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PEP Talk with Matt from Frontiers

by Solas

In many parts of the UK, we can expect to encounter people from Muslim backgrounds in our communities. Sharing the Gospel with them can be a great opportunity, but can be daunting. There are many assumptions we can make, but how can we approach them in a spirit of humility and friendliness? Today’s guest shares with Andy from his experience working with Muslims in the UK and in Pakistan.

For more information on the resources mentioned in this episode, email Matt<at>frontiers.org.uk

With Matt from Frontiers – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

For over 20 years, Matt has been with Frontiers, a mission agency dedicated to making disciples and planting churches amongst Muslims. He spent most of his 30s in northern Pakistan, where he had close calls with terrorism, sectarian fighting and a massive earthquake. Now based in the UK, Matt regularly speaks at CUs, churches and conferences on God’s heart for all peoples and how to communicate the gospel to Muslims. He hosts a podcast, called Raw Mission and has just begun volunteering as a prison chaplain.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts 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 24 : Join A Short-Term Mission Team

by Editor

What could grow your spiritual life, reach the lost, encourage a struggling church, forge lifelong friendships, allow you to see new parts of the world, experience new cultures, encourage your church, equip you for ministry and be the adventure of a lifetime?

The answer is going on a short-term mission trip this summer with an organisation like GLO, who have run them successfully for years. This year they are sending mission teams to Albania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, Romania, Tanzania, as well as teams within the UK too.

Obviously something that good comes at a cost and the price to pay here is a week of your holiday and around £100 towards costs. However, it is a week that could change lives forever—including your own!

Some folks have never considered investing a week in a mission-trip, others did them when they were young and then gave up, some think that short-term trips don’t do lasting good. Stephen from GLO Europe wants to challenge such thinking. He reports that:

  • Host churches all over the world say that visiting teams are a huge encouragement to them. One pastor wrote: “Thank you so much for your ministry and all the help you gave us. We saw the heavens open and the Lord’s hand working beyond natural expectations.”
  • Teams are multi-generational and not just made up of young people.
  • Groups from one church can serve together. One youth group from Glasgow went to the Czech Republic. “There is also no doubt that the experience of serving in a cross-cultural context had a profound effect on the young people” said their leader.
  • Thousands of gospels and tracts in tens of languages are given out all over the continent!

Student ministry, literature distribution, children’s clubs, street-work, church-based programmes, arts, parties, youth clubs, open-air work, drama, quizzes, church services, practical help are just some things that short-term mission teams get up to.

There is however one significant danger in short-term ministry trips. Some people find that the experience is so transformative that they sign up to become long-term missionaries! So don’t just think about what you might be able to get in your holidays, but what you might be able to give.

Pray: Lord, my time is yours. How do you want me to spend it?

Previously: Launch Pad #23 Start or Join a Christian Workplace Group

Next: Launch Pad #25 Practice Your Testimony and Pray for an Opportunity to Share It.

Evangelism in Pitlochry Festival Theatre!

by Editor

We often talk about doing evangelism by ‘taking the gospel outside the four walls of the church’ and into public spaces where people feel comfortable coming to listen, engage and ask questions about the Christian faith. Over the years these have taken us to cafe’s, pubs, restaurants, hotels, offices, MoD bases, schools, golf-clubs, and outdoor centres! Pitlochry Baptist Church hired the fantastic Festival Theatre in their town and invited Andy Bannister to come and speak. It really was quite the venue! Hear the full story in the video link above,

Will Animals Go To Heaven?

by Solas

“Do animals go to heaven?” That was a question Andy Bannister’s daughter asked after the death of a pet. And it’s a brilliant question: is Christianity only concerned with human beings? Or does it have something to say about the natural world and animals in particular?

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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!

Launch Pad 23: Start or Join a Christian Workplace Group

by Editor

The place where Christians interact most with people who do not share their faith is at work. It’s not just that most of us spend large proportion of our waking hours with colleagues, it’s also that as we work alongside people—sharing challenges, joys and frustrations—that we can forge deep connections with others. For most people, the office, school staff-room, or shop-floor is their ‘frontline’ where their faith intersects the world. And it is often challenging.

Thousands of Christians are finding renewed courage and opportunity to share their faith in their workplaces, by joining together with other Christians there. The growth of Christian Workplace Groups is an exciting international phenomenon and in the UK they are springing up in hospitals, water companies, aircraft manufacturers, government departments,  the Army, finance, logistics, publishing, brewing and insurance companies, and hundreds of other places. In London alone there are now 694 registered Christian Workplace Groups!

These groups vary enormously. Some meet just to pray and encourage each other in their individual faith, lives and witness. Other groups offer to pray for people in their firm. Some groups hold outreach events in the workplace, or an adjacent café. There is no formula for what has to be done, but there is the universal testimony that the Christian life and faith is lived more effectively together.

Virtually every group was started by someone who said, “That couldn’t happen here” and “I could never do that”, yet somehow by the grace of God it has, and they did.

The charity “Transform Work” was set up to assist Christian Workplace Groups and has loads of information about how to go about setting up and running one. They have experience in everything from how get a group running, how to work cooperatively with HR departments and navigate the world of Diversity and Inclusion bodies and policies. They also have inspiring stories of what is achieved when Christians are more visible for Jesus at work, in-person and online.

Their website is a wealth of helpful information. And you can access their free booklet “Starting a Christian Workplace Group” here. Christian mission is much easier if you do it alongside others. Consider how to grow your collective witness in your workplace.

Pray: Lord, please help me to wisely, truthfully and graciously be seen for you at work. Amen

Previously: Launch Pad #22 Get The Word Out!

Next: Launch Pad #24 Join A Short-Term Mission Team

Christians, Muslims and God!

by Editor

Andy Bannister from Solas was recently asked by the CS Lewis Institute in the USA to revisit the theme of his 2021 book, “Do Muslims and Christians Worship The Same God?” as part of their ‘Challenging Questions’ series.

The article, (following the book) do a detiailed textual comparison between the kind of deity described by the Qur’an and that found in the Bible. Andy finds some points of commonality as well as some significant and irreconcileable contradictions between the two portraits and this is useful as it facilitates a respectful dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Click below to read the article

Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

If you would like to find out how to get a copy of “Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?” click here. 

Launch Pad 22: Get the Word Out!

by Editor

One of the Solas team spoke at a “Meal-with-a-Message” event put on by a local church. After the meal and the talk there was a Q&A, during which a non-Christian guest asked a series of questions about faith that culminated in him signing up for the church’s Alpha course. At the end of the evening, we asked him whether he’d been brought along by a church member. “No,” he replied, “I saw an advert about tonight’s event in the local newspaper and it sounded really interesting.” He went on to say it was the first time he’d set foot in a church in decades.

It’s great to put on a Meal-with-a-Message, or some other kind of evangelistic event, or a carol service—anything where non-Christians might feel welcome—but we need to let people know it’s happening! As well as preach the Word, we also need to spread the word!

How can we do this? Here are some ideas:

  1. Pray! (For fruit from your event, for creative advertising ideas, for God to draw people in).
  2. If you can, find someone in your church with a flair for publicity and promotion. (When it comes to social media—see #4 below—young people are often especially gifted in this area, so why not get them involved?)
  3. Get the event into the local newspaper—many local newspapers have “What’s On” sections. (You could also offer to send a report and a photograph after the event, or ask if somebody from the newspaper would like to come to the event as a guest and report on it. Local newspapers are often eager for fresh story ideas beyond ‘Football Team Stuck up Tree’ or ‘Local Cat Loses to Neasden FC Again’).
  4. Publicise the event on any local social media groups. Just be sure to abide by any group rules and don’t spam people (If in doubt, ask first for advice about how to advertise your event).
  5. Put up posters in local shops, the community centre, the library etc.
  6. Hand out leaflets on the street.
  7. Distribute leaflets door-to-door.
  8. Encourage church members to invite friends. (A Solas Confident Christianity event might also help boost their confidence in asking people to events).

Pray: Father God, help us as a church not just to be creative with our outreach events, but to be creative in spreading the word about those events. Amen!

Previously: Launch Pad # 21Run a ‘Meal with a Message’ Event

Next: Launch Pad #23 Start or Join a Christian Workplace Group

HTTAJWLLAI in Sweden!

by Editor

It was a great privilege to lead a webinar for Apologia Sweden. That is an evangelism and apologetics group based (unsurprisingly!) in Sweden. They invited me to join them for an online interactive webinar about my book, “How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot” (HTTAJWLAI), to which between 75-100 people showed up.

It was a particular privilege for me to serve an organisation in Sweden, because I have Swedish connections through my wife who is part Swedish. It was brilliant actually to see so many students and young people there on that Zoom event.

I shared for about 45 minutes some of the principles from the book about how we can share our faith in Jesus with our friends. We thought about how we can use questions to start significant spiritual conversations, looking first at the gospels and the ways that Jesus does that, and then at some practical tools we can use to start and then develop these conversations.

Then we had a great and very lively Q&A session, and it was great to get such a good range of questions showing that the folks there were really active and passionate about sharing their faith with others. Martin Helgesson from Apologia Sweden agreed, writing: “The event went very well! We had a good turnout and the questions that came up after Andy’s talk were thoughtful and moved the conversation further. It is always encouraging to interact with Christians who sincerely want to pass the gospel on to friends, family and coworkers.”

That’s encouraging because Sweden has the reputation as being a very secular country like the UK; but it’s important to recognise that there is also life in the churches there! It was especially encouraging to see young people and life there. Through my family connections and many visits to the country I am aware that some of the older denominations are contracting, but that is not the whole story by any means. I have seen evidence of real life there when I have been over speaking in universities and in student settings.

At Solas, our vision is for the UK but we do also like opportunities to bless, encourage and resource what others are doing. One of the joys of digital technology is that I can do that from my office, even though they were all on the other side of The North Sea.

The whole meeting was recorded and appears on the Apologia Sweden YouTube channel here. Martin Hegelsson wrote: “Several participants showed a clear interest in putting ideas into practice, and many more expressed their gratitude for Andy’s clear and concrete presentation. We are very grateful for Solas and for Andy’s help in pursuing a culture of persuasive evangelism in Sweden!” I was delighted to be invited, and really enjoyed meeting and working with them all.

Interfaith dialogue in Aylesbury

by Editor

Andy reports on a remarkable morning in a large high school in Aylesbury. The Religious Studies department organised an interfaith conversation and invited Andy to represent the Christian perspective. The debate was friendly, lively and informative – and the students posed great questions to the panelists. Hear the full story in the video!

Featured Photo Credit: John Utime

Is Faith Just An Emotion?

by Solas

Is faith just an emotion – just something we feel? Is it something that some people have and some people don’t, just like some of us have a taste for a certain flavour of ice cream and others don’t? Or is it more than that? In this Short Answers video, Steve Osmond from Solas looks at the idea of faith and evidence, and how the two work together in Christianity.

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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!

Launch Pad 21: Run a “Meal with a Message” Event

by Editor

Recent decades have seen the relentless march of coffee shops through our high streets. What accounts for their popularity? One of the co-founders of Starbucks once said his vision was for it to be a “third place”—neither home, nor work, but a place to linger in between.

There are loads of other such third places—pubs, cafes, curry houses—and your community probably has one or more. And they’re great places for evangelism. We live in a time when many of our non-Christian friends have no experience of church and can be suspicious about entering into “our” space: so let’s go to their space!

Over the years at Solas we’ve helped many churches put on low-key evangelism events in neutral venues. One church in Inverness ran a meal in the local hotel: church members invited friends and it was packed to capacity. After the dinner there was a short talk and lots of people later signed up for the Alpha Course.

More recently, Andy Bannister helped a church in St. Alban’s organise an event in a golf club. Again, food was served, then Andy spoke on “Finding Hope in a World of Chaos”. One guest said afterwards “this was a fantastic evening … I really enjoyed the talk”. Another said to the Christian who’d invited them that they’d love to do The Word-One-to-One.

How do you run an event like this well? Here are some principles we’ve learnt over the years:

  1. Book a local venue that serves food (either a meal, or coffee and dessert etc.)
  2. Advertise that there will be food plus a short talk.
  3. Consider selling tickets in pairs: Christians can then buy a ticket for a friend.
  4. Keep the talk short and relevant.
  5. Have Q&A afterward.
  6. Use the event to launch e.g. a Christianity Explored or Alpha Course.

Just like the Christians found in the book of Acts, when we go where people are, God shows up!

And if you need help, reach out to us at Solas; we can offer advice, ideas, and if you need it, supply a speaker for your event!

Prayer: Lord, please inspire us at our church to reach out of our four walls and put on an event in a ‘third space’. Thank you that you’re the missionary God who goes before us. Amen!

Previously: Launch Pad # 20 Host a Pre-Marriage Course, Meet and Serve non-Christian Couples

Next: Launch Pad #22 Get the Word Out!

Steve on a Mission in Edinburgh

by Editor

Duncan Street Baptist is a church which meets on the south side of Central Edinburgh,  not far from the city’s famous Meadows. Under the leadership of their pastor Robert Murdock, Duncan Street Baptist Church are engaged in various outreach and evangelism initiatives, talking the gospel of Christ to their neighbours and communities. Along with a commitment to training and equipping church members for talking about Jesus, Duncan Street Baptist Church also hosts regular Christianity Explored courses, which takes people through Mark’s gospel in an informal and interactive way. Many people have become Christian through Christianity Explored, it’s a really valuable tool for local churches.

In addition to these ongoing ministries, Duncan Street Baptist have been holding outreach evenings, opening up the Christian answers to some of the biggest question of our age. With surveys and scholars saying that people today are searching for the meaning, purpose, value of life and looking for happiness, the church was keen to show people that Jesus provides the surest foundation for answering today’s big questions.

Steve Osmond from Solas spent three evenings with the folks from Duncan Street, which he thoroughly enjoyed.  The church advertised these events with personal invitations, social media content and by handing out flyers around their neighbourhood and got Steve to address three big questions:

Can Happiness Last? Can Science and God Co-Exist? And “Given All the Options, Why Jesus?’

The church was delighted that people who are not yet Christians, came along and engaged with these sessions. Robert Murdock from Duncan Street wrote:

“Steve did an excellent job addressing three questions, Can happiness last?, Can Science and God Coexist? and Why Jesus? His presentations had depth and were thought provoking, respectful and persuasive. We had a number of people attend who were exploring what the Christian message was and how it was relevant to them and Steve’s presentations allowed them to do that without feeling pressured. Without any hesitation I would recommend Steve and the Solas team to any Church that wants to try and engage the people who live around us with reasons to believe.”

There are many, many different ways of sharing the Christian faith with folks outside the church! Holding an event like these is a great way of engaging people with the Christian faith in a respectful, thoughtful and persuasive way – or launching your Christianity Explored, Alpha or other outreach course. Solas speakers address these kinds of meetings every month, all over the country and have a range of suitable talks ready to help non-Christian audiences see the importance and relevance of Jesus. If we can help your church to run an event like this, please get in touch by pressing the ‘https://www.solas-cpc.org/contact/connect’ button at the top of this page.

PEP Talk with Matt Fell

by Solas

On PEP Talk today, Kristi and Steve chat with Matt, one of Kristi’s old school friends! He wasn’t a Christian at all back then, but over the years, Jesus wonderfully drew him in. Now working on a PhD at Cambridge, he reflects on the amazing ways that a scientific, enquiring mind can find satisfaction in a God-centred worldview. If you or your friends think Christianity is anti-science or anti-intellectual, Matt’s testimony is great food for thought!

With Matt Fell – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Matthew Fell is a PhD student in the Divinity Faculty at the University of Cambridge. His thesis considers the implications of evolutionary theory for the Christian understanding of the soul and its creation. Alongside his studies, he is an associate lecturer at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and the director of a discipleship and church internship programme that serves the Newfrontiers network across Europe. Matthew is a passionate believer that modern science can open theological questions and dialogue with people rather than shut it down.

About PEP Talk

The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, our hosts 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 20: Host a Pre-Marriage course – Meet and serve non-Christian couples

by Editor

A few years ago our church ran a pre-marriage course – a few weeks of ‘what to expect’ for couples to invest in their marriage before it began. It was advertised through the church website and in the Sunday services as a way to get prepared for marriage using good Biblical principles.

The first evening came around and, as my fiancé and I were also nearing our wedding date, we joined in. Looking back after 10 years of marriage, this was a good idea. It’s strange to me that so often we will invest years in training for a job or some hobby – but so many don’t give a moment’s thought to the idea that marriage may actually take some preparation – there may actually be some skills to learn as we embark on the journey. Anyway, I digress.

It wasn’t long until I noticed that there were several couples I’d not seen before. It was a big church and I just assumed I hadn’t met them yet. The course included a dinner each week where we were served by some of the church members during which there was time to chat to the other couples. To my surprise it turned out that a few of the couples weren’t part of the church – they’d heard about the course from friends and advertising – and even more surprisingly…they weren’t even Christians!

Why the surprise you may ask? Well, my assumption was that a pre-marriage course at a church – based on Biblical principles – wouldn’t at all be something that would attract non-Christians. But it did and The Lord used it! And here, in our church for several weeks were couples who were wanting to invest in their marriage and were open to hearing the Gospel – and hear the Gospel they did. Since then I’ve done marriage preparation with several couples and then conducted their wedding ceremony, and seen how marriage can be a fantastic opportunity to minister to couples.

Another great opportunity that running a pre-marriage course presents is that those serving the participants also had weeks of interaction with these couples – practically showing the attitude of service that the Lord Jesus would have us demonstrate. This is a great way to meet, and love, non-Christians very practically, pointing them to Jesus.

Here is a great place to start: https://www.themarriagecourse.org/host/the-pre-marriage-course

Previously: Launch Pad #19 Leaflet Your Community

Next: Launch Pad #21 Run a “Meal with a Message” Event

Student Mission at St Andrews

by Editor

Steve Osmond from Solas spoke at the St Andrews University Christian Union events week. To watch his reflects on an intense but rewarding week of mission play the video below!

The students from the Christian Union enthused about the week of mission they had done together.

“As a Christian Union in St Andrews we exist to give every student the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news of Jesus. So we put on an ‘events week’ like this every single year, which is really the climax of our year as a Christian Union. It’s a week of intense events and mission, to give CU members the opportunity to invite friends and to talk about Jesus. We aim to give people the chance to hear and respond to the good news that he brings. That’s what we have been doing this week!” – Amy

“For me, and I think for a lot of us, it has been so amazing to see the momentum that can be built over a week. There have been specific people who we have seen multiple times throughout the week, who have been so keen and so interested. They’ve been coming with all their questions and being able to invite them back, day-after-day to find out more – and ask more about what we think and believe, has been such a blessing! Such a blessing in fact for us to see how God has been using this week.” – Millie

Thank you again, all those of you who pray faithfully for this kind of work and those who give to make it happen practically. Thank you.