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Lives Transformed at the "Top of the Town"

by Editor
“The Top of the Town”

stirling-1237542_1920Stirling is a beautiful city to live and work in. “The Haven”, is a community hub run by Stirling Baptist Church, which is surrounded by historical buildings, the castle, and parks. The city’s beauty masks countless tragedies however, not least in the community in which we are based, known as “The top of the town”. The ingrained problems here include terrible rates of drug and alcohol addiction with all their associated problems, and it’s one of the very worst postcodes in the whole of Scotland for child alkoghol-2714488_1920poverty. Statistics show the scale of the problem, but don’t reveal the tragedy of what we see here. I could cross the road from The Haven, and show you a mother sharing her heroin needle with her 16 year old daughter, which is absolutely heartbreaking. From my window, I cannot only see the tourist sights, but also the addicts heading down to the local chemist to queue for their Methadone, and customers coming and going from the drug dealer’s house too.
Yet, it is right here in the middle of the ‘Top of the town’ community that we have seen God at work in the most wonderful ways this year. He’s been working through The Haven to bring people not just to faith in Christ, but has set about a complete transformation of the lives of several families.

“Ellen”

When I started at The Haven, I had no idea how to penetrate the tightly-knit, and suspicious drug-using community. But I sensed God prompting me to me speak to one particular lady who used to pass by my window, so I literally stepped out of the office and said, “Hi” and invited her for coffee. She was taking a cocktail of drugs and methadone, and was barely aware of me even being there.
Ellen recently said to me, “Were you not frightened of me, when we first met?” And I said, “No, I wasn’t frightened because God had told me I should be talking to you”. Actually she was moved to tears purely because I wasn’t afraid of her. Ellen was suspicious of me though, in fact she thought I was nuts! But I could see a glimmer of something there, and I kept working with her. Amazingly, eventually, she started engaging with me and other volunteers. And over months of talking to her, she became more and more comfortable with The Haven, we developed a relationship with her and invited her along to ALPHA, where she became a Christian, and she was baptised in May, Her life has been absolutely transformed. She loves the hymn, “Amazing Grace – I’ve been set free”, as it so perfectly describes her experience.
freedom-2053281_1920Because she has come off heroin, she looks great. Her inner transformation has been matched by a physical rejuvenation too. She looks so different that it has drawn a lot of attention. In fact, people shout to her in the street, “Hey Ellen, what has that drug dealer got you on now, you’re looking fantastic, doll!” And she shouts back, “I’m not on anything, I’ve got Jesus in my heart!”
Seeing Ellen transformed was amazing, but what I didn’t realise was the effect that this would have on several other people in the community.

“Katie”

Katie used to share a flat with Ellen when they were addicts, and had been on heroin for 14 years. She came to The Haven and we got to know her well. She came to us when she was trying to quit heroin, and sitting in my office I could see how her withdrawal had affected her. She was very seriously unwell, ‘rattling’, as her poor body was starved of the drug. I prayed with her, and phoned Teen Challenge’s Benaiah rehab centre who gave me some advice. Someone went and got her just enough heroin to keep her alive while she was waiting for a space in rehab. Wonderfully our prayers were answered, she survived, became a Christian, got into the Teen Challenge centre, and got off heroin. Teen Challenge are about to open an information and drop in centre in the Forth Valley soon, so hopefully there will be more help for people like Katie and Ellen.
Katie now wants everyone to know that she is a Christian. But you should have seen her when she first came here. She was covered in sores, wore a cap because her hair was falling out, and weighed 6-stone. But I could see that in there, there was an intelligent, articulate, inquisitive, beautiful young woman. Now God has transformed her into what she should always have been. Her letters are just amazing and she has real potential to be a future leader!
Katie wrote, “My favourite Bible verse is Ezekiel 36:25-27. It was the first Bible verse I really connected with and felt it was truly for me. It says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove from you, your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Katie’s daughter who is a teenager, has been involved at The Haven for some time now too. She’s been to the Motiv8 camps at Scoughall a couple of times with us too. Scripture Union run these camps for children who are facing difficult circumstances at home. The first year she came, she was disengaged and angry, but this year amazingly she has become a Christian. Now several members of Katie’s wider family, are coming to The Haven and engaging with us and church too.

“Lee”

Katie used to shoot-up with a guy named Lee. But Lee was one of the first people I met who had become a Christian from the ‘Top of The Town’. His mother had a difficult upbringing and this caused her severe mental trauma. As a result of difficulties at home he made all the mistakes that you’d expect a young, broken, hurting man to make. God drew Lee to Stirling Baptist Church where he attended an Alpha course. However, after being brought low and hospitalised due to continued drug abuse, Rab Donald, the Community Pastor from the church visited him and Lee said “I want to change my life. I don’t want to do this anymore, I think I’m going to die”. And he literally was dying, his body was emaciated, and he looked horrendous. Rab referred him to a Christian rehab centre run by Teen Challenge.  It was there Lee gave his life to Christ in rehab and came back a changed man. He has helped so many people since then, including his Mum, who although deeply damaged as a survivor of some traumatic experiences – also has faith in Jesus. Lee’s story is going to be published soon.

The Haven

The Haven (2)Some people are afraid of the addicts and their challenging behaviour, the sores on their skin, vacant expressions and their dirty clothes. I just see somebody’s daughter, or somebody’s Mum, somebody’s child who is suffering and broken and hurting. Many people just break down when you show them any kind of compassion and love. They’ve forgotten what it is like to be loved because they have been rejected for so long. They say, “Why are you doing this?” “Why are you talking to me?” “Why are you nice to me?” “Why are you talking to my friends?” – they are initially really suspicious, but then they realise that we are giving and we are not expecting anything in return; we’re giving and giving and giving – and it’s Jesus that we are giving them.
On Sunday morning, at the end of church I looked around me and saw this little group of folks from the ‘Top of the Town’ that God has saved, and thought – “Wow- God is amazing!”

Looking Forward

My prayer is now that God would use these people who have become Christians in the community to reach many more people and that there would be a huge ‘bending of the knee’ to our Lord in the Top of the Town. We pray not only for protection for ourselves, but for the transformation of countless lives for Jesus too.

Mylene Herd

works for Stirling Baptist Church, at The Haven.32082586_100124740866132_7241361031954432000_n Follow these links to find out more about supporting their work. If you are in the Stirling area and want to know more about the life-changing message of Jesus, they are a good place to start! Some of the names in this story have been changed for confidentiality.
Stirling Baptist Church.
The Haven

Confident Christianity conference: Cowplain, Hampshire

by Editor
CONFIDENT CHRISTIANITY – ON THE ROAD!

public_110_mob_9The Solas conferences in Dundee have been tremendously popular over the years, in response to demand from churches we’re now delivering them all over the UK.
Cowplain Evangelical Church were our first conference hosts.  Confident Christianity conferences are designed to equip Christians with the skills and confidence needed to share their faith with their friends, family and colleagues. They feature a variety of speakers, talking both about evangelism directly and about how to address the issues that come up in our discussions about faith.

ANDY: TALKING ABOUT JESUS

20190518_094220633_iOSConfident Christianity: Cowplain kicked off with Solas Director Dr. Andy Bannister on,  “How To Talk About Jesus Without Sounding Like An Idiot”, which outlined a sensitive, biblical and winsome way of speaking faithfully about Jesus to sceptical friends. At the heart of what Andy taught people was the power of asking really good questions—the very method that Jesus used in the gospels.
Andy from Cornerstone church in Portsmouth said that this session was the highlight of the day for him. “It’s been the most helpful thing that I’ll take away and try and chat with my friends and colleagues about” he said describing how he felt inspired to use questions to gently discuss faith questions with friends who are apathetic or disengaged. A delegate from Cowplain Church said: “It was a nice shift for me, because, if I’m trying to talk about Christ – I can go about it a different way getting closer to where people are, by asking good questions. So I found it really helpful.”

SEX AND SALVATION

20190518_100729335_iOSDr. Ben Thomas delivered two talks during the day on the hugely important subjects of human sexuality and the Christian faith. He began with a talk entitled “Sex and Salvation: A Story of Personal Transformation.” Ben explains: “I told the story of how I became a Christian which was linked to the fact that I identified as a gay man who was always contemplating, as I explored my sexuality, what if Christianity is actually true? I had started to read the scriptures while at University, and was attracted to who Jesus was, but yet never felt that God would love me or accept me because of my sexuality. And it was the story of really reconciling the two together which lead me away from leading a life as an active gay man and becoming a Christian and living in that way ever since.”
Ben’s second talk looked at the most helpful approaches we can take in sharing the gospel of Christ with friends and family members who identify as LGBTQI+. He emphasised the need to think through the biblical Christian view on sexuality before engaging in conversations, so we avoid being incoherent, or ill prepared. However, Ben emphasised: “We don’t need to be on the defensive because we have the best, the one-and-only gospel and Jesus is adequate for everybody’s needs. But it is about demonstrating that in a persuasive way that doesn’t at all make the LGBT+ person feel like they are being persecuted or a second-class citizen.”
One local Christian, Cindy, was tremendously impressed with Ben’s approach. She said: “My brother is gay, lives abroad, and we haven’t been in touch much over the last few years. But today’s conference has brought me much more understanding of his situation and inspired me to try and restore my relationship with him and share Christ.”

SCIENCE, FAITH and JESUS

20190518_111000952_iOSOur third speaker, David Hutchings, gave a cracking first talk on “God vs Science : A History”. It hugely impressed Tim Boxall from Portsmouth who said: “I was really interested in the origins of the science-versus-religion narrative (the mistaken idea that science and religion are at war), particularly its roots in the nineteenth writers who laid out a lot of the myths which are upheld today. I studied physics at university, and I thought it was really important to highlight that “science versus religion” is really a myth, they really are not incompatible.”
David Hutchings said afterwards: “Some people see the science/God friction as being a big enough stumbling block to prevent them coming to Jesus. So we want to try and explain to people that it is simply not true that you have to pick a side, God or Science. I’m a science teacher, and every single year I have students amazed to hear that I believe in God. They say: “But you’re a science teacher!” So the idea is ingrained very deeply in our society that it’s one or the other, and so Christians need to do something about pushing back on this.”
While David’s first talk emphasised the reasonableness of faith in general, his second talk focused on the unique claims of Jesus Christ in particular. He helped the audience see that all the various religions and beliefs in the world really just boil down to one of four basic worldviews: naturalistic materialism, secular humanism, pantheism and monotheism. David showed how monotheism by far the best-fit for the world we observe, which leads to the question which monotheism is true? David then showed how the evidence for Christianity and most especially for the character and identity of Jesus is overwhelming—and if Jesus’s unique claims are true, that means we’re able not just to know about God, but to know God, as he has revealed himself in space, time and history through Jesus.

JESUS AND THE FAILURES OF THE CHURCH

Dr. Andy Bannister’s last session, “Jesus and the Failures of the Church”, took an honest look at the times in history when Christians, or the Church, have badly betrayed Christ in its actions (such as in the Crusades, or its failure to stand up to the Third Reich). Yet in stark contrast to this chequered history, there have been times when Christians and the Church have been at the forefront of tremendous advances in civil rights, healthcare, human rights and justice. So how do we decide whether Christianity is good or bad? Andy argued that just as you can only judge the quality of a piece of music by comparing a performance to what the composer intended, so with the Church, we need to look to its “best performances”, those times when Christians have truly measured up to the standards of Jesus, especially his command to love even our enemies.
But if that was all that Christianity was, just a moral exhortation to follow the self-sacrifice of Jesus, we’d be stuck, as all human beings go wrong in numerous ways. But thankfully, the message of Jesus is much more profound that that: offering not just a new moral code, but a means to actually deal with our brokenness, selfishness and pride, that is the root of the problem in the first place. The gospel doesn’t deny or paper over human evil, but honestly addresses it—and in the gospel, offers the only solution to the evil that dwells in every human heart.
Caroline from Cowplain Evangelical church said: “Learning about history was a surprise, learning about the history of the church not being that bad was a complete surprise! You’re lead to believe that the church was always the ‘big baddie’ but actually the things that it contributed to the world are much better than I imagined.”

REACTIONS

20190518_144234987_iOSReactions to the Confident Christianity conference have been wonderfully positive.  Phill Brown, pastor of the host church, said: “I think people have found today so helpful because it was real, it was informative but also inspired people who are shy in talking about their faith to think ‘I can do this!’. The format was helpful too: short, 25 minute talks on a variety of subjects, evangelism, apologetics, testimony, was a really good way to approach it. People have been really positive and encouraged to be more confident.”
Andy from Portsmouth said “The conference was helpful for people with all different levels of understanding of Christianity, from the advanced to those who have never really heard of Jesus. My wife and I have signed up as supporters of Solas, because we think it I super-important that people hear about Jesus and Solas come across as having very loving and non-confrontational ways of speaking about him”.
Caroline said, “I found the whole day very helpful and very inspiring, it’s made me want to go away and really think about how I speak to people, not hold back so much but to be open with people, and to take the opportunities that I’m given. Christians need the support to be able to speak up, and that’s what Solas does. You give us that support!”

CONFIDENT CHRISTIANITY IN A TOWN NEAR YOU…

Forthcoming Confident Christianity conferences are booked for:
Salisbury: October 12th
Perth: October 26th
Dundee: March 21st 2020
Others are being planned after that and details will be published here as they are finalised.
If a Confident Christianity conference might help the churches in your town or city, please contact to Tim (office@solas-cpc-org) who would love to chat to you about how your church might host a conference.

IMG_8116 - Copy
Dave Hutchings, Andy Bannister, Ben Thomas

 

Book: A.S.K. (Real World Questions, Real Word Answers) by David Robertson

by Editor 1 Comment

A.S.K. (Ask, Seek, Knock) is the latest book from the prolific pen of Solas founder David Robertson, his last publication before he left Scotland for Australia in the summer of 2019. The book’s subtitle “Real World Questions / Real Word Answers” explains more about its’ content. Every chapter of the book contains a real question about life and faith, from a teenager; followed by an answer, rooted in the Bible.
The fifty-two questions which shape the book cover an incredible range of topics. The first set of questions are around core Christian concepts such as who God is, The Bible, The Trinity and Jesus. Questions that young people asked around these areas included “I don’t get The Trinity – do we worship three gods?” and “Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the only Saviour?”
Then there are questions which focus on problems which young people are having in working out what their faith means. These include perennial questions such as whether animals go to heaven, and the question of suicide and salvation. Big world issues come next, one young person asking, “How would Jesus respond to North Korea?” Then there are ethical questions , like “Help! – my girlfriend is pregnant!” as well as questions about living as a Christian and not falling back into sin.
The questions that drive this book are clearly heartfelt ones, from young people wrestling with faith, doubt, ethics and some very difficult personal situations. The first thing to note and commend about A.S.K. is that these young people have been given the chance to ask these questions, and to engage with serious answers. I know someone who left the church as a child because they were told their questions were not welcome and that they should basically ‘shut up and just believe’. Thankfully those days are long gone, and the existence of this book perhaps nicely emphasises that point.
Each answer given to these questions begins with a quote from the Bible. I gave a copy of it to a seventeen year-old who said:

“The best thing about this was that it started each answer with a Bible verse, so you know where the guy is getting his ideas from. I never know where in the Bible to look for answers to these questions, and I liked the way that this book helps you with that.”

All of the answers which Robertson provides for the young people are short, punchy, biblical and engaging. As anyone who has read David’s work before will know, his answers are not ambiguous, or vague, but communicated precisely and clearly. Also, when he doesn’t know an answer (Such as “When will the world end?”) he’s not afraid to say so, but admit that some things just aren’t known. He’s also not afraid to frankly tell young people that sometimes the church has misled them and been unhelpful, such as with ‘prosperity gospel’ teachers.
Each answer is provided with a “Consider” section, which adds a useful devotional element to the book. So, for instance while the question of “God and Suffering” is examined (p63-5), the young people are then asked to consider, “How would you help someone who is suffering? What did Jesus do to save us from suffering? Do you trust God to bring good, even out of what appears evil to us?” Thought-provoking stuff. Further reading is then offered for each chapter, which would be very helpful for anyone who wanted to read more extensively on any of the given topics. The problem here is that many of the books suggested are probably pitched at too high an academic level for the majority of readers of this particular volume. That however is hardly the author’s fault, as I am not aware of many youth-resources on many of these subjects.
Each chapter then concludes with a prayer, inviting the young person to respond personally to the issues discussed in the chapter. Many of these are based on verses in the Psalms. Others are written specifically for today.
One seventeen year old in Scotland said:

“I like the feel of the book, it doesn’t feel cheap, and I like the cover too, I think that will help people my age to pick it up.”

The fourteen year old I gave it to was equally positive. She wrote,

“It’s very accessible for people of my age, it’s practical with a lot of helpful and useful information. It’s got a good selection of questions, including some I have asked or thought of before, but never had an answer to before. The layout is really clear, which helps too. I also liked the way it answers questions a non-Christian might ask you, giving you a clear and confident idea about what to say.”

I read the book in a couple of days and appreciated its direct, yet thought-through answers, although its 52-chapter format is obviously suited to reading a chapter a week for a year. This is a really useful book, nicely written and well presented. It deserves to be widely read.

You can purchase A.S.K. from our book partner – 10ofThose.com

Do Christians need to be 100% certain? | Jonny Somerville

by Solas

Do Christians need to be 100% certain in their faith? What should we do with doubts and questions? Can you have doubts and still be a Christian? Do Christians think they have all the answers? Jonny Somerville looks at doubt, certainty, faith and God, in our latest Short Answers.

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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 “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.

Doing God’s Mission, Jesus’ Way

by Editor
by Alan Leese

1470169_10100673729687713_894700458_nLong before Jesus sent the Holy Spirit and propelled the early church out into the world on mission, he modelled what God’s mission should look like in practice. In over a quarter of a century of Christian mission, in various cultures, I have observed that the closer to Jesus’ model we stick, the more authentic, fruitful and honouring to God we are. When the church, and mission agencies drift away from Jesus’ model, things start to go wrong.
In chapter 9 of his gospel, Matthew gives us a summary of Jesus’ missionary model.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’ (vv35-38) NIV.
These few verses contain enough for a whole book, but in this short article, I’d like to draw your attention to three essential things: Jesus’ Mindset for Mission, his Mandate for Mission and his Motive for mission.

Jesus’ Mindset for Mission

“All” and “every” are complete, exhaustive terms. Yet Matthew insists that Jesus went to “all” the towns and villages, and healed “every” disease (v35). There was nothing half-hearted, timid, or semi-committed in the way that Jesus approached mission. He didn’t limit his service to the places that were pleasant to be in, while avoiding the harder villages, or places where he might not be so welcomed. Jesus went to every place where people were loved by God. And that means everywhere.
Why did Jesus work so comprehensively? The answer seems to be that he was convinced that God’s work didn’t lack potential, but lacked workers. In fact, it was the acute labour shortage in mission that he specifically instructed the disciples to pray about:
The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (v37-8)
Logotype-web-floatingThat verse features frequently in the prayer update that I write for our mission, Novi Most International. Here’s the reason: about 7 years ago Novi Most had 12 workers in Mostar, now there are only 2 of us. There aren’t any fewer spiritual or practical needs – but there are fewer workers.
We need to recapture the “all” and the “every” of Jesus’ missionary mindset.

Jesus’ Mandate for Mission

What did Jesus do when he went to all these places? What was he there for? The text describes him as both teaching and healing (v35). That is to say, that he went to meet both the people’s spiritual and physical needs. They needed both to encounter Jesus in his proclamation of the word of God, and in his practical demonstration of the love of God.
The same is true for us.
In my years on the mission field, I have observed many people who have struggled to keep this Jesus-like balance. Some seek only to proclaim God’s word, to explain the ‘four spiritual laws’ and recite the “sinner’s prayer”. At the other extreme are those who limit their action to relief, medical or educational work – and serve the people in practical ways. Sometimes, ironically the latter do so under the banner of ‘holistic-mission’, but without the proclamation of the gospel; without helping people to get into a good relationship with God, mission is not ‘holistic’ at all!
Proclaiming and explaining the gospel is absolutely central to Christian mission. A person’s relationship with God is the pivotal part of their life. However, though essential, proclamation alone is not enough. Jesus went on to demonstrate the love of God, and so must we. Our job is not to correct Jesus, but to imitate him!

Jesus’ Motive for Mission

We’ve seen where Jesus served, and what he did when he got there. Perhaps the most important question though is what drove him. What motivated him to teach, preach, heal, and travel?
Matthew provides us with a short, brilliant explanation:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (v36)
In Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 25 years after the civil-war, we are still in a post-war situation. While the UK was considered to be in postwar recovery from 1945 to 1955 (or thereabouts), Mostar is still wounded. The society is divided on racial and religious grounds, the infrastructure has been damaged, the economy is faltering and people are leaving in significant numbers. The evangelical churches here are few and not huge.
dbvmk-18What does Jesus think when he looks at this country? I believe that he hasn’t changed, and that he still brims over with compassion for my friends and neighbours here. In Jesus’ mission, people are not statistics for us to count as ‘ministry success stories’. People do not exist for us in order to have successful ministry projects. No. God has deep compassion for people, and calls us to do the same. That’s why we have to be willing to serve and bless people, even if they have no intention of responding to our message or helping us in any way. Presumably, if Jesus healed ‘every’ disease, amongst that number will be people who didn’t follow him, but simply received his compassion.
Mission work goes horribly wrong, looks ugly and is inauthentic, if we try and do Jesus work, but lack his motivation. Jesus had genuine compassion and so must we.

Finally

These three aspects of the way in which Jesus worked don’t only relate to cross-cultural mission. They are of course, relevant if you are serving a people group with different customs, culture, language and religion. However, they are equally true for the mission that every Christian is on, every day.
Jesus’ missionary mindset means that if you find yourself working in retail, medicine, local government, business, education – or whatever, you are in the frontline of mission. As a Christian you carry the Holy Spirit, the presence of God and the word of God with you wherever you go.
Likewise Jesus’ missionary mandate is yours too, seeking to share his love with everyone, and take every opportunity to speak or serve.
Jesus’ missionary motivation must be ours too, having real compassion for the people around us. God wants us to be Christlike, the world sees straight through phonies.
The thing about God’s mission is that it doesn’t lack potential. It’s the workers who are few. God calls us all to be workers who will go everywhere, serve in word and deed, motivated by genuine compassion.

Alan Leese
1470169_10100673729687713_894700458_nserves with Novi Most International in Mostar, in Bosnia & Herzegovina. He was formerly a youth worker for churches in England and Scotland.

The Pursuit of Happiness? Big questions in Blairgowrie.

by Editor
steven-bennett-1237256-unsplash
Baltis & Bibles

Nestled in the rural Perthshire market town of Blairgowrie, BEChurch recently invited Solas to come and help them with an outreach event at one of their popular men’s curry nights at a hotel in the town centre. After a traditional ‘curry and a pint’, Andy Bannister spoke to the audience of men on the ever-pressing issue, ‘The Problem of Happiness’. Everybody yearns for happiness, peace and security, yet huge numbers of people find these goals frustratingly elusive.
Andy’s talk explored four levels of happiness. The first level is animal happiness. This is basically the brief, transitory pleasure we experience when basic human needs are met, and derives from things such as food or sex. (But human beings are the only animals that abuse food and sex).
The second level of happiness is excelling at a skill. This kind of happiness can come from success in the workplace, or at university, or at playing a sport (but it relies on a sense of constantly outperforming other people and thus leads to constant anxiety, as you’re always at risk of being out-performed).
The third level of happiness comes through living for others. This typically involves the sacrifices of parenthood, or of charitable work. (But eventually those you’re helping will no longer need you—and further more, as the famous atheist philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche remarked, trying to be happy by helping others is just selfishness in disguise, as you’re not helping others, you’re helping yourself).
And so we hit the problem of happiness: each “level” ultimately disappoints us and so people move up a level, to try to find true happiness, only to find that level fails too. This is why so many people end up sad, anxious, disappointed, with a sense that, in the words of the famous song by U2, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”.
Andy concluded that the inadequacies of the first three levels of happiness should drive us to explore Happiness Level 4—which requires discovering something that is genuinely bigger than we are. Andy shared part of his testimony, of how as a young man he had failed to find true happiness and security, despite doing well at work, academically and elsewhere. It was only when he discovered what it meant to find his true identity and security in Jesus, Andy explained, that he finally found true happiness. And this was precisely what Jesus was talking about when he said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “ (John 10:10).
logoBEChurch pastor, Derek Johnston said, “Thursday went well. We were pleased that those who said they would come did so, especially those who have yet to fully commit themselves to Christ. I think one of the plus points of the evening is seeing that when folks are confident of the quality of presentation they are going to hear they are far more likely to invite their friends.”
Many Christians had brought non-Christian friends to the event and so the talk was followed by a lively Q&A, as people dug into more deeply what Andy had shared.
If we can help your church run an outreach event in your town, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.

Conversations that Count

by Editor

Vince-Vitale-webI want to offer some reflections on something that God zoomed in on in my own life a number of years ago. If you take these pieces of advice seriously, I honestly believe it could radically change the depth and enjoyment of your conversations about God and the fruitfulness that comes from them. That is what I have found personally and that is my prayer for you.
There are a couple of reasons why I want to focus in on conversation. Firstly, all of us will probably be more influential in our conversation than in any other type of communication. Secondly, we tend to spend almost no time on this, as we don’t see it as important. People often focus on improving professional skills or learning more about the Bible, but who can say that they are now a significantly better conversationalist than they were a few years ago?

Caring about Conversation

There’s a scene in Pride and Prejudice when Mr Darcy says, ‘I have not that talent which some possess of conversing easily with strangers’, to which Elizabeth responds, ‘I do not play [the piano] so well as I should wish to, but I have always supposed that to be my fault, because I would not take the trouble of practicing.’
Similarly, if we’re not good conversationalists, we tend to see it as just how we are and not as a weakness or something we ought to change. Yet you can find some advice for conversation – normally in secular writing – and it often revolves around being prepared. One recommendation, for example, is to read about different popular topics so that you can engage with the interests of people around you.
That might seem fake, prescriptive, or disingenuous to you, but why should it, when many of us spend a great deal of time finding out about professional sportspeople or celebrities? After all, we generally view research and study as good things, because we care about the end result. We praise people when they carefully plan for someone’s birthday or going on a date, as it shows that they value the other person. So why should it be any different with normal conversation? Why should we restrict serious personal investment just to special occasions?
If I know I’m going to see someone tonight, why shouldn’t I take some time to pray about them and to ask God for a good question to ask them or for a good answer to something they might ask me? I don’t see anything artificial or disingenuous about that; it means that I care enough about the person not to say just the first thing that happens to jump into my head. We would never just wing something that was important, like a work presentation, so why do we almost always just ‘wing’ conversation?

Crafting our Conversation

I’d like to share with you a few pieces of advice for investing more intentionally in conversation. I have eight short points that I think can be really practical and powerful, if put into practice.

1. BE MULTILINGUAL

Be able to speak competently about the different things that matter most to the people you care about and feel called to. Almost two decades ago, I became a Christian, and initially it was difficult for my family. I found myself struggling to know how to share my newfound faith with my father. What came next surprised me! I sensed God prompting me to learn the language of a New York Yankees fan. So I started watching the games regularly, and within weeks I was an even bigger fan than my dad! All of a sudden we had something to connect about pretty much every day of the year, and I’d say this was one of the single biggest factors in my dad becoming more comfortable having spiritual conversations with me and ultimately putting his trust in Christ.
What would it look like for us to learn to speak the language of the specific people God is calling us to? Is there someone you feel called to relationship with and to share God with whom you are struggling to connect with? What are they interested in? What do they enjoy? What do they care about?

2. BE A GOAL-SETTER

When I fly home to see my family, I set goals to have at least one specific conversation with each of my family members, and I try to let my wife or a friend know what those goals are so that they can help hold me accountable to them. While I can’t necessarily direct what the outcome of those conversations will be, I can take responsibility for whether or not they take place.
We don’t always like setting goals because it opens us up to the possibility of failing, but one of the greatest gifts of being a Christian is that Jesus’ sacrifice should free us to be willing and unafraid for things not to go as we’d hoped, because our identity and value is rooted in God’s grace alone and not in our achievements.

3. BE QUESTION READY

Good questions are so powerful, as Jesus himself showed many times, but most people are pretty terrible at asking them. Some of our most common questions, like “How are you doing?”, aren’t even real questions at all, because they’ve come to mean nothing more than “hello”.
The reason we so often find it so difficult to get from shooting the breeze to Jesus is because too often we are merely shooting the breeze. We wouldn’t find it so difficult to introduce Jesus into conversation if we were in the habit of regularly entering into meaningful conversations. I have a list of questions that I find help to open up and deepen conversations without being threatening. Jesus then finds his way into those meaningful conversations quite naturally. Here are a few questions that I like:
What was the best part of your week? What was the worst part of your week?
What’s been on your mind most recently?
When was the happiest time in your life? Why?
What are you good at?
What are your dreams for the future?
What were you like as a child? Are you different now? In what ways?
What is your best childhood memory?
Whom in your family are you most alike? Whom are you most different from? In what ways?
How would your best friends describe you?
Who has had the most significant influence in your life? Why?
If there was one law you could make, what would it be?
What would you change about yourself if you could change one thing?
What is the most frustrating thing about religion to you?
Did you grow up in a religious home? [This is sometimes less threatening than “Are you a Christian?”]
Have you had experiences in your life that have made you think there might be a God? [I love this one! The stories people will share in response are amazing!]

4. BE RESPONSE READY

While we can open up conversations by enquiring about others, questions asked to us are an absolute gift because they are an opportunity to share something about who God is and what he has done. Yet our responses can often be as bad as our questions, when we say something like “Okay”, “Can’t complain” or “Fine”.
What questions are you asked most often and how could you respond in ways that allow you to talk about meaningful things generally and Jesus Christ in particular? Here’s an example of one way of responding:
Person A: “How was your weekend?”
Person B: “Not bad, thanks.”
But if you’ve encountered the living God in church on Sunday, saying “Not bad, thanks” isn’t even an honest answer! There’s nothing weird about giving an honest, meaningful answer, which might be something like this:
Person A: “How was your weekend?”
Person B: “Really good actually. On Saturday, we went to the movies, and then, on Sunday, we went to church, which is always a highlight for us. Do you ever go to church?”
Person A: “No, I’m not religious.”
Person B: “No, I never used to either, but a friend invited me along a few years ago and I’ve found it incredibly meaningful and a wonderful community to be a part of. It would be great to have you come along sometime.”

5. BE TESTIMONY READY:

Some of the deepest and most meaningful conversations happen when we personally relate to what others are saying. Sharing the faith is very often about finding Christ at the intersection between our own stories and those of others, but one reason why we often find evangelism so hard is that we don’t actually know our own stories very well. In churches, people are sometimes encouraged to share their testimony, but the truth is that each of us has innumerable testimonies of how God has worked in our lives.
I try to identify different themes within which I can understand my testimony, and then I pray and reflect about how that theme has played out in my life and how God has been at work through it. Here are some relevant themes:
Forgiveness, family, suffering, intellect, relationships, guilt, death, fear, dreams, purpose, loneliness, freedom, pride, worry and anxiety, shame, frustrations with the church, decisions about the future, image, identity…
The more themes we can articulate our testimony through the better, as it helps us to appreciate and understand the ways God has been at work in our lives, as well as helping us be more natural in connecting with the stories of others.

6. BE PRAYER READY

The Bible tells us that our prayers are “powerful and effective.” How gracious is our God to set things up so that even when we’re not with someone in person, we can actively bless them by praying for them? Prayer is action at a distance; it’s a superpower! How do you remind yourself to pray for others consistently and in a disciplined way? There are many ways to do this, but, whichever way you choose, every Christian should be able to answer that question.

7. BE GOOD STEWARDS OF CONVERSATIONS.

If we’ve had a good conversation with someone, they may have been vulnerable with us and trusted us with personal information. So we have to be trustworthy and care enough to retain that information, reflect on it, and pray about it. As long as you are very careful about issues of confidentiality, it can be helpful to write down the information somewhere safe, so you can remember to pray about it and to ask about it the next time you see the same person.
Being good stewards of conversation also requires looking for opportunities to extend the conversation. Just say something like, “I really enjoyed that; maybe we can talk more sometime? Do you have an email address I can reach you at?” or “Are you on Facebook?” People are usually very willing to give Facebook or email addresses. You can then set up a time to continue the conversation, which also gives the other person time to give the topic more thought.

8. BE INVITATIONAL

If you are throwing a party, it doesn’t matter how much you tell people about how great it is going to be and how excited you are. In general, they are not going to show up unless you have actually invited them. It is the same when we talk about God. We may have told a loved one how great God is, shared our testimony, and even answered their objections, but have we actually invited them to come to Christ? I always remember when a student called Natasha was asked why she didn’t become a Christian sooner, and she replied, “I think I just needed an invitation.”
Why do we so often not make invitations? I think sometimes we are fooled into thinking God is far from certain people and they would not be ready for such a decision. We’ve also been deceived into thinking that it is up to us to persuade people to make the most important decision of their life and that God is not involved. The reality is so different, as the Bible doesn’t just say that “[God] is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27), but that even to those who are not Christians yet “…what is known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:19-20) [emphases added]
That is an incredibly strong statement saying people don’t just know something about God, but deep down they know his divine nature. That is not to minimise legitimate questions and objections and doubts, but it is to say that God has already been revealing himself – through creation, through our conscience, through dreams, and in a million other ways.
Do you believe that about your friends and family? Do you believe that about the people you meet every day? Do you believe they already have a seed of the knowledge of God deep down? I think this is one of the most important questions for us to honestly ask ourselves. If you don’t believe this, then you won’t have the confidence to invite people to Jesus, but if you believe what the Bible says is true, then you start to think that in every single conversation, God could bring new life – and that’s when things start to get really exciting!
A former student of mine got invited to church by a friend who overslept. When he showed up, he heard the singing and slipped in at the back of the church, heard a sermon from John 15, was pierced to the heart, and walked forward to give his life to Christ. Can you imagine? By the time you call to apologise for oversleeping, your friend tells you he has already become a Christian! God will bless and use your invitations, if you are willing to trust him with them.

Confident Conversation

Do we have confidence in the power of the gospel? A while back I met a young man at church. He said he was not a Christian, and he asked a tough question about hell. I answered it as best as I was able, and I could see in his eyes that he thought my response made sense and that a shift was taking place. I hesitated, and he said “Thanks” and walked away. I thought to myself, “Man, I should have made an invitation”. So I ran after the guy, caught up with him, and I didn’t even get to finish my question, as he said “I really want to recommit my life to Jesus!” Those words were literally on the tip of his tongue! He just needed an invitation!
Trust God with those promptings – I call them Holy Spirit U-turns – and be invitational. Over time, as you build up evidence of God’s faithfulness in blessing your invitations, the feelings of nerves and discomfort will become excitement and expectation as you see God transform life after life after life.
Start with the assumption that God is near and he is known, because that’s what the Bible says, and be ready and excited to invite people to Jesus. Has God put someone on your heart? Will you trust Him? He wants to use you. Yes, you! Not because you have all the answers, but because he loves you and he delights in involving his children in his work. Will you accept that gift?
What would make this article a success? Wouldn’t it be a powerful result if everyone who reads this headed back home with an invitation to follow Christ for some person in their life? If we do that, you know what will happen? People will become Christians! You will be surprised at how many people will say “Yes” to your invitation. If we do that, we will have more brothers and sisters for all eternity. That’s what I am praying for.
Vince Vitale

Vince-Vitale-web
Dr Vince Vitale (PhD, Oxford)

has taught Philosophy of Religion at Princeton and Oxford Universities.

What would Jesus say to Boris Johnson?

by Solas

Our culture is ever more divided into warring factions, online flame wars, and mud flinging on all sides: so what does the gospel have to say to the messy world of politics? The latest SHORT/ANSWERS film tackles this timely question by asking what would Jesus say to the new British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson?
A related article was published yesterday in The Scotsman newspaper. Read it here.

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Support us

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 “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.

Lawrence and the pigs

by Editor

If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t have put a lot of money on Lawrence’s ever attending a Bible study. In fact, I would have wagered against his ever going to anything connected with faith or God or the Bible, Lawrence was an unlikely candidate for a Christian convert. But in his first year at university, Lawrence did go to an event where students could ask “some Bible expert” any question they wanted. Lawrence went because he heard there’d be pizza. And the girl who invited him gave out cookies to anyone who said they’d come.
He had virtually no church background to speak of. When he filled out the part of his college application that asked for his religion, he had to ask his mother what he should write. She told him, “Methodist,” and that’s what he wrote, although he had no idea what that meant. His mother had taken him to church a few times, but he doubted whether God existed. When I asked him how he would describe himself as he began college, he offered the words “lonely, angry, and apathetic.”
So he went to the ask-the-expert event to be “obnoxious” and “have fun” and to try to show the speaker that the Christian faith had “obvious issues.” What he remembers most was that the speaker and the Christians were nice to him even though he “was being really mean.” He asked the speaker, “What about aliens? What does that mean for Christianity?” The speaker responded brilliantly, admitting he didn’t know much about aliens, that he didn’t think their existence would affect Christianity all that much, and that if Lawrence wanted to know about Christianity, he should attend the eight- week study of the gospel of Mark that would start the next week.
So Lawrence went, with an attitude of “whatever” (a word he used a lot during the first fifteen minutes of our conversation). He asked many questions during those eight weeks and was impressed that the leader answered thoughtfully and respectfully. He learned a lot about God’s righteousness and his own sinfulness. For a few weeks, he was baffled about how “unfair” it was for Jesus to pay for his sins. But he found himself believing more and more as the weeks passed.
At one point in our conversation, I asked him if there were any major objections or questions that needed resolution. Was there a significant roadblock, I wondered, that, once removed, would pave the way for belief? He paused and shook his head no. But then he remembered and said, “Well . . . the thing that stands out in my head mostly . . . was about the pigs and Jesus casting the demons into the lake.”
I must confess. At that point, I wanted to say, “Really? That tripped you up? Even if I wasn’t Jewish with my innate disdain for pork, I’m not sure that’s what would hold me back from God’s offer of eternal life.” I tried to clarify by asking, “What was your question about the pigs?”
His answer didn’t help me much. “What the heck was that? Jesus just killed all those pigs? They didn’t do anything.” But then he just started laughing and made a face that seemed to say, “That story makes no sense.” So I asked him how the leader answered his question, and Lawrence’s laughter came to a sudden stop. He told me the Bible study leader took his question seriously and started by admitting that he wasn’t sure. That impressed Lawrence as humble and sincere. And then he suggested there really must be some things that are evil, that we shouldn’t mess around with demons, and there must be a big difference between being a pig and being a person.
I asked him if that satisfied him and he said it did. “I was amazed that he had an answer,” he said and added, “people I had dealt with before in churches that I had been to didn’t know how to handle the Bible.” They just told him to believe in Jesus and stop asking all his questions. That didn’t sit well with a fairly intelligent guy, and so he dismissed Christianity as a stupid person’s religion. However, a thoughtful answer about pigs persuaded Lawrence that there probably were good answers for his other questions.
There’s much more to his story, a beautiful and gradual one that included a lot more Bible studies, a major conference for Christian students, attending a good church where people did know how to handle the Bible, and a lot of conversations where he learned more and more about Jesus’s “unfair” sacrifice for sinful people like Lawrence.
His experience highlights at least four important lessons:
First, the process of coming to Christ takes time. While God certainly can work instantaneously, most often he does not. People tend to come to faith gradually.
Second, God uses a large and diverse cast of ordinary people to accomplish his extraordinary purposes. People tend to come to faith communally. People’s stories reveal a tapestry of experiences, struggles, realizations, and transformations.
Third, layers of dramas lie beneath the surface. People’s stories reveal a tapestry of experiences, struggles, realizations, and transformations. People tend to come to faith variously.
Fourth, nothing is too difficult for God. He can and does draw people to himself miraculously. People always come to faith supernaturally.

Randy Newman

Randy Newman PicRandy Newman, M.Div., Ph.D. serves as the Senior Teaching Fellow for Apologetics and Evangelism and is an adjunct faculty member for Reformed Theological Seminary and Patrick Henry College. He established Connection Points, a ministry to help Christians engage people’s hearts the way Jesus did. Randy blogs atwww.connectionpoints.us . Lawrence and the Pigs is an extract from his forthcoming book, Unlikely Converts.
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Outreach in Inverness

by Editor

“Why did Jesus need to die for me, I’m a good person?” “Why couldn’t God just forgive me, why was the cross necessary?” These are two common objections to the Christian message and a few weeks ago, Solas’s Andy Bannister tackled both of them head on at an exciting evangelistic event organised by our friends at Culduthel Christian Centre in Inverness.
We often find that the best evangelistic events happen in neutral venues, outside the four walls of the church, and so it was in Inverness. Culduthel Christian Centre hired The Kingsmills Hotel, a place where Christians would feel comfortable inviting their non-Christian friends from around the town. The dining room at the hotel was packed and after a fantastic meal, Andy gave a short presentation: “Why did Jesus Die For Me?”
At the end of his talk, after tackling those two objections to Easter, Andy zeroed in on the truth that forgiveness is always costly, and that there is no such thing as “just forgiving somebody”. For instance, if you forgive someone who has wronged you economically, you bear the financial cost; if you forgive someone who has wronged you relationally there is a personal or reputational cost. Thus we should not be surprised that this is even more true of God, whose standards are perfect, the one who is goodness; thus at Easter, we see God in Jesus Christ paying the price for our forgiveness on the cross.

Quoting best selling author Tim Keller, Andy explained that “The bad news of Easter is that we are so bad that Christ had to die for us. The Good News of Easter is that we are so loved that he was glad to die for us.”

The audience were incredibly engaged throughout the talk and in the Q&A afterwards asked a number of really thoughtful and genuine questions. The final question concerned the nature of suffering and evil—a question that allowed Andy to bring the evening to close by explaining that the cross of Christ, as well as providing forgiveness for our sins, is also God’s method for reconciling the world to Himself and so ultimately dealing with the problem of sin and suffering.
The main organiser of the event, Angus Jamieson, said: “We had 60 guests of whom about two-thirds had no Christian faith, and Andy’s talk was excellent and well-judged for this audience. His easy manner and sense of humour made it more like a friendly chat than a sermon. We then had a Q&A session which was fun but yet informative too. We were really grateful for the way Andy was willing to address questions on the spot! The feedback from the guests was very positive and I know has sparked subsequent conversations.”
One of the keys to sharing the gospel of Christ in today’s secular age is to do as the early church did and take the message of Jesus outside the walls of the church. Whenever we do events in coffee houses, pubs, restaurants, hotels, sports clubs, or other ‘neutral venues’, we find a tremendous response—people who don’t yet believe in Jesus are open to coming to listen and engage. There is also something powerful about combining a gospel presentation with hospitality: a meal, a drink, a coffee, a dessert. All this makes for a warm, friendly evening and makes it much easier for Christians to invite their friends—and much easier for their friends to say ‘yes’.
Why not consider inviting Solas to come and work with your church to help you put on an evangelistic event in your city, town, or village. We’d love to help you.
To invite a Solas speaker to your event click here.

Curry and Conversation

by Editor

In this new video-blog, Andy Bannister talks about taking the gospel outside the walls of the church, where there are many people who want to talk about Jesus, and ask genuine questions about Christianity. When he recorded this, he had just returned from a “Curry and Conversation” night in an Indian restaurant outside Glasgow, hosted by Maxwell Mearns Church.

The NUA Film Series

by Editor

 

Nua is a amazing resource, and its creator Jonny Somerville came into the Solas office to tell us about it, and show us some clips from the videos. Here’s what he had to say:

Solas: So what is NUA?
BODY-IMAGES-3Jonny Somerville: NUA is an 8-part video series, which looks at 8 tough questions for the Christian faith. They are fifteen minutes long, and each episode is split into three five minute sections, so they are built for integrated discussion. The real heart behind NUA is to enable a better conversation about faith, which will enable young people to dig deeper, explore what they believe, and share honestly. Our hope is that they will dialogue with good, credible content, explore the Christian faith clearly and also look at the compelling message and person of Jesus Christ. So while it has apologetic questions on ‘faith and science’, ‘is God good?’, ‘has the church caused more harm than good?’, ‘is the resurrection credible?’; it also has episodes on ‘the character of Jesus’, ‘would I like Jesus’, and ‘what’s with Christian-extremism?’ Lots of people have said to me over the years, “I like Jesus, but your followers give me the heebie-jeebies!”
So we were looking to make an apologetic series that would really engage the mind, but also really show who Jesus is. So one of the episodes entitled, “Would I like Jesus?”, looks at three encounters that Jesus had with certain individuals, and its framed with the statement, “You get to know someone truly by the way they treat other people!”. The way that Jesus treated people in the gospels, gives us a picture of who God is, His heart, His nature, His love, His Kindness, and also His strong words to those who would seek to use power or greed, to the detriment of others.
Solas: And your target age-group is..?
PrintJonny Somerville: It’s geared for a 17-18 year olds, but the feedback has shown that it is pretty age-less really. It is humorous, it has a quirk about it, but is in no way childish, and I think that the way that it has been filmed, coupled with the animation, makes it quite universal. It been really encouraging to see it being used in church homegroups, and in prison ministry in Dublin too.
Solas: And how do the printed materials, the discussion guides, etc integrate with the filmed material?
Jonny Somerville: We wanted to help people to use NUA most effectively, so we produced the ‘supplementary guide’ which gives you discussion-starters, and an activity to the get the juices flowing in the group. Then for each five-minute segment of each episode there are three great small-group questions. At the end there are ‘reflective questions’, for the viewer to sit down to consider, “What do I really think about this?’ We also encourage journaling with the resource. That can be effective in a classroom, it can be effective in a youth-group, or in a homegroup. But we do want to encourage thought!
Solas: How did you chose which questions to go for?
Jonny Somerville: Five of the episodes were research based, and the other three were essential! The research-based questions were things we had been asked in youth ministry over many years like “science and faith”, and “is God good?” The essential ones get into the character of Jesus, His compelling nature and ultimately, “What’s Jesus got to do with me?”

Solas: And you went for really beautiful production, it’s visually stunning, how did you manage to make it look and sound so good?
Jonny Somerville: We took a year to fund-raise. We wrote proposals, approached trust-funds and we were shocked at the uptake! We were then able to pay for a production company who were really on the money, they create beautiful things, they capture things, in a super way. The budget allowed us to go to Jerusalem, and to film at sites where Jesus would have been like Galilee, or The Dead Sea, the Road up to Jerusalem. We also got to New York, and show plenty of all the beauty that Ireland has to offer as well.
It’s quite a reflective piece too, which is a bit counter-cultural as most videos watched today by young people are so high-paced, but this matches some of the recent Netflix shows which might be slower-paced, but visually impressive. And for an Irishman, slower-paced is well, just who we are!
Solas: And everyone loves the Irish, right!?
Jonny Somerville: Yes, everyone likes the Irish – I’m told! It is cool to be able to speak from Ireland; when we would normally be an importer of resources.
Solas: So where is NUA being used?
Jonny Somerville: It’s been quite strong in the USA and Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We’ve translated it into French, Portuguese and Spanish, Finnish and Korean. The French and Spanish ones have the onscreen graphics re-made in their languages as well as the animations.
Solas: So what have reactions been like?
Jonny Somerville: In the schools setting we have had amazing feedback, but we get the most feedback from youth ministries and we hear of just how effective NUA has been in building up young people’s faith. And its lovely to hear that it’s something that young people are happy to bring their non-Christian friends to.
We’re partnering with the Jesus Film people in the states to make this new app for evangelism. It’s called VOKE and NUA lives there also, as it’s a great video platform to invite friends along to on this digital, faith-journey. It’s got some gaming elements to it, but really the content of NUA is designed in such a way as to make it easy for folks to be bold, to text a friend and say, “hey, do you want to come on this faith adventure with me?” “Watch this trailer and tell me what you think, and maybe be can start episode one!”
Solas: Looks great, thanks for coming in to speak to us! So where do folks need to go to find NUA?
Jonny Somerville: https://nuafilmseries.org/ is the place to start,
The NUA store is here: or you could start by watching episode one below.

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GENEXIS

by Editor
(For Andy’s notes from the 2020 Genexis course, see this link: www.solas-cpc.org/genexsis)
GENEXIS

So often it seems that Christians are on the backfoot when it comes to responding to atheism and secularism. So it was exciting for Solas to be asked to help support a new project called “Genexis” that aims to take the challenge to secularism.
948889Taken from the Latin word for “meaning”, Genexis is the name of an exciting series of public lectures taking place in Coventry Cathedral, starting in September 2019. The brains behind the project, Paul Downes QC, has enlisted a phenomenal line-up of thinkers to address some of the greatest reasons to believe in God and to disbelief in atheism: among the speakers are such leading public intellectuals as Ard Louis, Francis Collins, John Lennox, N.T. Wright and Sharon Dirckx.
948893One especially interesting speaker is Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University. Although Paul is an agnostic, he has written extensively on the ‘fine-tuning argument’, the way the fundamental numbers built into the laws of physics are so precisely “tuned”. Paul vehemently believes that atheism is untenable in the light of the evidence; he just doesn’t accept the Christian concept of revelation. However, from a purely scientific perspective he argues that the universe shows all the marks of having been designed. It’s wonderful that he is willing therefore to engage in this ostensibly Christian project.
Paul Downes’ intention was to design a series of public lectures about God from some of the best minds in the world. His vision is that these lectures would be credible, persuasive and accessible to Christians and atheists alike. Each session is going to be filmed, to take the content far wider than the thousand or so people who are expected to fill the cathedral. Genexis are then going to produce a book and a study guide to help churches really dig into the material. Amazingly the events themselves are going to be completely free, and they plan to make the supporting resources free as well.
From the very beginning, Solas’s Andy Bannister has been assisting Paul with some of the work setting up this event, making some connections and introductions. In April, Paul Downes held a Genexis launch dinner for churches in the Midlands, to get them on board, endorsing and promoting the whole project.
After giving the keynote address at the Genexis dinner, Andy commented. “It was a privilege to speak at the launch of this hugely ambitious and exciting project. It was tremendous to be in a room full of church leaders, really excited about these events.”
We’re really praying that when Genexis begins in September that it will change the nature of the conversation we have about God in this generation. It really is time that the utterly compelling arguments and evidence for God became public knowledge.”
Paul Downes explains, “I wanted to create an event that Christians could invite their atheist friends to. We all know some people that exclude themselves from the gospel because they see themselves as atheists. Yet if you can find a way to have a meaningful discussion with them, they soon come to see that atheism is not as plausible a world view as they might previously have thought. The idea behind Genexis is a series of talks that can be run by Churches, youth groups, Christian Unions etc on a local basis as well as the national live event this September. The course is very simple, built around 7 topics that support the theist’s world view: big bang, numbers, life, DNA, consciousness, ethics and the resurrection. These are the ‘imponderables that point to God’.”
https://www.genexis.org/
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Genexis - 1901 Seminar Poster A3

Is Christianity a psychological crutch?

by Solas

Is Christianity just a psychological crutch for those too weak to deal with the difficulties of life? In this SHORT ANSWERS video, Andy Bannister tackles a common atheist accusation aimed at Christians … and discovers that maybe it’s atheism that actually has the biggest weakness in this area instead.

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Book: God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God by John Lennox

by Editor

The first time I heard of John Lennox was listening online to his debate against Richard Dawkins. Not only was he able to stand up to Dawkins’s arguments, but he concluded with a sterling appeal to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the final proof that God exists and has revealed himself to us. Dawkins responded that he was “disappointed” that Lennox would bring that matter up in a scientific debate, but I was encouraged. Later, hearing Lennox in person speaking in Washington State, I was further impressed by his knowledge, fluency, and ability to explain complex ideas to a popular audience.
John Lennox is Professor in Mathematics in Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. In addition to being a leading mathematician and philosopher of science, Lennox is a committed Christian and an outspoken apologist. In addition to debating famous atheists like Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, Lennox speaks to popular audiences to encourage their faith in God and the biblical revelation.
This book presents a strong case for God as the intelligent, powerful Creator of the universe. As an expert in mathematics, including probability and chaos theory, Lennox analyses and explains the fine tuning of the physical forces and constants of the universe, and the information richness of the genetic code. These facts point to intelligent input. Lennox does not “argue from analogy, but [makes] an inference to the best explanation” (p. 175). This is not a “god of the gaps” argument, where, as science progresses, the need for “god” shrinks. Rather, it is an “atheism of the gaps” argument, as each new scientific advance provides more, not less, evidence for a divine, intelligent Creator.
The book surveys the major areas of debate—the origin and design of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of the major types of life, and the information-rich content of the genetic code. In each of these areas Lennox documents his statements well, citing leaders in each field. He selects the strongest, not the weakest, argument of his opponents and treats them fairly. In all these diverse subject areas, he emphasizes the issues that relate to his own strength and expertise.
Near the end of his book Lennox discusses the philosophical contribution of David Hume, who supposedly destroyed the argument for God based on the design found in various creatures. These pages summarize and state well the fallacy of Hume, and the emptiness of modern arguments by atheists who quote him.
This book is fun to read, even though sometimes the reading is heavy. I recommend it to all who desire to argue for the existence and work of the God of the Bible. It also is helpful to all Christians who have feared that their beliefs somehow are unscientific or unreasonable.

You can purchase God’s Undertaker from our book partner – 10ofThose.com

This review has been kindly supplied by Dr John Battle of Western Reformed Seminary, Washington State.