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Students by the Sea! Steve, GUCU and Wonderful Weekend.

It was a great joy to go to Arbroath with the students from the Glasgow University Christian Union (GUCU), for their CU weekend houseparty.  Somewhere between sixty and seventy students, I reckon, joined Matty from UCCF and I at the Windmill Centre there overlooking the town on Scotland’s east coast. It’s a lovely old building and ideal for these sorts of gatherings.

I was so impressed with the GUCU crowd. Not only were they a huge amount of fun, but they were also really serious about their faith, and zealous for the gospel. The times of sung worship were amazing. Before and after I spoke each time, they raised the roof with their singing which threatened to drown out the musicians!

I lead the Bible teaching over four sessions over four sessions, based on the New Testament book of James. The rest of the programme was packed full or times of prayer, discussions, worship, and loads of brilliant informal conversations in which the students picked my brains on issues of faith, the Bible, theology and evangelism. Their were also lots of fun times, which went on into the night – I suspect that some of them barely slept all weekend! On one particularly moving evening, some students shared testimony about how they had come to faith in Christ and what walking with Him means to them today. One young man spoke of the persecution he had endured in his home country where Christianity is a minority faith, and where following Jesus is hard. We were all challenged and encouraged to serve Jesus more faithfully by his words and example.

GUCU contains students from a broad range of churches, all united together with the aim of sharing the gospel on the campus. I heard students mention various of their churches, some of which I recognised like Glasgow Grace and The Tron, as well as several I didn’t including some independents, another from the New Frontiers group and an Anglican.

It was so good to be with these young, passionate, fun-filled students and to encourage them in their mission on the campus. Many things will live long in my memory, but I think the joy and enthusiasm of this crowd of students will be my abiding memory of my weekend preaching in Arbroath!

With Alistair McKitterick

If you encounter apathy when sharing the gospel, it could stem from a worldview that sees faith as irrelevant in a world ruled and explained by science. Research in the area of intelligent design can be a great tool in breaking down those barriers within a scientific mindset. On PEP Talk today, Steve and Gavin learn more about how we as Christians can connect with those who think this way.

For an introduction to Intelligent Design, check out this video from Stephen Meyer or Cosmic Chemistry by John Lennox.

With Alistair McKitterick PEP Talk

Our Guest

Alistair McKitterick is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of the MA in Practical Theology and Ministry at the London School of Theology.  He has a particular interest in the science and faith debate, with his doctoral research on the effectiveness of teaching science to Evangelical theology students.  Before lecturing in theology, Alistair studied physics and taught mathematics and science in Zimbabwe in an Elim Pentecostal mission.  He is married to Emily and has four grown up children.

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.

What Evidence Do We Have That God Exists?

Do Christians just believe because they believe? Is faith just believing things for which you’ve no evidence, other than a hunch? In this Short Answers message, Andy Bannister looks at some of the many (just a few of many, many, many) pieces of evidence that God exists and Christianity is true.

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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!

Have You Ever Wondered Why We Love Spring?

My favourite day of the year comes just before Christmas. Depending on the year it might be the 20, 21 or 22nd of December – it’s the winter solstice. People are often surprised when I tell them this, given that they know that I’m not a fan of winter, and the winter solstice marks the start of….. Winter! But in my mind at least it, actually marks the start of spring! Yes, I know it’s still cold and dark, but from that moment onwards I know that the days are getting longer and therefore I know that spring will come!

Some people notice the arrival of spring with improvements in the weather. The problem with doing this in the UK is that we can have all four seasons in one day. Indeed, I’ve known days in the middle of winter to be warmer than in high summer. Last July I was driving into town in the middle of the day when I noticed that the thermometer on the dashboard was registering just 12 degrees Celsius! If it hadn’t been for the leaves on the trees, I could have been forgiven for thinking it was December. Therefore, I find a more reliable way to observe the arrival of spring is to watch the plants rather than the weather.

The first harbingers of spring are the snow drops… this year I was delighted to notice one lone snow drop in the front garden on New Year’s day.  Next to come are the crocuses springing up with joyful abundance wherever they are. I was recently walking through a rather run down part of inner-city Manchester but was stopped in my tracks by a swathe of bright tulips – an invasion of beauty into an otherwise bleak landscape.

My favourite arrival of all though has to be the humble daffodil. From January onwards I regularly buy bunches of them – I’m not sure anything else can bring such joy for £1! I then keep my eyes peeled for the first daffodil to flower in the garden.  And although for a few days it was something of a lone ranger, within a week the whole garden and many of the verges on the surrounding roads have become a sea of yellow.

Along with the spring colours, I also love the arrival of spring fragrances. A few years ago, I flew from the UK to New Zealand – leaving behind our winter and arriving in the height of summer. As I walked down to the beach near Auckland, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful fragrance of the surrounding plants. It made me realise that winter is often devoid of any scent at all.

The first scents of spring normally come from the sarcacossa (winter box). I was walking through the university in Reading at the end of January and I noticed they had masses of it across the campus – the fragrance was intoxicating and brought such joy despite the otherwise dreary weather. Next up comes the Daphne – when I first smelt the flowers of one I immediately went and bought one for our garden. After several years of growth it has this year flowered for the first time. I think my neighbours must have thought I had lost the plot when I got down on my hands and knees on the patio to get a whiff of the first flower to open!

Now I realise that I may be slightly obsessive in my interest in the sights and smells of spring flowers, but I haven’t yet met anyone who hasn’t admitted to at least some joy at the sight of the first daffodils of spring. They tell us that winter is ending, and spring is coming. The days are getting longer and, with any luck, the weather is going to improve. At some point, there comes a day when it actually starts to feel warm again. I love observing people on that first sunny, warm day of spring – even the queue of people at the bus stop on the way to work had smiles on the faces. It seems we all love spring. But why?

I think the answer is – hope. Spring brings with it the hope that things will get better. Winter will not last forever. Summer will come. But I think spring awakens a deeper hope in us. As we look at our broken and divided world we hope for so much more. An end to violence, injustice and conflict. A hope that the world could become a better place – but will it?

According to the Christian story the answer is yes. The Bible tells us that the world we live in is not the way it once was – something has gone wrong and we see the evidence of it all around us. But the Bible also says that the world we live in is not the way it one day will be – this broken world will be put right. Christian hope it not about escaping our world to go to some celestial paradise – in fact quite the opposite. The penultimate chapter of the Bible describes how heaven comes to earth!

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”’  – Revelation 20:1-14

The Bible looks forward to a day when our world will be put right. Death will not have the final world. Eternal spring will come. Indeed, one of the main things people observed about the early Christian community was their hope. One early Christian leader instructed other believers to be ready to explain the reason for the hope that they had. Their hope, in the midst of suffering and hardship, was so noticeable it provoked questions. The social historian, Rodney Stark, pointed out that one of the ways early Christians demonstrated their hope was their willingness to risk their lives to care for others during the plagues that periodically swept through the Roman Empire. This tangible expression of their hope led not only to many people surviving the plague through their care, it also caused them to embrace the same faith.

In fact, in the Bible we find that the very passing of the seasons is meant to remind us of this ultimate reality. The Jewish year didn’t start in the middle of winter like ours does in the Northern Hemisphere – but in the autumn. So, in the Bible, each year went from the death of winter to life of summer! This cycle of the seasons was reinforced by the cycle of the days. Again, unlike our own, Biblical days didn’t start at midnight but at dusk. Just as each year was a journey from death to life, so each day was journey from darkness to light.

Could it be that our love of spring reflects a deeper longing and a greater reality. The trajectory of history is not towards death but life, not darkness but light. My favourite description of spring in all of literature comes in CS Lewis’ children’s classic, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The magical land of Narnia has been held under a curse by the White Witch so that it is ‘always winter and never Christmas.’ However, the coming of Aslan the great lion, breaks the power of the witch’s magic and ushers in the start of spring. What normally takes place over the course of several months happens in a matter of minutes. Lewis vividly portrays the arrival of spring and describes the children’s wonder and joy at the rapid advance.

The Christian imagery in the book is quite clear – Aslan is the Christ figure who alone can bring an end to the power of evil and usher in the spring of new life. Although the twist is that bringing in that life will also require his own voluntary death.

Lewis’ friend, JRR Tolkien also employed the cycle of the seasons in his best-known classic – The Lord of the Rings. The book takes place over the course of one year – travelling through the darkness of winter. Yet while it is often dark and cold, the main characters always long to return to the shire in time for the start of summer!

Perhaps the reason we love spring is that deep down, we long for an eternal spring. We hope that death and darkness will not have the final word, life and light will yet come. If the Bible’s vision of reality is correct, then our love of spring really does point us towards something even greater. According to the Bible, death has been defeated through the death of Jesus – and nothing can stop spring from coming.


Have You Ever Wondered? is also the title of our popular book and a series of articles and videos on this website. With intriguing answers to questions as diverse as ‘Have You Ever Wondered’ why we are drawn to beauty, respect altruism, value the environment, preserve the past, chase money, love music and defend human rights?; the book has a wide range of authors who’s wonderings have drawn them to spiritual and Christian answers to their investigations. With free copies available for people who sign-up to support Solas for as little as £3/month, and big discounts for bulk orders – Have You Ever Wondered? is an effective and affordable way to engage in helpful spiritual discussions.

A Great Day at Cirencester Baptist Church

Cirencester Baptist Church is large church in Gloucestershire, where I have spoken a few times over the last couple of years. I’ve got to know Matt Frost, their pastor quite well too – which has been great. Matt was a guest on the Solas PEPTalk podcast last year, which is well worth a listen! He has a really good podcast of his own which is called “Two pastors in a pub” which you can find here. In their podcast they take on a different topic and try a different drink every episode – it’s a great little programme!

So, it was great to drive back over to Cirencester and catch up with Matt and speak at Cirencester Baptist Church again. This time we did a Confident Christianity event – but on a Sunday morning, which was a new innovation for us. Usually we have done these types of training events on a Saturday and then contributed to the normal worship service on the Sunday. Matt is conscious that most of his people lead very busy lives and wouldn’t be able to come to a Saturday event and to church on Sunday, so integrated the Confident Christianity into the Sunday programme.  We designed a one-hour session which began with some sung worship, Matt then did a five-minute devotional talk which set the whole thing up so well, then I did a series of fifteen-minute talks, broken up with five-minute discussion slots followed by Q&A. We ran that twice, at both morning services, and then used the same structure but with different topics at the evening service. That way, by coming to morning and evening people had access to a lot of the Confident Christianity experience and material we cover. It was great to see around 90 people back in the evening too, which was encouraging as evening services are not always that well supported these days. It was a new format for us, with shorter, tighter talks and really focussed discussion times. Of course, not everyone likes discussion times, it can be an introvert’s nightmare! So I named the elephant in the room and said that I realised that some people would dread the thought -so that seemed to help them to relax, acknowledging that it’s not easy for everyone. But looking round the room, the groups were all very animatedly chatting away!

It’s been really encouraging to hear from people who came to this event and said how helpful they had found it. One chap tracked me down on line and emailed to say that it had been ‘life-changing’ , so that was exciting and encouraging to hear. During the day we looked at things such as conversational evangelism, engaging the apathetic, and connecting people to the gospel through ‘wondering questions’.

We’re always keen to be as flexible as possible in our approach so that we can meet the needs of different churches, of different types and sizes all over the country; and this new format seemed to go well – so we’d be very willing to do this again for other churches, if they felt that the normal Saturday conference format wasn’t suitable for their context. Please do get in touch with us, if that would be something that you’d be interested in Solas bringing to your church fellowship.

One of the sessions from Cirencester was filmed and is available below.

With Tim Dieppe

In the UK today, an increasing number of our colleagues and neighbours come from Muslim backgrounds. Although there are issues arising from the clash of Islamic theology and Western values, how can we interact constructively and lovingly with Muslims we meet? Today on PEP Talk we look at the challenge of Islam and the opportunities for sharing the gospel with those who follow it.

With Tim Dieppe PEP Talk

Our Guest

Tim Dieppe is Head of Public Policy at  Christian Concern with a specialist interest in Islam. He regularly writes and comments in the media on Islamic affairs and is passionate about encouraging Christians to respond with confidence to the growing influence of Islam in the UK. Tim holds a degree from Oxford University and an MA in theology from Westminster Theological Centre. He co-authored Questions to Ask Your Muslim Friends with Beth Peltola.  He is also the author of The Challenge of Islam published this year by Wilberforce Publications, which seeks to equip and inform Christians how best to respond to the rise of Islam in Britain.

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.

Confident Christianity At Broughty Ferry Free Church

Thanks for joining the Solas team at Broughty Ferry Free Church for our recent Confident Christianity conference. Below you will find all the presentation slides from our speakers, in downloadable PDF format.

Central Baptist Church March 2025

Thanks for coming along to the Confident Christianity sessions with Steve Osmond at Central Baptist Church last month. Below are the downloadable slide presentations for you in PDF format.

Panic-free Evangelism! Andy at the Christian Book Collective

Lydia Houghton interviewed Andy for the second ‘Christian Book Collective’ podcast. Looking at all kinds of practical aspects of evangelism today, the conversation includes some insights from Andy’s books incuding How To Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot, and Have You Ever Wondered? 

Solas’s work is totally dependent on gifts which people give us to support our ministry. If you’d like to become one of those people who keeps our work going, click here. If you are able to give as little as £4/month, we’ll send you a copy of How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot, or two copies of Have You Ever Wondered? as a thankyou!

With York St John University Christian Union 

I had the privilege of joining the student Christian Union (CU) group from York St John University for their weekend away. They had hired an Anglican Christian retreat centre in beautiful countryside about ten miles from Scarborough – and invited me to join them for the weekend as the speaker. It’s one of the smaller CU’s that we work with, and they managed to get twenty of their students along for the houseparty.

Over the course of the weekend, I led four sessions. We began with my introduction to conversational evangelism, (which I also wrote up as a book) called “How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot”, then we did a session entitled “How to start spiritual conversations with your friends” which was a reworked version of the “engaging the apathetic” session we do at Solas. It draws deeply on the things we cover in the “Have You Ever Wondered?” book. The “Crunchy Christians” talk was next!  In that session we focussed not so much on the words that we use in evangelism and the questions we use as tools; but about the character we need to display to make the gospel attractive. We are called to live in such a way that people are struck by the quality of our lives. ‘ Crunchy Christians’ are those who aren’t able to talk about their faith naturally, but make it awkward or weird! Praying, loving people well, saying sorry and serving are ways to de-crunchify ourselves! Of course, when the church is ‘crunchy’ we have a bigger issue – and so we had a look at John Dickson’s book “Bullies and Saints” in which he uses the illustration of the ‘music of Jesus’. If you want to know what a piece of classical music is like, you can listen to it played well or badly; but really to really assess it, you need to hear it as the composer intended. The music of Jesus has often been played badly, but people need to see Christianity as he intended it to be. Then of course when the church has got it wrong, we shouldn’t get defensive – but apologise. Then our final session was entitled, “The uniqueness of Jesus in a world of other faiths” – which ended the weekend thinking deeply together about Christ himself.

The retreat centre is a great location for a student weekend, the meeting room had big sofas set out which made it less formal and great for discussion times too. So we didn’t do long teaching sessions, but a bit of teaching them discussion, them discussion and Q&A – and then loads of great informal conversations with the students over meals, and coffee. There are advantages to smaller groups actually you can do a lot more interactively and get to know people much better.

York St John University CU are a great bunch of students, who are really friendly, very missional and keen to engage in the topics and then go and do outreach. I’d crossed paths with three of these students before, two at Word Alive in Wales, and one at CreationFest in Cornwall – which is how this invitation to speak had come about.

What is Love, If You’re An Atheist?

What is love? If atheism is true, love is arguably nothing more than a trick played on us by our genes in order to persuade us to mate, reproduce, and propagate the species. But that seems light years away from our experiences of love. Why is that — and could our desire to be loved unconditionally be a clue to a bigger story?

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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!

Have You Ever Wondered Why Sport is More Than Just a Game?

“What team do you support?” I get asked this a lot as I grew up in Manchester but live in Newcastle, two great footballing cities. The truth is that I don’t really like football, but I do love sport. I could watch tennis and snooker (I know!) for hours and really enjoy playing racquet sports and pool.

We’re a nation of sports enthusiasts. 19.2m people in the UK are regularly cycling, running, swimming and / or doing team sports (that’s about 28% of the population)[1]. 31% of UK adults reported watching live sport in 2023/4 and this is increasing[2]. Whether we’re joining in our local Park Run or cheering on the Lionesses, there’s something about sport that stirs our emotions and compels us to be part of it.

But have you ever wondered why sport is so important to us? After all, football is essentially a group of people kicking a bag of wind about. Snooker is people spending hours in dimly lit halls hitting balls with a stick. F1 is people going round and round in increasingly technologically advanced cars. Is there any deeper meaning to all this? What does all this tell us about our humanity?

There are many important things that sport teaches us about what it means to be human, but I want to highlight three in particular:

Our need to grow

Sport teaches us important co-operation and social skills, which is why we were all forced to do PE at school. We admire the discipline and skills of the athletes we follow. Sport is more than just getting a ball in a net or winning a race; it’s a means to develop character and perseverance.

Most of us hope not to just perform certain tasks throughout our life, but to become better people. We admire the courage, teamwork, discipline and self-sacrifice that we see on the sports field or track. But that in turns raises the question: why does our character ultimately matter?

The aim in competitive sports is to win a medal, trophy or title that we can rightly be proud of and makes all the hard work worthwhile. But ultimately our abilities fade, the trophies get dusty in the showcase and someone else becomes world champion and breaks our records. Our prize doesn’t last. We grow, we hit our peak and then we fade. The great Novak Djokovic was recently derided as a ‘has-been’ by an Australian tennis commentator who clearly thought his 24 Grand Slam titles no longer count for much![3] In a wider sense, this is analogous to our lives. Unless there is an ultimate purpose: we’re born, we grow and learn, we achieve things and then we die. The question is: is there an ultimate purpose that means all our development won’t go to waste?

Our need to belong

Sport is also about shared purpose and bonding. It brings people together. It’s our tribe verses the opposition. Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff put it like this:

“Humans love teams, team sports, synchronized movements, and anything else that gives us the feeling of “one for all, and all for one.[4]

We long for belonging – to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We are embodied people who want to touch and be touched and to connect in meaningful ways. In our over-sexualised and individualistic culture, sport might be the only context in which we can give and receive healthy touch as we tackle an opponent or hug a fellow supporter when a goal is scored. We want to matter to other people and we want to be missed when we’re not there. Sport – whether we’re watching or participating – gives us a community to belong to. When the season-ticket holder’s seat is empty; when there’s no one to fill the wing attack position on the netball team; when a match is cancelled because we’re injured, we are missed.

“To be included you just need to be present. To belong you need to be missed.”[5]

Sport does give us an important sense of belonging, but it’s also fragile. There are conditions attached. What if we don’t make the team? What if we get injured or fail the time trial? What if we can’t afford the match tickets or Sky Sports subscription? Is there anywhere we can securely belong no matter what our circumstances?

Our need to worship

Diego Maradona famously said, “Football isn’t a game, nor a sport; it’s a religion”[6] and it’s easy to see why he thought that. Whatever the particular sport, we often hear the language of ‘heroes’ and ‘gods’. We hear people saying that they worship their favourite players and stars.

Sport is a whole-body experience. We jump up in elation when we’re winning and hang our heads in despair when we’re losing. In victory, we pile on our teammates and perform celebration rituals. Communal chanting and singing on the stands on a Sunday morning echoes the hymns and songs being sung in church at the same time. Fans sacrifice huge amount of time and money to support their beloved teams. The billion pound merchandise industry shows that we’re keen to publicly demonstrate our allegiances by wearing the right kit and collecting precious memorabilia. Hard core fans study stats and spend hours discussing tactics.

But so often our sporting heroes let us down. Whether it’s through cheating scandals, poor performances, unwise words or bad behaviour, we’re painfully aware that all human beings are a complex mix of good and bad just like us, whether they’re sporting stars or not. So can our inherent need to worship be directed towards someone who won’t let us down?

Ultimate growth, belonging and worship

There’s no doubt that sport can be really good for us. It shows that we value character development, it helps us build community and places to belong and it calls us to worship someone other than ourselves. But does sport point to something that’s even better?

The Bible often uses sporting metaphors to point us to our true purpose:

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.[7]

The promise that’s being talked about here is eternal joyous life with God in a remade and healed world. Unlike a medal or trophy, it can be enjoyed forever and God invites our active participation in it! Whoever we are, whatever our skills and talents, we can all be welcomed into God’s community where we can experience belonging without fear of rejection.

And our in-built need to worship is only truly satisfied when it’s directed to our heavenly father whose love is never-ending and has promised to never leave us if we trust him. Unlike a fallible sports personality, he will never let us down.

Sport is great and adds huge value to so many people’s lives. But have you ever wondered if it points to something even greater than itself? We are made to grow and develop, to belong to a family and to worship something bigger than ourselves. Christians believe that these profound needs, while hinted at in sport are truly met in Jesus Christ.

If you recognise a need in yourself to grow as a person, to belong to a loving community and to worship something beyond yourself and your own limitations, I’d encourage you to explore the message, life and person of Jesus for yourself.


Have You Ever Wondered? is also the title of our popular book and a series of articles and videos on this website. With intriguing answers to questions as diverse as ‘Have You Ever Wondered’ why we are drawn to beauty, respect altruism, value the environment, preserve the past, chase money, love music and defend human rights?; the book has a wide range of authors who’s wonderings have drawn them to spiritual and Christian answers to their investigations. With free copies available for people who sign-up to support Solas for as little as £4/month, and big discounts for bulk orders – Have You Ever Wondered? is an effective and affordable way to engage in helpful spiritual discussions.


[1] Sport England, Nov 21 – Nov 22. Sport England, Active Lives Adult Survey November 2021-22 Report, 2023

[2] UK Government, Main report for the Participation Survey (May 2023 to March 2024)

[3] https://news.sky.com/story/australian-broadcaster-apologises-to-novak-djokovic-after-has-been-comments-13292913

[4] Haidt, J and Lukianoff,  G, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, Penguin (2019) p.153

[5] John Swinton, From Inclusion to Belonging: A Practical Theology of Community, Disability and Humanness, (2012) p. 184

[6] https://www.thechase.co.uk/projects/football-is-a-religion/

[7] 1 Tim 4:8

In Pursuit of Greatness: Solas at Maddiston

We really value our fellowship and friendship with Maddiston Community Church. It’s a church which I have spoken at many times, over many years, where we’ve done Solas evangelism-training evenings – and which contains quite a few Solas supporters. So it was a real joy to go back there on Sunday to preach at their morning service where they are working their way through the gospel of Mark. Mark’s gospel brings us face to face with Jesus – and this week in chapter 9 to the question of ‘true greatness’ – in fact what is life really all about! It’s a question we get asked a lot in Solas, because our speakers are often working outside the church, and in our culture today the search for the purpose of life is very much a live question.

In the sermon (which you can watch in full below) I attempted to do five things:
1) Show that the disciples had a distorted view of what greatness is, which largely matches our culture today
2) Explain how Jesus confronted them and us, with a radical, revolutionary idea that sacrificial service for others is in fact the nature of true greatness
3) Demonstrate that only Jesus has ever fully lived up to his lofty ethical teaching
4) Show how Christ shares his righteousness with us, by grace so when we turn to him we are forgiven
5) Show how Christ changes us so that we can live increasingly great lives (as Christ defines greatness)

You can judge how well (or otherwise!) I succeded in that by watching the sermon here:

PEP Talk with Jake Carlson

Down through the ages, the Christian message has been shared via new technology, from Gutenberg’s Bible to TikTok. But with recent advancements in AI, what would it look like to share the gospel using a chatbot? Today on PEP Talk, Andy and Gavin find out about one project to explore the possibilities and challenges.

Try it out now at apologist.ai or try bots focussing on Islamic or scientific backgrounds.

With Jake Carlson PEP Talk

Our Guest

Jake Carlson is the founder of The Apologist Project, a nonprofit that develops conversational AIs for Christian apologetics and evangelism. Jake grew up as a missionary kid in China, where he first became interested in apologetics and Christian worldview study. He has over 25 years experience in software product development, leading product and engineering teams in both small startups and Big Tech companies. Jake founded The Apologist Project two years ago to develop digital products to further the Kingdom. The Apologist Project recently won 1st place at the Indigitous #HACK event — as well as 2nd place in challenge at the Gloo AI & the Church hackathon — for its work developing a Muslim-serving chatbot.

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.

When Heaven Seems Silent: Unanswered Prayer

Most of the toughest questions about the Christian faith are not abstract or philosophical but are deeply personal. Whether it’s the problem of suffering and evil, or doubts about whether God could love somebody like us, or the questions and doubts that arise when we feel our prayers go unanswered.

You don’t need to have been a Christian for very long to run into the challenge of prayers feeling as if they are bouncing off the ceiling. So if you’re wrestling with this question, you’re not alone. The famous Christian writer C. S. Lewis said that unanswered prayer, especially as he prayed for his sick and dying mother as a boy, was one reason he abandoned faith for thirty years. Lewis wrote:

if you’re wrestling with this question, you’re not alone.

“The trouble with God is that he is like a person who never acknowledges one’s letters and so, in time, one comes to the conclusion either that he does not exist or that you have got the address wrong.” (1)

At this point it’s easy for atheists to scoff and say “I told you so!” but the challenge is there’s no solace in secularism. If atheism is true there is no God to be silent but worse than that, the universe is utterly impassive and entirely doesn’t care. And when suffering comes, or you see injustice, or when life feels unfair, well suck it up: if atheism is true, we live in a world where evil prospers, the strong flourish at the expense of the weak, and one day everything ends in the frozen heat death of the universe.

If prayer isn’t real, if God doesn’t exist, that wouldn’t be some kind of triumphal win for atheism, but rather the bleak and depressing recognition that humans are, as atheist cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss put it, ‘a 1% bit of pollution in the universe’. (2) Maybe the very fact that we recoil at that suggestion is itself a clue that we are more than just cosmic debris; and that the spiritual instinct most humans find within themselves is a clue to a bigger story.

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For Christians, that bigger story is centred around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—the Bible repeatedly proclaiming that if you want to know what God is like, then look at Jesus. And in the one and only prayer that he taught his followers to pray, the words we know today as The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus emphasised that God is relational. “Want to know how to pray?” said Jesus, “well, start like this this: ‘Our Father, in heaven’”. No other religion on the planet makes the bold claim that you can pray to the very Lord and Creator of the universe using relational language like that.

“Want to know how to pray?” said Jesus, “well, start like this this: ‘Our Father, in heaven’”

But it’s that deeply relational quality to Christian prayer that can make it feel very tough if it seems that our prayers are going unanswered. If God were simply a distant, remote PO box number to whom we sent our missives with no expectation of any response, we might be able to shrug our shoulders and say “Well, what did you expect?” But that’s not the God of the Christian faith, the God who revealed himself in Jesus, and thus we can feel abandoned, or forgotten, or just plain baffled when we think our prayers have been ignored.

But if that’s the place you find ourself in, there are some questions that it can be helpful to ask. The first is this: “if God feels distant, who has moved?” Whilst it is not always the case, the reality is that sometimes it is we who have walked away, we who have allowed our relationship with God to grow distant and cold. Perhaps we’ve allowed other priorities to take the place of God in our lives in which case maybe the place to begin is with seeking a reset in our relationship.

In Luke 15 Jesus tells a famous story of a son who through his own stupidity had become alienated from his father. When the son finally hits rock bottom he trudges sorrowfully back home, with a carefully prepared speech begging to be taken in as a servant. But his father sees him on the road, runs to embrace him, and welcomes him back as a son. God is like that, Jesus said, ever ready to welcome us back into his household, always ready to forgive. Perhaps if we’ve allowed ourselves to become distant from God, the place to start is by asking for forgiveness and experiencing the mercy and reconciliation of our heavenly Father.

Second, if we are wrestling with unanswered prayer, it’s worth pausing and asking ourselves whether we’ve unconsciously begun treating prayer as a kind of a magical slot machine. Yet whilst there’s nothing wrong with asking God for our needs it’s important to remember that God is our heavenly Father and his primary desire for us is that we would grow to love and trust him and see our character refined so it’s more like Christ.

This is why prayer is good for us, even when we don’t receive the answer we would like. Those times remind us that God is not a cosmic Santa Claus but our Father, whose desire is not to grant our wishes but to draw us into deeper communion with Him. When we pray, we should be not simply chasing outcomes but seeking God Himself. The deeper we come to know God, the more we will find peace in his presence, regardless of whether we receive the answers we wanted.

prayer is good for us, even when we don’t receive the answer we would like.

Third, because God is primarily concerned with our hearts and our character, that sometimes requires learning tough lessons and so it could be that the reason we haven’t seen an answer to a particular prayer is that God wants us to learn persistence. In Luke 18, Jesus told a story about a widow who needed a judge help her obtain justice. He kept rebuffing her, so she repeatedly asked until finally the judge gave in and met her request. Jesus wasn’t suggesting that we need to pester God enough so he’ll grant our wish to get some peace, but rather Jesus was saying if an unjust judge acts like this, how much more can we expect from the truly just Judge of the universe. So don’t give up: ask, seek, knock, and be patient.

Fourth, it can be helpful to ask whether are leaning too much on your feelings. The wonder and joy of the Christian faith is that I don’t get to decide how much God loves me based on whether a particular prayer has been answered, or whether I’m feeling happy or sad, but the Bible explains that if we have any doubt what God thinks of us, then look at Jesus:

God demonstrates his love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Speaking of Jesus, it’s helpful to remember that Jesus himself, God’s own son, experienced the silence of heaven when on the cross he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In Jesus, we have one who understands our pain when heaven feels silent. But the silence of heaven in the case of Jesus was for a reason—in his case, bearing the sins of the world, mine and yours, so we could enjoy God’s friendship.

We live in a broken world and are broken ourselves; and in that context prayer can sometimes feel tough. But God’s love is our unshakeable foundation and when the deep, personal questions about faith come, make sure that you’re standing on the rock of God’s love for you shown in Jesus; because that way, the storms may still batter, but you can stand firm.

don’t give up: ask, seek, knock, and be patient.

Finally, if you’re wrestling with unanswered prayer, some practical wisdom: don’t wrestle alone. Find Christian friends to pray with, who can carry you and comfort you when the valley seems dark. One friend of mine, after her husband’s untimely death, struggled with prayer for a year; but she said what made all the difference was friends who came, sat with her, and prayed with her.

Speaking of dark valleys, that language comes from a famous chapter in the Bible, Psalm 23. If you’re struggling with prayer because heaven seems silent right now, try taking words like that psalm and using them as your own prayer; praying with the words of the Bible can be very powerful.

Ultimately we may never know why a particular prayer goes unanswered; I’ve offered some thoughts above, but everybody’s story is different. There will be times when we simply need to acknowledge that we don’t know why God doesn’t intervene: we know that he is good (Jesus and the cross proves this), we know that we live in a fallen world and we can also know with certainty that one day everything that is sad and bad will become untrue when Jesus returns. Sometimes we need to hold onto that hope and trust God with our questions.

But in all of this, remember: God loves you. No matter what you’ve done, what you’re going through, what you’re wrestling with, nobody is too far from God to be encompassed by his love and offered his forgiveness in Jesus. As Deuteronomy 33:27 puts it: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”. Our sense of God’s presence may ebb and flow as our emotions ebb and flow, as life’s circumstances toss and batter us; but God’s love and care for us is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.


First published on Christianity.org.uk, republished here with kind permission.

(1) Cited in Walter Hooper, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis: Family Letter 1905-1931, Vol. 1 (New York: HarperCollins, 2004) 555.

(2) Cited in Amanda Lohrey, ‘The Big Nothing: Lawrence Krauss and Arse-Kicking Physics’, The Monthly, October 2012 hppts://bit.ly/krauss-big-nothing (accessed 22 November 2024).