Like everything else The Keswick Convention was affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and the associated restrictions, so they moved everything online. They had a really impressive programme of morning Bible readings (Christopher Ash on the Psalms), evening celebrations looking at hope with speakers like Andy Prime, Jeremy McQuoid and Amy Orr-Ewing; children and youth streams and a seminar programme too. The seminars all focussed on hope, with things such as lament and grieving on the agenda.
Kristi Mair and I were invited to lead a seminar on “Sharing hope with friends” looking at the whole area of evangelism in these strange times! The gospel of Jesus remains the only source of true and lasting hope in a world marred by sin and death. The gospel is God’s “Good news” which breaks into our lives with His goodness, grace, forgiveness and eternal hope.
Kristi examined some of the questions that the Covid crisis has raised, especially the absence of hope in secularism. In contrast to the way in which the pandemic has cruelly exposed the hopelessness of secularism, she explored the wonderful hope that God gives us in Christ. I then moved on to talk about some of the practical aspects of sharing that hope with friends. Obviously in the context, evangelism under Covid-restrictions was a key theme in there.
Keswick gets huge numbers for their events so it was great to open the virtual floor to all of them for Q&A at the end. People from all over the country sent questions in by text, which emcee John Taylor put to Kristi and I. Questions included things such engaging the apathetic and the successful with the gospel, listening, social media, feeling a failure in evangelism, and more!
I was actually in the Keswick studio with John , while Kristi joined us online from where she was in Leicestershire; and together we put the seminar together! I really enjoyed being there with them, as they are great people and did such a great job in moving from a physical to an online event there in their lovely studio.
You can watch the whole of Andy and Kristi’s evangelism seminar above or find the entire Virtually Keswick 2020 Convention here.
