If you’ve caught yourself “doomscrolling” through the latest depressing news from Ukraine, Gaza or somewhere closer to home, you might wonder where God could possibly fit in such a world of chaos. In this Short Answers episode, Andy Bannister asks what sort of god might offer hope and order into this story. Amazingly, the story of Jesus fits the God of the universe into the chaos of an uncertain parentage, Roman occupation and the brutality of the cross. And the great news of Easter is that God is eager for you to invite Him into the chaos of your own life.
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!
Thanks for coming to the Confident Christianity Conference at Plymstock United Church. As promised, you can find our slides from the morning — as well as recommended resources related to the talks.
Why not use a ministry of chocolate to connect with the people in their community. We heard of one church that did this to great success! Stephen, the organiser, said: “The original idea was just to do something that would bless the people in our town.”
They began by using community social media groups to ask anyone who would like a free Easter egg to sign up. On Easter Sunday morning, a team of fun-filled church members (some dressed as Easter bunnies!) dropped off hundreds of Easter eggs around the town, along with information about the church.
The idea then took off and grew!
In the first year they used supermarket Easter eggs, which led to them being able to share something of the Christian message with the manager of the shop who asked them why they were buying all the eggs and who they were for. In subsequent years they have used the Real Easter Egg Company, which includes the Easter story in the box. It cost the church about £400 for all the eggs and the leaflets each time they did it. It took Stephen several evenings of planning and organising too, but the delivery was all done in one morning.
The response of people all over their town was so positive that the church pushed on in later years, finding some brilliant Easter leaflets from 10ofThose to add to the little package being delivered by their Easter-bunny costumed volunteers. These volunteers were each provided with a bag of Easter eggs, the Easter leaflets and Google Map directions for all the people who had signed up to receive them. The rest was simple and lots of fun.
Later in the year, the church realised that their ministry of chocolate would be a brilliant way of inviting people to their Christmas services and events. This time though, the Advent Calendars they gave out contained the Christmas story along with some very yummy Fairtrade chocolate. (Also, their Easter Bunny costumes were shelved in favour of Elves and Santa Suits!) By taking Jesus seriously but not taking themselves too seriously, they created a stir, drew people to their Christmas events and gently shared the story of Jesus with their community.
Pray: Dear Jesus, please help us to find imaginative, generous and welcoming ways to share your love and your gospel with those around us.
This was my very first visit to The Isle of Lewis for Solas. Although we have criss-crossed Scotland speaking in big cities like Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee, as well smaller towns like Galashiels, Blairgowrie and Maddiston, we hadn’t ever been to the Western Isles! So it was lovely to receive an invitation from Back Free Church on the Isle of Lewis. Colin McLeod, the pastor there is an amazing chap, who worked for many years as a military chaplain before taking on the pastorate of a congregation, first in Edinburgh and then in Lewis.
I did a flying visit, and they packed a lot into the short time I was on the island. The first thing was a media interview. The community radio station there interviewed me about faith and contemporary life for two hours! They asked about why we had come to island as well as my story and Christian testimony – all kinds of things. One of the great things about that was that the community radio station has a surprisingly large listenership across the community there, so it was a wonderful opportunity.
Then I led a Confident Christianity evening at Back Free Church and probably almost a hundred people came along. It was an interesting audience too, because there was a cohort of older Christians there who had always lived in a very, very Christian subculture on the island. Some of them told me they are struggling with the way in which culture is changing and trying to understand it. But there were also lots of younger people there, in their twenties and thirties who have understood that the world is changing fast and many of their questions were very perspective. Several NHS staff asked questions about their witness for Christ in the workplace.
Happily we have been invited back to build on the work that was begun that day! Steve Osmond and I will be going there again to lead a Confident Christianity in another church in Stornoway, as well as some evangelism with that church. So it was a great opportunity for me to meet the churches on Lewis, equip some believers and encourage them in sharing their faith, and make some new connections for Solas as well.
I think the key message I had for them was not to be afraid of the changing world around us, but to look for ways I which the gospel engages the evolving nature of the questions that people are asking, We are not called shake our heads in despair at the world, but to positively look for ways to share the gospel with people in it!
Thanks for coming to the Confident Christianity event at St Pauls Centre in St Helier. Here are my slides, as well as some notes for a section which I had to leave out due to time constraints.
After the Covid pandemic, we’ve all had enough of statistics! But sometimes they can reveal amazing surprises about things we take for granted. Today Gavin Matthews learns more about the fascinating “Talking Jesus” report, which tells us so much about the nuances of faith in the UK and the untapped opportunities for sharing Jesus today.
Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf is passionate about sharing the gospel of Jesus and has worked for various churches and mission agencies in places such as London and Amsterdam. She’s involved in a church plant in London and is a adjunct lecturer in mission in the UK. She holds a PhD in Church History, focussing on women in mission in early 20th Century Britain. She has been an advisor for the Church of England on mission. Rachel is the Executive Director of Hope Together – a ministry which works with local churches to share the gospel of Jesus. She also loves chocolate!
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Christian fellowship is great. It is meant to be enjoyed, the church was intended to be our family, where we feel safe and where people ‘get us’ because they share our beliefs, ethics and assumptions. But if we never go outside the safety of fellowship, we can become like a ship that never leaves the security of the harbour! Harbour walls are important and provide calm waters for ships to be both loaded and repaired. But the purpose of ships is to cross oceans, they are meant to head out from safety into open water. If they don’t they become pointless! Likewise, while we need the refuelling of fellowship, worship and teaching, our calling is to go out into the world with the message of Christ.
“I’d love to invite my friends to Alpha or Christianity Explored, but all my friends are Christians!” is an all too often heard phrase that makes leaders of these courses dismayed! It completely restricts the mission of the church. But the church has caused some of the problem itself, by overloading keen Christians with internal meetings, rotas and church duties so that they rarely get into the world, and certainly don’t spend enough time there to make life-deep friendships.
What’s compounded this problem has been the development of what might be called ‘christianised-leisure’! I know places where I can join Christian book-groups, hillwalking clubs and badminton clubs. The problem with this is that our whole lives can become absorbed in church, and our social contacts exclusively formed within the echo-chamber of fellowship.
So, here’s the challenge. Take a look at the amount of time that you invest in activities other than work – and make sure that at least one of them is in a context where you can meet, and make meaningful friendships, with people outside the church. If you are a bookworm, don’t set up a Christian book circle, find a neighbourhood one, etc. It’s not a quick fix for evangelism – but it can be an essential first step. We are called to be ‘salt’; and salt only works as a preservative in foods it touches. Likewise we cannot be an influence from within our silos. Christians need to get out more!
Pray: Lord please help me make deep friendships outside the church, and use these as a conduit for your love.
As the university mission season comes to an end, I spoke to Andy Bannister and Steve Osmond about their experiences on campuses from Canterbury to Glasgow, and many in between. We talked about mission today, working with students, UCCF, Christianity and Islam and more. Andy reflected on the changing nature of mission in the UK over the years. Steve talked about doing his first ever mission on a campus here. It’s an encouraging conversation and gives some insight into the kind of work that Solas does.
All of us would like to reiterate what Andy said on the video, that we are really grateful to those of you pray for our work, and who give to make it possible. Thank you!
Why so many different church denominations? Anglicans, Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Evangelicals and more! If Christianity were true, then why all the disagreement? Surely, Christians would all just get along and the church would be the church wouldn’t it? In this Short Answers video, Steve Osmond shares some thoughts about the different expressions of the church.
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!
In the church I often hear testimonies, prayers and comments about the way that following Jesus has brought joy, peace, purpose, and security into people’s lives. This week I heard a new Christian praying, “Lord, I long for my friends to experience you like I have, you are amazing!” The Christian life can sometimes be challenging and costly – but it is also characterised by the joy that comes from being reconciled to a God who is good, and His presence in our lives.
The media get great mileage from publicising bad-news stories about Christianity. Perhaps it is time to start changing our friends and colleagues’ perceptions about the Christian faith, by drip-feeding them a better, more accurate narrative.
Next time you are asked, ‘Good weekend?’, instead of the traditional, ‘Fine’, perhaps there is an opportunity to say something positive about the difference your faith (or even just your church) makes in your life.
Here are some examples of good news stories I have heard Christians drip into conversation:
‘Church was very significant for me yesterday.’
‘My friend of mine was baptized at the weekend and talked about how her new faith had helped her.’
‘I went to a human rights event where a Christian who’d escaped from North Korea spoke about the way that her faith sustained her in the internment camps.’
‘Our church has been raising money for a hospital in Africa and we managed to reach our target.’
‘The young people at church led the service last night, it was a breath of fresh air!’
‘I don’t know how to explain this but I’m really growing in my faith at the moment and it’s making me rethink a few things about life and priorities.’
‘The funeral yesterday was hard, but it’s times like these that my faith makes such a difference.’
TV dramas seem to love to picture church leaders putting out and collecting hymn books in empty buildings (just watch!). The thought that churches around the country consist of people with a real, living faith in Jesus which informs everything from how they spend their money, to profound spiritual experiences, to lives changed for the better as they follow Jesus – is a great untold story.
Pray: Lord, help me to be a conduit for good news stories about you and the difference you make to people’s lives!
Solas recently paid a return visit to Deeside Christian Fellowship Church for a Confident Christianity weekend. And as well as the usual Saturday half-day training event, DCFC organised a Friday night youth event, inviting not just their own young people but those from neighbouring churches. Almost 100 young people packed into DCFC and Andy and Steve tackled three tough questions — giving a 10 minute talk on each: “True for You, Not True for Me?”, “Is Christianity Bad for the Environment?” and “Do human rights make sense without God?”
In each case, they shared an answer to the question but also showed how that answer connected to Jesus and the gospel. We also had three Q&A sessions and the young people managed to ask over fifty questions! They ranged over everything from science to sexuality to the Bible to culture, and Andy and Steve did their best to cover as many as they could. Afterward the youth leader remarked he could use the remaining ones for the next two terms’ of youth programming! The evening was a reminder to me how young people need a space to ask their questions—not least, it encourages them to ask their friends along (as many did). But also surveys have shown that churches who encourage their youth to ask their questions and help them discover the answers produce young Christians who are massively more resilient in their faith at university.
Steve said, “Events with youth are always exciting – there’s always such a great buzz from the energy in the room – and this event was no exception. It’s really encouraging to see that there are churches that see the value in getting youth to think through tough questions and make space for the youth to bring their friends along to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether your youth ministry is large or small, we highly recommend churches pulling together to put on youth events like this!”
On Saturday, Andy and Steve were joined by Gavin Matthews from Solas and host Elizabeth McQuoid from the church for a morning Confident Christianity conference. In four sessions plus a time of Q&A, they looked at some useful skills for evangelism, as well as some hot topics that come up when we seek to share our faith. The sessions were all recorded and can be seen here:
Andy Bannister: Asking Questions like Jesus:
Steve Osmond: Given all the options, why Jesus?
Gavin Matthews: Where is God in the midst of Suffering?
Andy Bannister: Technology and Humanity:
Q&A:
On Sunday, Andy Bannister went over to Deeside’s sister church, Donside Community Church where he spoke on the uniqueness of Christ; while Gavin continued to speak about the question of suffering but from the encounter of Jesus with Mary, Martha and Lazarus in John 11. The audio of that talk can be heard here.
Working more intensly with a church over a weekend with evangelism, evangelism-training and Sunday preaching too, seems to be something we are being asked to do more regularly in the last year or so. It’s something we really enjoy doing as well, as it gives us the opportunity to get to know people in the church better, and to work with them in a variety of contexts. It’s great to be able to bring a whole team from Solas too and to engage in both sides of our work: evangelism and evangelism-training. Churches seem to appreciate this approach too, which facilitates a far deeper and more fuitful partnership between us than a single event. It keeps travel costs at a minimum too, which is good for everyone. If a Solas weekend might be of benefit to your church, we’d love to hear from you. We can tailor the programme to suit the needs of your fellowship, and work with you to help get the gospel out into your community effectively. Please do drop us a message so we can have an informal chat about the ways in which we serve churches!
Where does our desire for the supernatural fit in the modern world? With a society built on rationality and technology, do we still have longings for a connection with something transcendent? Steve Osmond sits down with Belle Tindall to identify areas in our friends’ lives where we can show how the gospel story meets those longings.
Dr Belle Tindall is a biblical scholar, writer, speaker, and podcaster. Based at the Centre for Cultural Witness, she is the writer in residence at Seen and Unseen. She is also a columnist for Premier’s Woman Alive magazine and co-host of Re-Enchanting, a podcast that ponders whether our disenchanted world can be re-enchanted with the wonder and mystery of the Christian story.
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Recently I sat down with a friend at a stag party for someone we both knew. He wasn’t a Christian, and asked if I was still going to church. Very quickly this led to us chatting about God. Then our conversation was cut short by another attendee: “We can talk about anything, except politics and religion – now let’s have some fun!”.
There’s a sad perception that as soon as we speak about ‘religion’ it will lead to disagreement, leading to tension, leading to fighting – so just keep it light…‘how about that weather yesterday…!’ Many Christians have adopted this mindset too. Equally, many people who don’t share our faith assume that they can’t ask us about what we believe at the risk of offending us, that we’ll be awkward and defensive! The result – nobody talks about it.
But what if we could change that? What if we could signal to people that this is something that we actually want to talk about. And not just that, we also love hearing about what other people believe.
The more time I’ve spent in conversation listening to people, the more I’ve realised that many of them like talking about life, and how they make sense of things. This creates many opportunities to explain our faith. Have a glance at these interviews with someone who’s doing this in their workplace.
How about instead of letting the perception that we can’t talk about these things persist, we can make it known that we are open to chat about what we believe, and that we aren’t threatened or worried about disagreement.
How do we do this? Drop it into the conversation! After making it known that you are a Christian and are able to start deeper conversations, try to weave in to your conversation that you are really open to speaking about these things.
Perhaps something like: “Sometimes people feel like they can’t talk about religion, but I love asking big questions about these things. If you ever have any questions about what Christians believe I’d love to try answer them and hear what you think – I really won’t be offended”.
Student ministry continues to be a really important and fruitful mission field in the UK today. Christian Union groups on campuses up and down the country play an essential role in sharing the gospel of Jesus with students. Andy Bannister recently spent the day with the UCCF London team, discussing many aspects of ministry to students today – including the changing cultural context and the questions which now dominate the conversation. Watch the full report in the video!
Aren’t all religions, especially the “Abrahamic faiths,” basically the same? In this slightly-less-short Short Answers film, Solas Director Andy Bannister (who is unusual in that he’s a Christian but has a PhD in Islamic Studies) explains why although he respects his Muslim friends, he is not at all convinced by the core claims of Islam. Discover why the claims often made for the Qur’an and Muhammad don’t stand up when put to the test—and why the evidence for Jesus stands head and shoulders above them.
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!
