News

PEP Talk with Randy Newman on Questioning Faith

by Solas

Though we might not like to admit it, all of us struggle with doubts in our Christian walk. And for those who don’t yet have a faith, doubt can feel like an insurmountable obstacle to truly embracing Christ. So whether we are helping others on their journey, or treading the path ourselves, safely navigating the terrains of doubt can be a challenge.

Our friend Randy Newman recorded this interview with us just before he passed away earlier this year. He wrote about doubts in his final book, Questioning Faith: Indirect Journeys of Belief through Terrains of Doubt.

With Randy Newman – PEP Talk

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon Music
RSS Feed

Our Guest

Randy Newman (1956-2024) was senior fellow for apologetics and evangelism at the C. S. Lewis Institute. He was formerly on staff with Cru, ministering in and near Washington, DC. He authored several books, including Questioning Evangelism, Unlikely Converts and Mere Evangelism. He has contributed a number of articles to the Solas website. Randy went home to be with the Lord in May 2024.

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.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Launch Pad 46: The Power of Dialogue

by Editor

We live in an increasingly pluralistic age and it can sometimes be a challenge helping people see the uniqueness of Jesus given all the religious options surrounding them. But a powerful way to explore those differences is with a dialogue event.

Solas’s Andy Bannister has been involved in many dialogue events over the years, especially between Christians and Muslims. Andy says his highlight was in Toronto a few years back where over 1,000 people attended—of which 600 were Muslims—to hear a panel with Christian and Muslim speakers discuss a number of topics, including questions like “Who was Jesus?”

More recently, Andy helped the Christian Union at Lancaster University organise a dialogue. The CU partnered with the university Islamic Society, who invited the Imam from the local mosque. On the night, he and Andy were interviewed about the differences between Christianity and Islam. It was a friendly, robust dialogue in which Andy had many opportunities to share why he believed in Jesus not Muhammad. And afterwards, Christian students got to talk over coffee with Muslim students late into the night.

Andy said: “I love dialogue events! They are are easy to invite friends to; you quickly get to the differences between belief systems and to the uniqueness of Jesus; but you also get to model Christianity by the manner in which you respond to the other speaker.” And you don’t just need to try a Muslim-Christian dialogue event; dialogues with atheists also work well.

So why not try a dialogue event in your church or CU. If you need help planning, or with topics, or in finding a speaker, do contact us at Solas: we’d love to help. And if there’s a mosque near your church, try reaching out to ask if they’d be interested in organising a dialogue event. Dialogue events are an easy way to build friendships with your local Muslim community; a bridge of friendship over which the gospel can cross.

One other tip: remember to prepare Christians so they get the most out of your dialogue event. Andy’s top tip is to ensure Christians don’t all sit next to each other, but distribute themselves among the audience and talk to the strangers they meet.

Prayer: Jesus, in the gospels we see how you reached out to those who didn’t believe in you. Give us the courage and confidence to try using dialogue as an evangelistic tool. Amen!

Previously: Launch Pad #45 Run a Book Table

Next: Launch Pad #47 Take A Stand

Why Are We Drawn to the Idea of Restoration?

by Solas

What is it about repair and restoration tv shows that is we find so intriguing? Why do they pull on our heart strings so much, and give us such a sense of satisfaction when we see the big reveal at the end? Whether it’s an old house or car being restored, someone getting a full makeover, or some old broken trinket getting a new lease on life – there is something about seeing something restored that makes our hearts sing. In this Short Answers video, Steve Osmond explains how God has hard-wired us for restoration, and that God Himself is in the business of restoration.

Share

Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more Short Answers videos, visit solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit us on Twitter Instagram or Facebook.

Support

Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose a free book as a thank-you gift!

Confident Christianity at Riverside Church Ayr

by Solas
Conversations That Count_Steve Osmond_AyrDownload
Can Science and God Coexist_Steve Osmond_AyrDownload
Ben Thomas CCC Ayr Talk 1Download
Ben Thomas CCC Ayr Talk 2Download
Hope & Heartache (Ayr CCC)Download
Forgiveness in an Age of Outrage (Ayr CCC)Download

Further Resources

For those looking to read a little more on the topics we explored in our time together, I recommend the following books:

  • How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like an Idiot by Andy Bannister
  • Have You Ever Wondered? by Andy Bannister & Gavin Matthews
  • If God, why Evil? by Norman Geisler
  • A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
  • Can Science Explain Everything? by John Lennox
  • The Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer
  • The Living Out website https://www.livingout.org/ – some very good resources to think about faith and sexuality

Here are a few clips that speak to some of the questions from the Q&A time as well:

Confident Christianity in Bury

by Solas

Below you will find the presentation slides from Gavin Matthews and Andy Bannister, along with some other recommended resources.

CCC Bury How to TalkDownload
CCC Bury Biblical ApologeticsDownload
CCC Bury 5 stepsDownload
CCC Bury ApatheticDownload

Further Resources

In addition to the slides we also have some other recommended resources we mentioned in the talks or referred to in the Q&A.

1) How To Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot by Andy Bannister

2) Engaging the Apathetic. Solas podcast with Kyle Beshears

3) Answering tough Questions, Andy Bannister

4) Problems of Old Testament Violence: Is God a Moral Monster? by Paul Copan

5) Islam: Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God? by Andy Bannister

6) Islam: Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

7) How to become a Christian (Short Answer video) Andy Bannister

8) A highly recommended further read in this whole area is Daniel Strange’s book: Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes Our Culture Can’t Stop Talking About… And How to Connect Them to Christ  (Good Book Company, 2021).

Launch Pad 45: Run a Book Table

by Editor

An easy-to-try but often overlooked type of evangelism is the book table. Find a busy public location (e.g. a street corner, a town square), set up a table (or if you’re ambitious, a display stand) and lay out some tracts, booklets, Bibles and Christian books (e.g. copies of Have You Ever Wondered?). Then simply wait for people to stop by and start conversations.

We spoke to Imtiaz Khan from London City Mission—an organisation that use book tables a lot in their evangelism. Imtiaz has been personally involved in this kind of outreach for years and said when he started, it was nerve-wracking, but he quickly discovered what a wonderfully easy form of outreach this was: many people are intrigued and stop to talk.

Imtiaz shared a story of an occasion when an Afghan man came up and just hung around, looking at books, but not talking. Finally he said: “Can I have a word?” He then opened up about his life and told how as a child in Afghanistan he’d been traumatised when he’d seen someone murdered. Imtiaz was able to pray and start a friendship with him.

Another time, Imtiaz was talking to a man who had stopped and asked what they were doing. Imtiaz explained: “We are Christians and we’re giving out free literature”. The man replied: “Do you know, I’m a Muslim—but the other day I was on a bus and saw a sign outside a church that said “Jesus is Alive”. And I thought: if he’s alive, why can’t he appear to me? Then a few nights later, I had a vision of Jesus!” As you can imagine, that opened the door to an incredible conversation!

Not all encounters are that dramatic. And not all involve Muslims—many different types of people are willing to stop and talk. Furthermore, book tables also raise the visual presence of Christians and locally: people realise their the local church is alive too!

So give it a go. Identify a good location; ask the local council if you need permission; get a foldable table and a range of books, tracts, and Bibles (including in multiple languages, if you live in a multicultural area). Don’t forget to pray. And remember: it doesn’t matter if you only speak to two people all morning, if those are the right two people!

Pray: Lord, give us the boldness to try a book table!

Previously: Launch Pad #44 Get Creative – Use the Arts

Next: Launch Pad #46 The Power of Dialogue

Bishop’s Stortford – An Encouraging Weekend!

by Editor

Bishop’s Stortford Baptist Church were our gracious hosts for a weekend of ministry. Solas haven’t worked much in this area, so it was great to meet new people and serve alongside a great church there.

On the Friday night they invited me to speak at a youth event. About twenty young folks came – and they were really pleased with that number because not only was it during the school holiday when many were away -but there was also another big event on in the town that evening! Rather than asking me to speak on a given topic or Bible text, they asked for an open question night when the young people could fire any question they wanted at me! The young people who came were really great too and had so many questions that we overran the time and were still going when the parents were queuing up outside to collect them! Some of the kids there had a faith, others were there to find out more; but they were really engaged and remarkably thoughtful. So it was a real joy to help them think through some of the big questions they raised and what the Christian faith has to say about them. Hearing on e-mail after the event how appreciative the young people had been, was another encouragement!

Then on the Saturday we held a Confident Christianity conference with the church. We often invite guest speakers to join us for these – people with particular expertise in an area of evangelism and Christian witness.  We were joined in Bishop’s Stortford by Sara Stevenson, actually for the first time at one of our events. Sara is well-known for her work at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. I spoke about conversational evangelism using the title, “How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot”, and on way sin which we can engage the apathetic and disinterested with the gospel of Christ. That obviously meant that we spoke about the approach we have used in the Have You Ever Wondered? book.

Sara’s first session was called “Sharing your faith in a Culture Opposed to Christian Morality” which looked into helpful ways of addressing ethical objections to the gospel. She followed that with a session on engaging refuges with the gospel – an important mission field in the UK in 2024. Then as usual we opened the floor to Q&A which led to some good further interactions and lots of good conversations afterwards. Our friends at 10ofThose were there with their excellent mobile bookshop too, which seemed to be very busy which was encouraging too.

Amongst the hundred-strong congregation was at least one person who told me that he isn’t a Christian. Some Solas events are designed for and promoted to people who are not Christians. Typically our café-style outreach events address the kinds of questions that people outside the church have about the Christian faith. But Confident Christianity events are really intended for Christians, to encourage, equip and embolden them in sharing their faith – so it was an interesting choice of meeting for him to come to. We had a lovely chat at the end, and he said he had come to give someone (who is a Christian) a lift there, and thought he would hate it; but said he had found it really interesting! It’s a reminder to all of us who speak in church-settings that you never really know who is going to be in your audience and not to miss opportunities to present the gospel.

PEP Talk with Ben Franks

by Solas

With a rich Christian heritage, but a bleak spiritual present, Wales is in desperate need of the Gospel right now. God is not unaware of the situation however, and is calling people to pray, share the Word and plant new churches right now. Andy and Gavin chat with a leader of 100 Cymru and hear about the vision for 100 new churches in the next 10 years!

Visit 100Cymru and sign up to pray for Wales!

With Ben Franks – PEP Talk

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon Music
RSS Feed

Our Guest

Ben Franks planted Hope Church Rhondda with his wife Lois in 2013. The church meets in a converted shop on Tonypandy’s high street and is hoping to launch two new congregations in the next 12 months. Alongside leading the team at Hope, Ben chairs the board of his family’s business while Lois runs a marketing company in Pontypridd.

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.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

FOCL / ELF Masterclass Webinar: “How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot”

by Andy Bannister

Andy really enjoyed teaching for the the European Leadership Forum / FOCL on Tuesday 29 October 2024. He taught a three hour webinar on How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot … drawing from his book with that title. (You can find Andy’s book here).

You can download a copy of Andy’s slides from his five talks in the webinar as a PDF here along with a longer version of his session notes on “Five Steps for Answering Any Tough Question” and a chapter from his book, How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot, that covers the one talk we didn’t have time for on the webinar.

Want to stay in touch with and prayer for Solas? Sign up for the Solas email newsletter—packed with news, prayer points, and free resources.

Other great resources from Solas:

  • Short Answers videos — close to 200 videos, each about five minutes long, engaging with a tough question about the Christian faith.
  • Have You Ever Wondered? — our best-selling give-away evangelistic book, perfect as a gift for friends to start conversations about Jesus.
  • Check out our new 60 second reels, perfect for sharing on social media (TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube, etc.)

If you’d like to help support Solas’s work of evangelism and evangelism training across the UK, you can do for as little as £3 a month and we’ll send you a choice of one of several great books as a gift.

Launch Pad 44: Get Creative!

by Editor

Made in the image of the Creator-God, humans are insatiably creative, as poets, singer-songwriters, painters, engravers, writers, filmmakers, and weavers, demonstrate. Some are professional, others are enthusiasts—and many people appreciate their work. Yet the power of the arts to communicate the gospel is often under-utilised.

Many Christian artists love to communicate their faith through their work. Creativity by Christians isn’t just for church, but can help bring bold Biblical themes into our cultural conversation. Sixties music icon turned radio presenter Paul Jones says that the ‘spirituality of the paintings of Caspar David Freidrich’ was instrumental in his conversion to Christianity: the transcendent power of beauty that first dented his staunch atheism. Whilst in the world of literature, C. S. Lewis communicated as much of the gospel through his fantasy and science fiction novels as he did through his apologetics books.

There are so many inspiring examples of people who’ve used their creativity for the gospel; such as

J.S. Bach, who composed all his works ‘To the glory of God alone’!

Andrew is a poet whose work is found both in print and read at literary festivals: his rich and wonderfully structured phrases draw on his deep Christian faith.  Jen, another poet said: ”Jesus can’t help coming into what I write, as he forms an integral part of my inner world, although I once saw a judge at a slam poetry competition grimace when I mentioned him!” Clive is a singer whose faith seeps out through his lyrics! Phil is a filmmaker whose stories encapsulate gospel themes. Christian artists express the gospel in all kinds of ways.

Atheist children’s author Philip Pullman notoriously said that his books were about “Killing God”. Have we surrendered creative spaces to the world, or infiltrated them for the gospel?  Where there is a local writers’ group, are Christian ideas being heard there, presenting a better story? Do Christians only sing in church, or also at the open mic night at the local pub? Is there a visual art space in your town, and do Christians ever contribute there?

So:

  1. What is your creative passion?
  2. Work hard to weave gospel themes into your work.
  3. Strive to get your work seen and discussed outside the church.

Pray: Lord, thank-you that you have made us creative. Help me to communicate you through all the gifts I have been given.

Previously: Launchpad #43 Offer to serve in your church Sunday school or youth work

Next: Launchpad #45 Run a Book Table

Steve at St Peter’s in Dundee

by Editor

Solas has got a good long history with St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee. In fact, if it wasn’t for St Pete’s there would be no Solas really! Since arriving in Dundee myself last year, it’s been great to get to know St Pete’s Associate Pastor, Will Lind a bit. The church’s continued support for Solas is hugely appreciated by us all here – especially their prayer support.

The first time I spoke at St Peter’s was when I was invited to go and share at their midweek prayer-meeting about the ministry of Solas. I got to give them an update on our work, as well as a few thoughts from myself about being the new speaker, and settling into life and ministry in Scotland. So was really nice to be able to share all of that with people who had been praying for Solas for some time, and for me before I had even met them. I love meeting with Solas supporters and to have the opportunity to pray with them too! After the meeting lots of people wanted to speak to me, there were some great conversations and it was a great encouragement to me.

That led in turn to me be invited to preach up at St Peter’s on a Sunday evening service. They have a fantastic congregation there, who seem really ‘solid’ – if that makes sense! The are a really informed group of people who continue to impress me with their commitment to prayer. Before the service I was able to join them for a prayer meeting, which I especially valued.

In the service itself I took them to 1 Peter 3:15, which is a foundational text for Solas’s work. I used it as an exhortation to evangelism, which the folks there responded to enthusiastically. I really enjoy the conversations I have with people after services, especially with warm, friendly congregations like St Peter’s who want to talk and chat about the message for ages after the end of the formal part of the ‘service’.

They get a good-sized congregation for their Sunday evening service – of people of all ages, including a good number of students. They are situated right next to the university and my guess is that about a third of the congregation were students, or student age. The pastor at St Peter’s is away at the moment, so I was also glad to serve the church in his absence and enable him to have a well-earned break.

Solas has a special relationship with St Peter’s so it was really good to be able to share in that. We do love serving churches all over the country. Please get in touch with us, if you’d like us to come and talk about evangelism at one of your services.

Confident Christianity at Eldad Elim Church

by Solas

Please find below the presentation slides from Andy Bannister’s talks at Eldad Elim Church. Thanks for coming along to Confident Christianity!

Guernsey CCC 1 – How to TalkDownload
Guernsey CCC 2 – Jesus and Failures of the ChurchDownload

And some further free resources you might enjoy:

*Solas Short Answers videos — a huge collection of short videos addressing common questions about Christianity. Great to learn from and/or share with friends.

* Our new “60 second shorts” series — perfect for sharing especially with younger audiences. (You can also find these on TikTok here).

* If you need more copies of Have You Ever Wondered? to give to friends, you can get those direct from our friends at 10ofThose.

* On the Jesus and the Failures of the Church talk, see my interview with historian John Dickson about his brilliant book on this subject.

* And on sharing your faith naturally, check out the brilliant Launch Pad series on the Solas website.

Launch Pad 43: Offer to serve in your church Sunday school or youth work

by Editor

Often when we think about sharing our faith, we look primarily outside the church. I think that’s generally just the logical thing to do – one might be forgiven for drawing the conclusion that on a Sunday the church will primarily be filled with Christians. But, that’s not the whole story.

I’ve recently spent some time with the youth group at my church and I’ve been struck by how much more willing they are than the adults to invite their friends to come along.  The result is that at any given meeting, there can be people present from atheist, Muslim, or other backgrounds. This opens up a great opportunity to not only serve younger people within in the church, but it also means there will be great opportunities to introduce people to Jesus and the Christian faith – and the door’s already open, they’ve happily come along to see what church is all about. Serving in Sunday school or youth ministry is a great way to learn how to answer questions from inquisitive minds, but also offers a great opportunity to share your faith with those who are not Christians.

Another thing to consider is that just because a young person is part of a church-going family it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have understood the Gospel and put their faith in Jesus themselves! When I was growing up I was sometimes taken to church even though I wasn’t myself a Christian. And, although I’d been to Sunday school a few times, and even gone to the youth group occasionally, I wouldn’t have been able to explain what the Gospel is, much less made any personal response to Jesus. We can’t assume that just because someone is at church, that they are a Christian.

Why not consider serving in your church Sunday school or youth group and pray that the Lord would help you to find people to share the Good News with? Help the group to develop a culture of invitation, and host events they are confident to invite people to. (Solas can help with these).

Prayer: “Lord, please use the Sunday school and youth groups at my church to bring those who don’t know you into the church”.

Previously: Launch Pad #42 Evangelism Shouldn’t Be A Drama, But Then Again, It Could Be!

Next: Launch Pad #44 Get Creative

 

Reason for Hope at Glasgow Grace!

by Editor

It was great to be able to speak at Glasgow Grace. It’s a church I love, and I especially appreciate the leadership there because they have such a heart for reaching the people around them outside the church. They are involved in the life of the community, are planning a church plant and are constantly praying and thinking about ways that they can reach the people around them in Glasgow.

I had previously spoken at one of the church’s outreach events in a pub in the city; and they invited me to preach on a Sunday following on from that. They invited me to tell the church a bit about Solas, explaining what we are about and the work we do in evangelism, evangelism-training and producing resources. I pointed them to some of the website articles, Short Answers videos and PEPtalk podcasts. I took a couple of books along, such as “How to talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot” and “Have You Ever Wondered?” too. I gave a few of those away and had some great conversations with folk as a result too. I must have been there for an hour and a half chatting to folk after the service!

It was awesome being there, it is such a vibrant, energetic church who responded really well to my sermon which was on 1 Peter 3:15, “ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

There were lots of students there on Sunday morning which was encouraging too. Some of them said the had never really thought this through before and were struck by the way in which the scripture exhorts to use our minds and reason; but that’s not where it ends – because reason and faith work together. Being a Christian does not mean you switch your brain off!

So, it was a privilege to be at Glasgow Grace again and I hope to work with them again in the near future!