akin to answering a question on a Philosophy exam rather than meaningfully connecting with a real person in a way that honours their emotions, experiences and personality in addition to their reasoning. It could ever be that our fascinations and sense of value has been so conditioned by the apologetics subcultures that, in all honesty, our attentiveness to others – whether non-Christians or recent believers – is limited because they do not share our particular interests or intellectually stimulate us enough to wish a deeper relational investment with them.

A second way that Christian intellectualism or allowing apologetics to become an end in itself can disable evangelism is by its temptation to place our faith in our intellect rather than God. As Christians, we are called to trust God for the effectiveness of our evangelism and use our intellect. Yet, as people who rightly value the brilliant resource of intellect and education, we can unconsciously shift our faith functionally from God to our reason. Paul was all too aware of this danger when he arrived in Corinth to proclaim the Gospel. He writes in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5…

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Some have misinterpreted this passage by suggesting that Paul is here discounting the use of intellect and education in favour of the Spirt, which is a false dichotomy. The heart of Paul’s message here is not about what methods we ought or ought not to not use in sharing the Gospel but about where we ultimately place our trust (faith) for the power that transforms hearts and minds. Paul himself was brilliant thinker, able to compete with the best and brightest minds of his day (cf. Acts 17:17-34). When necessary, he put his educational credentials and intellectual prowess to use in order to gain a hearing for the Gospel. However, Paul was also very aware that certain groups such as the Corinthians were unhealthily enamoured with intelligence, elegant oratory skills and personality gravitas, so much so that there was a real danger that they would place their faith in the truth of Paul’s message on the basis of his sophisticated rhetoric rather than the power of God. So committed was Paul to the Corinthians placing their faith in Christ on the right basis that he intentionally avoided using these elements of his skillset. Instead he came to them in ‘weakness’, knowing nothing among them ‘except Christ and him crucified’. In that sense, Paul used his reason but he didn’t trust in it and certainly didn’t want others to trust in Jesus because of it. Where his credentials and intellect became a potential distraction or stumbling block to people anchoring their faith in the power of God alone, Paul was free enough and devoted to the Gospel enough to not use them. This is the difference between using our intelligence in evangelism but trusting God, and subtly trusting our learning and only using God when we get stuck. There is always the danger of this latter offence in Christian apologetics. It’s the kind of problem that leads to things like devoting ourselves to endless hours of downloading content from thinkers/speakers we admire but spending virtually no time before God in prayer in order that we might access his power and wisdom. It can lead to fraudulent academic credential inflation or the constant need to embark on further programmes of study in the hope that it will guarantee us power and influence among people we admire and platforms we would like to occupy. And, like the Corinthians, it can also lead to immature forms of sectarianism (1 Cor. 3:1-10), judging ourselves against others in the apologetics world, or juxtaposing speakers against each other (like the real Twitter account that pits well-known apologists against each other and asks followers to vote on their favourite!) or identifying ourselves with particular thinkers over and against others on the basis of who impresses us most with their intelligence or communication All of these are evidences that we have shifted our faith from God and his power to the force of our own intellect. The peril of doing so – other than the obvious fact that this is not where spiritual power and influence truly reside – is that it will leave us feeling either unwarrantedly overconfident or continually inferior and insecure.

So as brilliant a resource as information or knowledge or apologetics often is in developing our faith and public witness to Christ, it is important that we are humble and vigilant enough to recognise when they might be becoming an end in themselves. We must continually remember that God is a person, not a theory, and ultimately expects to be related to on that basis, either by ourselves personal or by those we might be representing Christianity to.

So if we think we may be in any danger of falling into the Intellectualism Gap with our evangelism, what can we do? Let me very briefly suggest three responses:

  1. Take some time before the Lord to think about your relationship with philosophical/theological thinking or Christian apologetics and honestly evaluate what sort of fruit it is producing in your life. If it is only stimulating you intellectually but not actually drawing you into a deeper active faith relationship with God, or motivating you to meaningfully engage with actual unbelievers and sceptics (as opposed to abstract sceptical arguments!), it may be time to take a step back, and perhaps even repent of some elements of intellectual idolatry. Talk to a trusted Christian leader about your relationship with apologetics, or even reach out to us here at Solas and we would be only too happy to listen and offer any advice we feel might be helpful. Remember Pauls words 1 Corinthians 6:12: “I have the right to do anything”–but I will not be mastered by anything.’
  2. Consider a period of fasting from podcasts or your favourite apologists or Christian thinkers on Youtube and, instead, invest some time in developing friendships and evangelistic conversations with friends, neighbours or colleagues. Why not sign up to help at an Alpha or Christianity Explored course or even launch your own evangelistic event with supportive members of your local faith community. Yes, you may not find it as intellectually stimulating as the latest episode of Premier’s Unbelievable or Philosophy Bites, but if it allows you to actually discover actual – rather than presume upon – the questions or concerns of real people with whom you can walk a faith journey with it will be more than worth the sacrifice.
  3. I am convinced that one of the greatest antidotes to the Intellectualism Gap to faith or evangelism is an active prayer life. I so often forget that prayer is actually the deep end of the pool where all of my thinking comes together in glorious contemplation and conversation with the living God. There is no greater use nor higher purpose of the human mind than this: to know God and be known by him in living, personal relationship. Prayer is the place where our minds are stimulated to grasp more of the ‘depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’, yet paradoxically sobered in acknowledgement of ‘how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and inscrutable his ways!’ (Romans 11:33); here our hearts are warmed to capture God’s abounding love for lost people; and here we access the true source of spiritual power and authority that will put our feeble thoughts and words to incredible and eternal use in calling prodigals come. If forms of Christian intellectualism are creating a gap in our evangelism, prayer is the means to fill that gap in.

[1] John Stott, Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 17.

[2] Ibid, The Contemporary Christian: An Urgent Plea for Double Listening(Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 115.

[3] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (London: HarperCollins, 2012), 60.

Encouragements from Cork

by Editor
Mission in Cork

This is the fifth or sixth year that University College Cork CU has run a Mission Week, and every year they are developing news skills and building on previous years. Last year was the first time they attempted having so many talks, both lunchtime and evening, and saw the benefit of being able to cover a wide variety of issues and topics within the week. This year, one of the changes was having just one or two speakers for the whole week. allowing them to build a connection with the crowd who were coming along. As the CU members confidence in the speaker grew they got bolder inviting friends, and people came back to hear the speaker again.

This year, obviously, being a Covid-year, brought a lot of challenges. One of those was how to get the first years, who have fully been participating in CU in an online format, to feel part of things and to be trained up in mission. Another was how to reach people well, in general, and how to engage with them on campus when we wouldn’t be able to invite students into a warm, welcoming, physical space.

Some Encouragements & Highlights

Firstly, the first years really did get engaged and have got a much better grasp on the idea that CU is a missional body.

It is encouraging that even in a year where things were a lot harder, the CU are still learning, growing, and building on what has gone before. The week certainly contributed to building the CU into a stronger mission team, and the effects of it will go on to impact evangelism in the next term and beyond.

A major highlight for me was the difference the week made with two particular non-Christian students. “J2 is a first year who just came along out of interest, as he wanted to get to know some more folks at UCC. He came to three out of the five events, and stayed afterwards to chat with CU folks. At the first one he came to, a lunchbar on Institutionalised Religion that Gareth was speaking at, and stayed for the whole length of the thing, even though it was the same talk repeated twice! He really got to know people, and that he is now connected into the community of the CU. He came along to the first mission week follow up event, an Uncover Mark study, and as he’s in the city some of us are planning to meet up with him in person for a walk and a chat.

The other encouraging story was “A” who has been coming along sporadically to CU meetings since Christmas, seeking community in these isolated times. I thought he wasn’t going to end up coming to any events over the two weeks, but he did come to the last one, about the cross! He was really engaged as we chatted in breakout rooms, and it’s so great to know that he has heard the gospel and the meaning of the cross explained so clearly. He also came along to one of the follow-up studies, and already knows one of the CU students who is keeping in touch with him.

– Contribution of Gareth:

As I’ve said, one of the main aims from my end for this week was that the CU students see that having a consistent speaker over the whole of the Missions Week(s) was very beneficial in terms of engagement and connection. I think having Gareth as one of the speakers really helped to solidify that notion, as he did such a great job in presenting the gospel clearly and answering the questions that were raised, both by the talk titles and in the Q&As. I think the CU students got to see a clear demonstration of how we can take peoples’ objections and question seriously, but also make sure that the gospel shines out, and that every talk points people to Jesus. In recording short videos for the CU to share over the week, Gareth also helped make the mission week clearly present on social media. That helped us a lot in terms of extending the reach of the weeks beyond the people who came along to the zoom events. Gareth’s experience of speaking into a student context was also really helpful, as the talks were pitched really well and, although he didn’t have the benefit of being a local, he took the time to engage well with the context into which he was speaking.

Solas’s Gareth Black said, “I haven’t done a CU events week in Cork before, so this was breaking new ground for me personally – and I loved it. The theme we developed with the students was “Love Is”. We really tried to build some confidence in the credibility of Christianity, especially around the issue of the character of God – which the students in Cork see as a critical element in their gospel witness. I did seven talks and four Q&A sessions over the fortnight, which was both quite intense and a brilliant opportunity! My talks included “Why isn’t God more obvious?”, “How can God be good when there is suffering?”, “Why did Jesus have to die?”, “Harm & Hypocrisy: Wouldn’t the world be a better place without Christianity?” The CU there were brilliant to work with, and it was great to in partnership with our friends at CUI again too.”

Student Feedback

“Throughout the Missions Week planning I have been learning that as long as God is in the centre, that is all that matters. He will come in power, unrestricted by Zoom” – Cian

 “I really enjoyed having an opportunity to delve into deeper issues in faith and confront them in a community that felt safe and open minded. It really blessed me to listen to speakers who were so sensitive and respectful, while also not shying away from the big questions!” – Sinéad

“For me it was a great week because I could hear about the topic of love in a more detailed context. It was also surprising to see how ‘love’ can be included in so many topics. I specifically enjoyed the talk about mental health and that God doesn’t think any less of us just because we may struggle with it. That really resonated with me.” – Laura

“The talks were delivered at a really good level for where students were actually at, and the questions they are genuinely asking. It felt like the speakers took the talk titles that were given to them and really made some great talks out of them. The talks were spot-on theologically, and also engaged with people well at an intellectual level. The big topics that we broached over the weeks were all dealt with sensitively and well. The local Cork context was also linked in well, and it didn’t feel isolating to people from a Catholic or non-religious background at all. The answers given at the question and answer sessions were great.”  –  The CU Planning Committee

Hannah Irwin is a Staff Worker with Christian Unions Ireland covering Cork and Tralee

Evidence for Design: The Clues to a Creator in the Natural World

by Solas

This webinar is centered around David Galloway’s latest book – Design Dissected, which explores aspects of genuine design in the natural world. This evidence presents real challenges to a naturalistic world-view and this webinar seeks to highlight some of these challenges and why belief in a designing God is a reasonable conclusion.

PEP Talk Podcast With Ed Shaw

by Solas 1 Comment

Why are we afraid of talking about sexuality, especially when sharing our faith? Probably because many people today see religion as oppressive to their sexuality, and, by extension, their personal identity. However, today’s guest suggests that marriage and sexuality is one of the quickest routes into telling people about how much Jesus loves them and the hope He offers them.

With Ed Shaw – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Ed Shaw is the pastor of Emmanuel City Centre in Bristol and leads the team behind www.livingout.org. He loves his family and friends, church and city, gin and tonic, music and books. He’s the author of The Plausibility Problem and Purposeful Sexuality (both IVP).

Find his books by searching for Ed Shaw at 10ofThose.com

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.

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Frontlines / Christians at Work : The Artist

by Editor

Philip Lawson Johnston is a glass engraver, who holds a Royal Warrant for his work. His website says: “My intention is to create on glass designs that not only are pleasing to the eye and accurate in what they portray, but also reflect in some way the care and attention to detail of the Creator, as observed in the world around us.” Gavin Matthews spoke to Philip for Solas, to find out how he shares Christ in the world of art.

Solas: Tell us a little about your job?

PLJ: Well in February this year I will have been a glass engraver for fifty years! It’s the only job I’ve ever had. I’ve been self-employed for all that time, as I suspect I am unemployable! I managed to fail my art A-level, and didn’t go to university. I was about twenty years of age and needed something to do, and really didn’t have a clue where to turn. Then it was suggested to me that should try glass engraving. My mother met a glass engraver, and there were very, very few of them around in 1971; it wasn’t something many people knew much about in the early 1970s. So I looked into it, with my brother – initially just to please our Mother. But we liked what we saw and we both decided to give it a go. My older brother Andy was a fellow Christian and a fellow engraver – which was a huge encouragement to me for the rest of his life.

What the job entails is engraving glass using a dental laboratory drill. Designed initially to shape things like false teeth, these dental drills are hand held, and have diamond tipped burrs and so forth. The diamond encrusted tips are industrial strength and cut glass very well. There are various stone wheels too; a whole variety of tools, each of which gives a different effect. Engraving is much more than drawing on glass as there is a sculptural element to it too, as you cut into the glass; and the depth to which you cut in gives an effect as well.

90% of what I do is commissions, which could be anything from some initials on a glass; to a picture of somebody’s house, formal inscriptions, coats of arms, company logos; or more freehand work such as wildlife or landscape scenes (which is the part I enjoy the most). I taught myself calligraphy in order to engrave words into glass. My brother was better at calligraphy than me, so I copied him and have mastered three types of script which I usually use.

Solas: Which part of the job do you enjoy the most?

PLJ: Well, part of my nature is that I prefer curves to straight-lines! I like the freehand approach, which I prefer to the rigid and disciplined part of the work; which says a lot about my life in that I’m pretty undisciplined! I’ve had to learn the more structured side of the work as that is what I am often asked to do.

Solas: And you work alone?

PLJ: Yes, but although I work alone I have a lot of contacts with people. Through this work I have met a huge range of interesting people I never would have come across otherwise; people in all walks of life.

Solas: What are some of the challenges you face at work – and how does your faith in Christ help you to navigate those?

PLJ: One of them is gauging whether someone who wants some work is very prescriptive about how they want things done, with very precise instructions about how it is to look; or someone who is less so and is more prepared to let me produce something for them with more of my creative input.

Another in the life of a self-employed artist, has been times when there has been a lack of work. For fifty years in this field it has been ‘feast-or-famine’. There have been times when there has been an abundance of work, and times when it has got very thin. In times when the work hasn’t come in, the bills have kept coming! For me, the key to dealing with that has been prayer. There have been many times when I’ve got on my knees (along with many friends!) and prayed “Lord, I need work!” and I have to say that He has provided again and again and again. We’ve prayed and God has been amazingly good and has provided – sometimes most unexpectedly from sources that I would never have thought of. So, about four years ago someone contacted me, which led to engraving beautiful whisky decanters in China! It led to six long trips in the Far East. That came completely out of the blue, I hadn’t been thinking about how I could get into China!

Solas: But that was more of answer to prayer than a genius business strategy!?

PLJ: Definitely! There’s no strategy! I do try and do exhibitions though to show the work that I do, and there I can do work that I enjoy rather than just commissions, where I have far more creative free reign. I can be more experimental, and speak more loudly through it.

Solas: Do people know you are a Christian, how do people react to it when they do know?

PLJ: Well, being a Christian producing art always provokes the question “how obvious is my faith in my art?” –I n that my job is not to engrave a tract for people to read. Now I do produce quite a lot of obviously Christian art for churches – but that’s something different. But my work is not about producing a picture of a kitten with a Bible verse underneath! So, I have asked myself about how my art reflects my faith. What I have boiled it down to is looking at creation, and how that speaks to us. The veins on a leaf, or a sunset, extraordinary wildlife – how does that speak to us about the God who is behind it? Well, in creation you see an amazing attention to detail, every snowflake is different, every leaf is too, or look at the human eye. The detail is quiet unbelievable actually – it’s mind boggling. And I love detail – when I am engraving a bird for example, I love putting in tiny details of the markings, the surroundings. To me, that is a way of reflecting the care and the detail that God has placed in creation. I think that communicates something.

Another thing is that when I am doing more formal engraving, such as retirement gifts- I am helping people to say ‘thankyou’. Saying thankyou to someone with a personal, beautiful gift is a very valid thing, which speaks also of the care and goodness of God. Engendering thankfulness is a good way to live before God too.

Psalm 90 contains a particularly important verse for me, “May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us. Establish the work of our hands for us; yes establish the work of our hands” (v17). For me that is the motto for my work. From that I wrote my own mission statement for work which says: “My intention is to create on glass, designs which are not only pleasing to the eye and accurate in what they portray but also reflect in some way the care and attention to detail of the Creator as observed in the world around us.”

Solas: That’s lovely! So how do people respond to this? You obviously have contacts with customers, suppliers, business people..?

PLJ: Well, some don’t notice, they don’t have eyes to see! I sign every piece I engrave, usually under the bottom of the stem of a glass or bowl. I put my signature, the date and a something else. Sometimes a fish-symbol, – or if I’m feeling especially bold “Jesus Cares”. I want people to think, “why does he care?” I want them to see that he cares for the details of our lives, something I hope to reflect in the way I care for the details of my work. Generally people are respectful of my faith. There have only been a couple of times when I have had to refuse work, because of my faith. That was quite difficult when people wanted me to engrave things that my conscience wouldn’t allow. I have been asked to do, for example Masonic symbolism – and I really don’t like doing that. I’ve had to refuse commissions once or twice, and of course they don’t understand why. However for me, that crossed a red-line; there would be other red-lines I’d have to hold to if challenged too. Thankfully that’s been rare!

Solas: Have you had opportunities to talk about your faith to people you’ve met through your work?

PLJ: I once had an adverse reaction! Sometimes I’ve engraved “Soli Deo Gloria” into my pieces, (which is what Bach put on all his sheet music), because it means “To God alone be the glory”. I did that on the base of a set of glasses, and someone said it made them feel very awkward and uncomfortable when they washed them up! I thought, “Well, that’s alright”!

Solas: So your faith is obvious on your website, you are dropping these little inscriptions in and seeking to reflect something of God in the way you go about your art.. what motivates you to want to share your faith in Christ like this?

PLJ: Some years ago I wrote a book about worship called, “Song of the Father’s Heart” and I answered that question in there. In the last chapter entitled “Captured by the Wonder” (which is also the title of a song I wrote), I quoted C.S. Lewis who described an artist who starts by seeing the light, and then sets out to portray something of that light so that others may catch glimpses of it. But he then drifts into creating the art just for the sake of the art – and forgets to continue looking at the light, which then becomes obscured. This parable warns of the danger to every poet, musician or artist of becoming ever more interested in their own work and then their own personalities and then their own reputations. Only grace can save them from that deadly end.

And one sets out with the desire to encapsulate some of the light which one has received and let it shine in what one creates with one’s hands so that others will (hopefully and prayerfully) capture themselves. But the danger is of becoming so absorbed in the art that you actually that you lose your initial motivation. So I have to keep checking that and reminding myself that what I am doing is earning a living, but there is a missional element to it too. When I’m not engraving I do a lot of worship leading for churches, and writing and recording songs – and that is a more obvious and direct way of expressing my love for the Lord. But there is a connection between the two.

Solas: What advice would you give a young Christian entering your field of work who wants to be faithful to Christ there?

PLJ: Chose something more stable! No, I’m joking! I’d say to anyone, make integrity your top priority in everything you do. It is absolutely vital in art and in business. Integrity helps people to trust you – and that is so important. You can lose your integrity in a second, and the person is gone. Then after that, pursue excellence. Do the absolute best you can at all times. Now one person’s ‘best’ might be better than another person’s ‘best’, but each person should make sure that they are doing their best – and asking God to help you constantly improve. That’s as true in songwriting, worship leading as it is in art. In the long lists of names in Chronicles it mention Kennaniah who led the temple worship because he was good at it! Being good at it was commended. I’d also say that in art it’s OK to imitate others who have gone before you. Classical composers did it, The Beatles did it – we all need to learn from those who have gone ahead of us.

Solas: Thankyou for speaking to us!

PLJ: Thankyou!!

You Are Only a Christian Because of Your Upbringing

by Solas

Do Christians believe in Jesus just because of where they were born, or their upbringing, culture, or peer group? Solas speaker Gareth Black, who himself grew up in the very religious context of Northern Ireland, explains why this common claim rebounds on atheism — and helps us think about how we can really know if our beliefs are true.

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Frontlines / Christians at Work : The Politician

by Editor

In this edition of Frontlines we enter the world of politics. Sir Gary Streeter MP is the chair of the Christians in Parliament Group – a cross party group of MPs who share a Christian faith. Gavin Matthews spoke to Sir Gary for Solas, about what it’s like to be a Christian in politics.

Solas: Thankyou for joining us, Sir Gary! Tell us, a little about the work of an MP – which might be different in practice to what we might imagine!

GS: Hi Gavin. Well, I was a lawyer for the first ten years of my career until I felt called into politics, and  initially leant my trade as a city councillor in Plymouth before becoming an MP in 1992. Now as an MP, I am one of 650 members making laws on behalf of the nation each representing about 70,000 adult constituents. We raise issues in parliament, we run campaigns, (everyone has their own special interests), then thirdly we are there to help individual constituents with their problems. Weekly surgeries are busy, as people come with all sorts of problems and we do our best to ‘unlock’ the system – whether it’s the local council, the benefit agency etc.

Solsas: And of all those things, what gives you the most job satisfaction?

GS: That’s an interesting question! I’ve been in Westminster for 28 years now and what I’ve always found is that helping people with their individual problems has been the most satisfactory element of the job. The vast majority of people who come to MP’s surgeries are doing their best in life, and just need a bit of help. And it is a pleasure to be able to help them.

Solas: What are some of the challenges you face in your work, and how does your faith in Christ help you to navigate them?

GS: I wouldn’t be a member of parliament if I wasn’t a Christian. I got saved aged 23, and by the age of 30 knew very little about politics really. But I felt a very distinct calling into the world of politics. I came back from a day of prayer and fasting to try and discern what God had for my future and shared this with my wife and her reaction was, “Oh No!” and she was right! So I really wouldn’t be in this field if I wasn’t a Christian and felt this calling.

There are so many challenges, but I think that it is very good to have a compass; something to guide you. I dislike it when Christians think that there easy answers to the very complex issues we face in a messy world; there are grey areas which we need to learn to navigate with skill and wisdom. So tussling over issues is just as hard for believers as for non-believers. But we do so with a compass and a map – and that is quite useful.

Most MPs are away from their families three or four days a week too – and that is a tough call and a real sacrifice. I often say to my wife, “I love you” and she replies, “So much that you get on the train on a Monday and don’t come back until Friday!” However, we know that this is a calling for which there is a sacrifice, but also much fruit too.

The other thing is that politics can be absolutely nasty at times. As Christians we like to think the best of other people, take them at face value, and we don’t like to promote ourselves. Well, you have to turn all that on its head in politics, you have to promote yourself and you have to be wise (if not cynical) about other people’s agendas. So, it takes a lot of learning. So any young person feeling a call into politics should take their time, let God set the timing and learn the trade at a grass roots level on a local council. It’s a minefield out there and I’ve seen young Christians get ‘blown-up’ if they attack it too quickly.

Solas: How does your faith make a difference to the way you approach the work itself? You’ve talked about having a map, a compass and a calling. How does that affect your work?

GS: Twenty-eight years ago when I started out people used to say to me, “How can you be a Christian involved in politics?” Well, hardly anyone says that to me now. A quarter of a century later there is an understanding that we must be involved. And what is politics? It’s about making decisions about how to care for elderly people, what kind of health service we have, when to go to war – it’s everything. Why would you want to exclude men and women of faith and values from that arena? For most of the twentieth-century we excluded ourselves thinking that it was too dirty, it wasn’t for us and look at the results! So we’re on the field at last – and that’s good.

We should be bringing to our politics, narrative and the political field, the integrity that we read of in the Bible. We should bring compassion and obviously the spiritual dimension through prayer. So in those three areas we should look a bit different and sound and act a bit differently too.

This might be a surprising answer to your question too, but the first thing is to make sure you join the right political party! Politics is not an individual game, it’s a team-game. In my outlook on life I am centre-right on the political spectrum and therefore most of the decisions my party makes I am happy with. I have some wonderful friends in the Labour Party who I meet all the time. I’m chair of Christians in Parliament so I speak to Christians across the political parties on an almost daily basis. Those friends on the left have different priorities and a different outlook and so they are in the right party too. So if you are in the right party for you, there are fewer tensions and frictions. Sometimes when you are not fully persuaded of your party’s view, you go along with it as part of the team. However there are also times when you cannot go along with the party line, and on those occasions you need to have the courage to say so, and vote against your own party. I’ve only had to vote against my own team about twelve times in twenty-eight years and each of those was a painful experience, but sometimes you just have to take a stand.

Solas; So you are visibly a Christian at work – you chair the all-party “Christians in Parliament” group. How do people react when they know you are a Christian?

GS: Everyone these days is given credit for being ‘authentic’.  I think that’s actually the crucial thing, not just about politics but in life. I dislike talent shows and reality TV programmes, but the people that win those things are invariably those who come across as authentic. People don’t look at me and think that I am known as a Christian for votes or popularity it is just who I am. In politics you do get attacked and being to the right I attacked from the left. It is much harder to be a Christian in the Labour Party than in the Conservatives (under Jeremy Corbyn it was almost impossible, but I hope and pray that will come right now under new leadership). Sometimes people will try and hurt you because of your faith saying things like “How can you as a Christian vote against X, Y or Z?” You actually have to grow broad-shoulders and shrug that sort of thing off. In the USA it is almost essential to be seen as a Christian to be involved in politics, here you do not get any ‘brownie-points’ for that. Here, it is essential to be authentic – and for me that means being Christian and most people accept that.

Solas: Has that ever given you opportunities to share anything of your faith with people you have met through work? What helped you to have good conversations – was it something you set out to do, or they arise naturally?

GS:  Yes – we have seen a few members of parliament come to faith, in the decade that I have been chairing Christians in Parliament.  We have seen conversions, and that is a wonderful thing! Personally I have addressed a lot of audiences about my faith, in person and online in all kinds of contexts. One-on-one conversations haven’t happened so much for me though – there have been a few. People do come up to me at work, (and other Christian MP’s) and ask what our secret is, because we have a calmness in the middle of some serious crises. That has provided an obvious “In” to talk about the faith that sustains us, because our security is not based on the results of the next election, or what Downing Street says, because our security is invested in a higher authority. So there have been opportunities and there has been fruit.

Solas: Have you ever had much reaction or push-back when you’ve talked about your faith, or objections?

GS: No, I don’t think I have encountered much. I know some Christians think that our freedoms are being squeezed out at the moment, but I’ve never felt that. I think you have to be wise and sensible, but I’ve given talks about my faith in meetings and online with no problems. Some groups try to enlist my support to take various people to court, but I think that is a last resort. Sometimes people think that they are being prevented from sharing the gospel, whereas they are just being downright offensive. If someone stands up in Brighton with a placard that says, “God hates gay people”, they are not sharing the gospel, and they will quite rightly get into trouble for that. When our fellow-travellers get the tone as wrong as that, they will get push-back but I personally have not, even though I have not been too fearful in sharing my faith.

Solas: That’s encouraging, and similar to what a lot of people are telling me in these interviews – they have freedom to speak where they are.

GS: I think the thing is that not many people have sat down and thought through the meaning of life and concluded that the secular-material view is the right one. Not many people think there was a big-bang and evolution and absolutely nothing else. People don’t do that, and this is the great mystery. I do quite a lot of apologetics-themed talks in my church here in Plymouth and one of the great mysteries is that no one asks those great questions! There’s something hanging in the ether that science answers everything – so when they meet people with a genuine faith – clearly and kindly expressed, there isn’t hostility there is often real interest.

Solas: So tell me about “Christians in Parliament” –obviously you want to have a public presence there, tell me about what that group exists to do?

GS: Well we do want Christians to be active in the public square, brining integrity, compassion and prayer into it. It’s a tough gig – for all sorts of reasons, so we exist as a group to encourage and equip other Christians from all parties and all backgrounds, and all manner of churches too, to help them serve as best as they can. I no longer think there is one blueprint for what that looks like, but we want each member to think through and pursue their calling and the gifting that God has given them. One person might be called to high office, another might campaign on abortion for twenty years. So I’ve been doing quite a lot of mentoring recently too, helping younger MPs across the parties. Our strapline has been “to equip you for Downing St and Heaven!”

Solas: So, finally then, what advice would you give a young Christian entering parliament who wants to be faithful to Christ?

GS: Two things really. The first is to find some like-minded fellow-travellers and meet with them regularly. So I’ve been blessed to be part of a small fellowship group made up of 2 Conservatives, 2 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat and one DUP member for twenty years. We meet together to pray and encourage each other. Then secondly, be ready to learn and to change. Then thirdly recognise that there are Christians out there who may take a diametrically opposed view to you on something you think is fundamental. Fifteen years ago, in my little fellowship group of six we met to pray before we had to vote on a controversial bill. It turned out that three of us voted one way, and three the other. And yet, for many of us it was a fundamental issue. One phrase we sometimes say is that God’s kingdom is more important than our tribe. So, I‘d say fellowship, adaptability and working across differences of opinion are key.

Solas; Thanks, that has been really insightful and helpful!

GS: You’re very welcome!

Gareth at Crown Jesus Ministries; Gospel Work Across Ireland

by Editor

I was delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Crown Jesus Ministries in contributing to their Go Groups initiative. CJM is an evangelism ministry based in Belfast directed by Keith ‘Mitch’ Mitchell. Their Go Groups (GG) are an online training course designed to bring interested people from across the island of Ireland together in order to inspire and practically equip them to engage in effective personal evangelism in accordance with their own contexts and capacities.

My contribution involved presenting a talk that introduced attendees to the concept of Conversational Apologetics, part of a broader GG module covering twelve methods of doing persuasive evangelism. I discussed the importance of us having – and communicating – the strong and persuasive bases for our faith that transcended merely personal experience and was rooted in objective evidence (i.e. evidence from history, science, philosophy, meaning etc.) We addressed the difficulty and intimidation that can come from modern society’s big questions and presuppositions around religious faith and topics such as science, evolution, the reliability of the bible, suffering and evil, and sexual ethics. Acknowledging these challenges, I also sought to encourage the group that these hurdles were nothing new to Christianity: Christians have also had to learn to both personally understand and publicly communicate the credibility of their faith in a social and ideological contexts that thinks very differently of issues of worldview and often harbours deep scepticism when it comes to Christian claims. That’s why apologetics, understood as what happens when any Christian engages with another person to explain the credibility of their hope in Jesus, was so inherent to Christian living. I concluded by suggesting that one of the best ways we can be involved in effective conversational apologetics is by learning to ask good questions, rather than simply trying to download a set of memorised answers or theological propositions. Following the talk we spend around 20mins doing Q&A before the attendees moved to breakout groups to discuss what they had heard.

The night appeared to be very successful and, as limited an opportunity as people had on Zoom to offered feedback, a number of people reached out on the night and since to say how helpful and inspiring they had found my material to be.

There are two aspects to this particular opportunity that I am deeply grateful for and encouraged by: First, is the opportunity to truly collaborate in evangelism training with local friends and ministry partners here in Ireland. I have been contributing with CJM on a personal capacity for several years but it is wonderful now to be able to connect Solas and CJM as true partners in the gospel as we collectively and strategically support one another in our shared vision to reach the people of Ireland with gospel and equip the local church here for effective witness in a changing spiritual climate. Having people who share your heart that Irish people will come to trust Jesus as Lord and who want to collaborate – in the fullest and truest sense of that word – is a deep encouragement as I conduct the work of Solas here on my own. Secondly, I’m increasingly inspired by the opportunities that I and being given to minister beyond the Northern Irish boarder into the Rep. of Ireland. Solas have an all-island vision for doing evangelism and evangelism training. There are many needs in the south, particularly given its vastly more multicultural, secular and religiously disenfranchised status compared with the north. Many evangelical churches, ministries and Christian Unions are significantly smaller and less resourced than their equivalents in the north, yet the needs are arguably much greater. Solas is delighted to be able to see the beginnings of several opportunities to be sharing the Gospel in a context with less than 1% evangelical Christians and we look forward to and welcome any future opportunities to serve, or support others in serving, the urgent need of the Irish people to come and meet the real Jesus of Nazareth for themselves.

We value your prayers for these opportunities. For “…how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:14)

PEP Talk Podcast With Jeremy Marshall

by Solas

“And then something strange happened…” probably means you’re about to hear about what the Holy Spirit has been doing in someone’s life. As today’s guest reminds us, God is at work in far, far more people than we know. With some fantastic thoughts on sharing faith, especially in the face of suffering, Jeremy Marshall chats with Andy and Kristi on today’s PEP Talk.

With Jeremy Marshall – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Jeremy Marshall worked in banking, his last job was CEO of C Hoare & Co, the UK’s oldest private bank. Six years ago he was diagnosed with incurable cancer and has been in treatment since. He is an evangelist and writer. He is also involved in A Passion For Life encouraging local church evangelism.

You can find Jeremy’s books, Beyond the Big C and Hope in the Face of Suffering at 10ofThose.com – search for Jeremy Marshall.

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.

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The Conversation Gap

by Editor

A few years ago, my family and I were holidaying in the English Lake District and over our week there we got to know another family, who we had met when we took our kids to play in the local park. (We’ve found that having small children is an easy way to meet other families because “I’m sorry my child hit your child with a stick-doing-duty-as-a-pirate-sword, please don’t sue” is a great opening line). During our week’s holiday, we spent lots of time with this other family, our kids played with their kids, we hiked and had a few meals together. Over various conversations, questions about our faith come up but on the last evening of the week, I was asked a question I had never before encountered. Midway through the curry, the wife of this other family looked at us and with a puzzled look on her face said: “I can’t work you two out. You’re clearly very into this Jesus thing, but you’re not … you’re not crunchy. What’s different about you?”

I paused, a forkful of chicken vindaloo halfway to my mouth. “Crunchy? What do you mean?”

“Oh you know, crunchy Christians?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What are Crunchy Christians? Some kind of cannibalistic appetiser?” (My wife kicked me under the table. Apparently this was not the time for Dad jokes.[1])

“Oh you know what I mean. The kind of religious people that you just can’t have normal conversations with. They’re always so deathly serious, or judging you, or tutting at things you say, or trying to press leaflets about something at their church into your hands. In the end you kind of give up and do your best to avoid them. They’re crunchy.”

As I paused and thought about this, the curry slowly dissolving the metal of my fork, it occurred to me that this is sadly not an unusual sentiment. Christians sometimes have a reputation for being awkward to talk to (perhaps because we’re so keen—or nervous—about trying to turn every conversation into an evangelistic opportunity that people sense our edginess and it puts them off); or perhaps because have a tendency to go deep too quickly (“Hello!” “Aha, I notice you began with ‘Hell’—can you be sure you’re not going?”); or maybe, if we’re honest, we’re not really interested in the other person, we just see them as evangelism fodder. All of these things our friends can detect and it turns people off talking to us. Or maybe we’re just afraid of talking to non-Christians—we have no idea what to say and we come across as frightening and skittish—and that can also make us appear crunchy.

To be fair, it’s not just Christians who are struggling with how to have conversations: we live in an age where many people are increasingly forgetting how to talk to each other. As Sherry Turkle points out in her helpful book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, many of us become accustomed to spending so much time staring into the black mirrors of our phones, tablets, and screens that we are losing the art of conversation:

We say we turn to our phones when we’re ‘bored’. And we often find ourselves bored because we have become accustomed to a constant feed of connection, information, and entertainment … There is now a word in the dictionary called ‘phubbing’. It means maintaining eye contact while texting. My students me they do it all the time and it’s not that hard … [All this] adds up to a flight from conversation—at least from conversation that is open-ended and spontaneous, conversation in which we play with ideas, in which we allow ourselves to be fully present and vulnerable.[2]

And to ‘fully present’ and ‘vulnerable’ we might add conversations where people can talk naturally and honestly about the big questions of life. During that week in the Lake District, we had many conversations about spiritual things (including a fascinating two-hour discussion about why Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead). But these questions arose naturally: people don’t want forced conversations but they do want spiritual conversations—survey after survey has shown this. And the pandemic has merely increased this desire for spiritual connection: back in April 2020, The Guardian, a left-leaning-not-especially-friendly-to-Christians newspaper reported that 25% of people were watching religious services online (rising to 33% for 18-34 year olds)[3] whilst a secular political magazine, New Statesman, even ran an article entitled ‘How Coronavirus is Leading to a Religious Revival’.[4] Meanwhile, the comedian Russell Brand, wildly popular with younger audiences, posted a video to his social media feeds called ‘Why are so many people Googling ‘how to pray’?’ and hundreds of thousands watched.[5]

So people are not averse to asking or considering spiritual questions. Yet at the same time, many Christians find it hard to talk naturally to their friends about faith. Some of us, if we’re honest, would rather share an ‘evangelistic video’ on Facebook and then sit back with a sigh of relief, our missional itch scratched, and think ‘Phew, I’ve done my bit’. (Don’t misunderstand me, we love evangelistic videos at Solas and have produced dozens of them with our popular Short Answers series, but like a bread roll or an onion bhaji, these are appetisers designed to get things going, they’re not intended to be the entire conversation).

So how can we begin to overcome that conversation gap that looms for many of us in the path to confident, natural spiritual conversations with our friends? How can we take the opportunity to talk to people about spirituality, about faith, about Jesus—yet avoid the pitfall of appearing crunchy and putting folks off from ever talking to another Christian? Thankfully it’s much easier than you think to overcome the conversation gap—here are ten practical suggestions you can try out.

TEN TOOLS FOR CONVERSATIONS THAT COUNT

First, pray. This is obvious right? But sometimes it’s the obvious things that we overlook, like the sunglasses on our forehead whilst we tear the house apart looking for them.[6] What should we pray for? What about praying for opportunities to talk to people about your faith in Jesus. Don’t try and forceable extract ‘opportunities’ from every conversation, rather pray that the Lord would create them for you at the right time. Pray for the Spirit’s leading that you would recognise them when they turn up. You can also pray over previous conversations you have had and for those you talked with. (You might also want to make a little list of people you would love to talk more with about your faith—perhaps a friend or neighbour, a colleague or a classmate[7]—and put that list in the front of your Bible, to remind you each time you open it to pray for opportunities to speak to those people.

Second, learn to listen. Sometimes in conversations we can be so eager to share spiritual truths with our friends that we don’t shut up, but end up dominating the conversation so much so that our friend goes away feeling that haven’t had a conversation so much as a lecture. Take on board what the New Testament says, when it advises us to be “quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19). Two rough-and-ready rules that can be helpful in conversations are first, aim to listen at least 60% of the time and, second, listen carefully enough that you can summarise what the other person said. (It can sometimes be helpful and appropriate to occasionally say things like “If I understand you correctly, what I think you’re saying is …”) The more people feel they are genuinely listened to, the more they will be willing to listen to what you have to say.

Third, take an interest. The more that we learn to take a genuine interest in people the more opportunities for spiritual conversations will present themselves. I have an old friend and colleague who is very gifted at this and is able to start conversations anywhere. A few years ago, after we’d both spoken at a conference in London we got a taxi to the train station, dog-tired after a really heavy day. All I wanted to do was close my eyes for twenty minutes, but my friend leapt straight into asking the taxi driver questions about his work and his family—within ten minutes they were chatting like old friends. Towards the end of the ride, the taxi driver mentioned how his son was struggling with an issue at school and very naturally, my friend was able to say how she found, when similar issues had happened with her kids, how praying about it had made a big difference. That segue to spiritual issues wasn’t forced, it flowed naturally out of the interest that my friend had taken in the man’s life.

Fourth, create points of connection. One of the most helpful things we can do in a conversation, especially with somebody new, is to find common ground, places we can build from to the gospel (read Acts 17:16-34 and see how the apostle Paul does this with the Athenians, complementing them on the religiosity shown by their buildings and temples, before he then bridges to the gospel). One way I have found to do this is to read (and watch) widely, taking opportunities to sample beyond my own (narrow) interests. Over a hundred years ago, the Baptist minister F. W. Boreham wrote a wonderful little essay, ‘A Slice of Infinity’, in which he encourages Christians to aim at ‘sampling infinity’ in our reading.[8] After all, if you get chatting to somebody at the bus stop and it turns out they are a keen angler, you’ll be grateful that you read Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley a year back, as it gives you some points of connection you can use to build a conversation from.

Fifth, take the conversation deeper by degrees. I think what partly lay behind the ‘crunchy Christians’ experiences of our Lake District friends was that they had often met Christians who would leap from ‘hello’ to ‘Have you found Jesus?’ within about ten seconds. Aside from the archaic language,[9] this is just too deep too quickly and just as changing depths too quickly when diving can result in narcosis and other nasty medical complications, so diving too fast into the spiritual depths can derail a conversation. A better approach is to carefully discern what topics, themes, and questions might encourage your friend to open up more about spiritual things (for leaping straight away with “Do you think Jesus rose from the dead?” may be a step too fast).

Tim Keller, the bestselling author and Presbyterian pastor, wrote a famous book back in 2008 called The Reason for God,[10] looking at a number of questions about the Christian faith. But he found that by 2016, the spiritual questions people were asking had changed, and so he wrote another book, Making Sense of God,[11] aimed at those who were beginning to consider spiritual things but were not yet in a place ready to consider the Christian faith. The former book is evangelistic; the second book is more pre-evangelistic. In the same way, begin where your friend is at—and wisely, warmly, and prayerfully engage them at a speed that draws them forward (for a biblical example of this, read John 3 sometime and watch how Jesus skilfully engages with Nicodemus, beginning with his questions and moving him slowly toward the subject of Jesus’s own identity).

Sixth, learn to ask good questions. Questions are a powerful evangelistic tool in their own right but when it comes to conversations, they’re incredibly helpful. (Read through one of the gospels in one sitting some time and make a note in the margin of your Bible every time that Jesus either asks a question or responds to a question with a question). I regularly find that questions are helpful in three ways. First, you can use them inquisitively: to find out about the other person, their life, their story, and their concerns. Second, you can use them defensively: if the person you’re talking to says something critical about Christianity, you can ask why they think that or what they mean by what they have just said (e.g. “What do you mean by ‘crunchy Christians’?’) Finally, you can use questions informatively, to learn more about the worldview of the person you’re talking with. In my book Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? I show how the following four questions can be really helpful when your conversation has reached a point where you want to learn more about what your friend believes and why:[12]

  • Do you think there is some kind of god? (And if so, what do you think that god is like)
  • What do you think human beings are? Are we just matter and molecules, or more than that?
  • What do you think is wrong with the world?
  • Given what’s wrong, what do you think the solution could be?

Not only do those questions open up a chance for you to find out what your friend thinks and believes, they’re also an opportunity when, having listened, you can share what you think—and they give a great framework for explaining the gospel in a way your friend can understand.

Seventh, wonder out loud. I’ve found that it can be incredibly helpful, especially with friends who say they’re not interested in spiritual things (or give no outward sign of being) to “wonder out loud”. What do I mean? Well, suppose your friend mentions some injustice they’ve just read about in the newspaper and remarks how terrible the situation is. You might reply: “I wonder why we place such weight on justice? Why do you think justice is important?” Or you could say: “I often wonder about our passion for things like human rights—why do you think that human beings have dignity and value?” As somebody who loves the outdoors, I’ve learnt to ask Wondering Questions of fellow nature lovers: “I wonder why as humans we’re so drawn to natural beauty and landscapes?” (In each case—justice, dignity, and beauty—I think that Christianity makes much better sense of our longing for these things than does secularism. But don’t leap there immediately: head the conversation that way with Wondering Questions).

You can also use Wondering Questions with folks from other religions. In his helpful book God Space: Where Spiritual Conversations Happen Naturally, Doug Pollock tells of an encounter with two Mormon missionaries who were knocking on doors in his neighbourhood, offering people copies of The Book of Mormon.[13] Doug led with a Wondering Question:

“I wonder what good news you feel I’m missing out on that you think the Book of Mormon will supply?”

The two missionaries explained why they thought their scripture was important and Doug followed up with:

“I wonder, if I took your book and read it, and came to your place of worship, would that put me in a right relationship with God?”

The two missionaries thought for a moment and said: “We hope so!”

“Can you be sure of that?”

Again they said: “We hope so!”

And so Doug replied: “Now I’m very curious. Here you are, two young guys who have devoted two years of your life to spreading your beliefs, and the best you have is ‘I hope so’. I wonder—what more would you have to do to be sure of a right relationship with God?”

This really made the Mormon missionaries think and opened up the chance for Doug to share how, as a Christian, it wasn’t years of slaving away on a religious treadmill working harder and harder that put him in a right relationship with God, but rather what God had already done for us in Jesus. Doug’s careful use of Wondering Questions had given him a chance to share the gospel very naturally with these two young men who had knocked on his door. As Doug puts it:

The good news is you don’t have to force God into the picture. He is always there in the background, the foreground, or somewhere in between. You might have heard the old saying: “All roads lead to Rome”. Well, I like to say, “All good wondering questions eventually lead to God”. At the end of the day he is the answer.[14]

Eighth, the power of testimony. The great news is we live in an age where people have rediscovered the power of stories. From great TV shows and best-selling novels, to human interest stories in the news, people love a story. They love to tell stories about themselves and they love to hear the stories of others. So practice telling your story of faith—not just how you became a follower of Jesus, but what God is doing in your life right up to the present day. Don’t feel the need to polish and improve it—there’s a power in Christians being honest about the ups and downs, the highs and lows of following Jesus. If you’ve failed and messed up, don’t hide that—remember it is Jesus who is perfect, his followers are often flawed but the wonder of the gospel is he loves us despite our brokenness. Find ways, where appropriate, to tell your story.

Ninth, look for ways to connect the conversation naturally to Jesus. Remember that in all of this, it is Jesus we are looking to point people towards. The goal is not that your friends say “My word, Robert is such a witty conversationalist” or “Rebecca is such a good listener”—the end goal is for our friends to discover who Jesus is through us. So listen carefully and prayerfully, looking for opportunities, when the time is right (don’t force it, but don’t chicken out either!) to bring Jesus into the conversation. One way of doing this, when the conversation has moved into spiritual things, is to look for ways to say something like:

·         That reminds me of something Jesus once said

·         That reminds me of a story that Jesus once told

·         That reminds me of something Jesus once did

I remember once talking to a gentlemen who was perfectly happy to talk about spiritual things (he was convinced there was ‘some kind of higher power’ and that ‘this life isn’t all there is’) but had a very definite dislike of the church. After he had grumbled a few times about ‘organised religion’ I finally plucked up the nerve to say: “You know, your dislike of organised religion reminds me a little of Jesus—for he spent a lot of time critiquing the religious authorities of his day.” This was news to my friend and created the opportunity to open up the gospels and share some examples.

Tenth, be patient. I think one of the reasons why Christians can sometimes move into Crunchy Mode is that we’re so keen for our friends to discover Jesus that we want to drag them so quickly along the road toward Jesus that their feet scarcely touch the ground. But maybe we need to slow down and learn to engage with our friend, neighbour, or colleague at the speed at which the Holy Spirit is working.

My friend Randy Newman offers a helpful illustration here.[15] Imagine a scale from ‘A’ or ‘Z’, where ‘A’ represents a complete total pagan—as far from God as it is possible to be. At the other end of the scale, ‘Z’ is a person who has discovered who God is, realises that they are a sinner in need of rescue, and is ready to repent and believe. In our conversations with our friends, our goal is to move them along that scale. Maybe God will give us the privilege of helping somebody from ‘L’ to ‘Z’ in one giant leap. Or maybe God will use us to nudge lots of friends from ‘A’ to ‘C’ and other people, in other conversations§, will take them further. It often takes multiple conversations, with different Christians, for a person from a completely non-Christian background, to come to faith in Christ. Pray that the Lord will use you as part of your friend’s journey, but be content to let others be involved too. As the apostle Paul reminds us:

“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

DON’T JUST STAND THERE, TALK TO SOMEBODY

As a writer, there can be temptation to so worry about getting a piece of writing perfect that it never gets finished. And so I have pinned to my desk a card with the motto: “Don’t get it right, get it written”. Something similar, I think, goes for evangelism and for conversations with our friends. Sometimes we can be so worried about getting it right, about saying the right thing in the right way at the right time, that we get evangelistic stage fright, or we become crunchy. But what about if we simply committed to talking to more people, more often, more naturally. And to praying over those conversations and trusting the Lord to use them. Here’s a prayer to get you started:

Lord, thank you that you don’t ask us to be experts but available. Please would you create opportunities among my friends, neighbours, and colleagues for spiritual conversations. Help me, Lord to listen, and to care for them with a love that reflects the love that you have for them. Please help me to be wise and bold—so as the scripture says, I can “make the most of every opportunity”. But thank you that my standing before you isn’t based on my evangelistic fervour or performance, but based on Jesus. Please help me to share the good news about him with those that you bring across my path. In Jesus’s name, Amen

[1] Sadly, I am regularly informed by my family that no time is the time for Dad jokes.
[2] Sherry Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (New York: Penguin Press, 2015) p. 4.
[3] Harriet Sherwood, ‘British public turn to prayer as one in four tune in to religious services’, The Guardian, 3 May 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/british-public-turn-to-prayer-as-one-in-four-tune-in-to-religious-services.
[4] Sebastian Shehadi and Miriam Partington, ‘How Coronavirus is Leading to a Religious Revival’, New Statesman, 27 April 2020, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2020/04/how-coronavirus-leading-religious-revival.
[5]  See ‘People are googling prayer because they are looking for a “religious experience”, says Russell Brand’, Christian Today, 10 May 2020, https://www.christiantoday.com/article/people-are-googling-prayer-because-they-are-looking-for-a-sacred-experience-says-russell-brand/134824.htm.
[6] One of the advantages of living in Scotland is the need to play hunt-for-the-sunglasses is so rarely necessary. Our summers here are legendary and I do mean legendary.
[7] Or the vicar, if you go to a really liberal church.
[8] F. W. Boreham, ‘A Slice of Infinity’ in F. W. Boreham, Mushrooms on the Moor (New York: Abingdon Press, 1919) p. 11-20.
[9] An old friend of mine once plucked up the courage to invite a work colleague to church and was thrilled when his friend said “yes”. But the visit got off to a slightly odd start when the elder on door duty saw the visitor and greeted him enthusiastically with “Good morning! Welcome to Little Dribbling Baptist Church! Have you found Jesus?” To which my friend’s colleague, somewhat confused, responded with: “Er … no, have you lost him?”
[10] Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Scepticism (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008).
[11] Timothy Keller, Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2016).
[12] See chapter 3 of Andy Bannister, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? (London: IVP, 2021).
[13] Doug Pollock, God Space: Where Spiritual Conversations Happen Naturally (Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2009) p.71-72.
[14] Ibid.,  p.72.
[15] Do check out Randy’s excellent book on conversational evangelism: Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did, 2nd Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2017).

“Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?” by Andy Bannister

by Andy Bannister

Dr. Andy Bannister’s book, Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? explores the startling differences between Allah as found in the Qu’ran and the Christian God of the Bible.

If you sign up to support the evangelistic and apologetic work of Solas for as little as £3 (roughly $5) a month, we will send you a copy of Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God? as a gift.

If you’d prefer to buy the book in the normal way, then UK folks can order it from a number of booksellers including 10ofThose, Eden Books, IVP direct, Aslan Christian Books — or, if you’re desperate, Waterstones or Amazon.

International folks can order it from:

The audiobook can be purchased direct from IVP.

Read a Free Sample!

Download chapter 1 (and the table of contents) as a PDF.

Listen to a Free Sample!

Listen to the first chapter of the audio book, brilliantly narrated/read by Neil Gardner. If the media player below doesn’t work, or if you’d prefer to listen to it using a different app, you can download the MP3 here.

Audio Player

Here’s what people are saying about the book:

A nuanced and sensitive examination, from an overtly Christian perspective, of how to negotiate a truth that is no less self-evident for being one that many prefer to draw a veil across: Christianity and Islam are not remotely the same.”
~ Tom Holland ― author of Dominion and In the Shadow of the Sword

“A must-read for the curious whether you have faith already or not. Prepare to be entertained, edified and gripped – I found myself unable to put it down.”
~ Dr Amy Orr-Ewing ― President, OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics

“We need thinkers who have studied both religions extensively. Andy Bannister is just such an expert and he helps us wrestle with this important question with the depth and care it deserves.”
~ Randy Newman ― Senior Fellow at The C. S. Lewis Institute and author of Questioning Evangelism.

“This book is a must-read for all interested in inter-religious issues, both believers and non-believers.”
~ Peter G Riddell ― SOAS University of London and Australian College of Theology

“Persistently challenging, consistently provoking, deeply searching, and endlessly witty!”
~ Anna Robbins ― President and Dean of Theology, Acadia University

“A sharp witted, big hearted, and clear minded romp through one of the most pressing religious questions of our time.”
~ Dr Richard Shumack ― Research Fellow, Centre for Public Christianity and Director, Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam, Melbourne School of Theology