We were on the road again recently, Andy Bannister drove Northwards, and I went South and our paths met at Radcliffe Road Baptist Church in Bury, just north of Manchester. On the Friday night we got to the know the pastor Russell Phillips, and many of the other leaders of the church and ministries within it, over a feast of traditional Lancashire pies! They are a church with a deep commitment to sharing the gospel of Jesus with their town, which is largely unchurched and very multi-cultural. It was wonderful to hear of their ministries and stories.
On the Saturday, Andy and I had the privilege of leading a half-day Confident Christianity conference. Lots of folk form Radcliffe Road itself came, along with guests from ten other churches from around Lancashire, that we are aware of. As well as delivering the conference – it was really encouraging for us to make loads of new friends – and to hear the testimonies of some folks who haven’t been Christians long; and who have come from all sorts of different backgrounds.
The conference itself was the usual mix of practical and encouraging tools for conversational evangelism, as well as some dives into what the Bible says about how we should go about the task of relating the gospel to different cultures. We thought about some approaches for engaging the apathetic, as well as how to handle difficult questions, The Q&A time was great too, Russell Phillips led us through the questions, and the quality of them were indictive of a fellowship which wasn’t doing evangelism-theory, but were wanting wisdom on real-life evangelistic opportunities.
It was good to hear subsequently that the church went away encouraged from the Confident Christianity event!
We do these sorts of events all over the country, and can tailor them to suit the needs of your church and context. Some large churches find a whole day-conference with up to four speakers works for them, other prefer a half day, or a few evenings. Again, we can adapt the conference content to meet the specific needs of your church. For example, some of Andy’s material on understanding Islam and reaching Muslims is the top priority of some city churches around the UK, but might not be so significant for some rural churches. Our goal is to serve, encourage and build-up the local church.
As well as imparting some practical tools and encouragement, the other way Confident Christianity conferences serve the life of the church is to help to keep evangelism on the church’s high priority list. With pastoral needs, buildings and admin to attend to and the challenges of running a fellowship, it’s all to easy for evangelism to be left for the quiet season, which never seems to arrive. One pastor said he likes Confident Christianity because it “keeps evangelism on the front-burner!”
So, if you’d like to help keep evangelism on the ‘front-burner’ in your church, we’d love to help. Please do get in touch, using the contact button at the top of this page. We’d love to hear from you and chat through the possibilities.
Message: “1 How to talk about Jesus without looking like an idiot” from Andy Bannister
Message: “3 Reaching the apathetic and disinterested” from Gavin Matthews
Message: “4 Five steps to answer any tough questions” from Andy Bannister
Message: “2 The Biblical basis for apologetics” from Gavin Matthews
