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PEP Talk Podcast With David Hutchings

by Solas

Apart from toddlers, teenagers probably ask the most questions about difficult subjects! Spare a thought, then, for Christians teaching adolescents in our schools. What can we learn about how to handle faith-questions in such an environment, where a mis-step can land you in hot water so easily? Today we hear from a science teacher about using questions like “Do you believe in aliens?” to encourage gospel conversations.

With David Hutchings – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

David Hutchings is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and physics teacher at Pocklington School near York. David is a regular speaker on the philosophy, history, and theology of science across the United Kingdom.  He is the author of Let There Be Science and God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse: What Hawking said and why it matters. The latter is reviewed here. His latest book, Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World, co-written with James C. Ungureanu, examines the 19th-century origins of the faith-science conflict myth. 

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.

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Forgiveness, our great need. Outreach in Kinross

by Editor

Loch Leven Church in Kinross invited me to speak at an outreach event they organised at Loch Leven’s Larder – a lovely café and shop in a celebrated beauty spot overlooking the hills and the loch.  They’d booked the covered, heated outdoor seating area, from which we could listen to the band, and worship while watching the sun set behind the distant hills – enjoying good coffee and cakes. It was idyllic!

When we arrived to set-up, the café was buzzing with people – several of whom stayed for the worship once the open invitation was offered by the church, to anyone who wanted to stay. Stephen Jones, who was helping to run the event,  (well-known to Solas readers from his contribution to the Frontlines series) said, “the fact that our church doesn’t own a building, and the school we often use isn’t currently available has been good for us in some ways. It’s forced us out into the community, to do the things we should have been doing anyway!” Richard Gibb from the church agrees, “temporarily lacking a venue has made us think innovatively.  After speaking with management at Loch Leven’s Larder – we were delighted when they allowed us the opportunity to use this ‘neutral space’ for a very informal café church service,” he said.

Richard added, “We advertised this event to the wider community via our public Facebook page: “We Love Loch Leven” and it was brilliant seeing people come from a range of churches, bringing some of their friends, and also for the staff of the venue to be part of the event – as we were all reminded of the wonderful hope that has been made possible 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ who made it possible for us to be forgiven and reconciled with our Creator God.”

After the band had played, I spoke on the great subject of forgiveness and why it is the ‘glue’ that repairs fractured relationships between humans and between us and God. When someone has been wronged, denial and revenge don’t solve the problem – only forgiveness brings the parties together.

The issue of our need of forgiveness from God is remarkably similar. God offers to not count our sins against us, and not exercise his right to punish us, and calls us to confess and not deny what we have done wrong. Humans sometimes struggle to forgive one another because it requires vulnerability and there is always a cost. When God forgives there is also vulnerability and a cost. He approaches as – in vulnerability, so to speak – in the incarnation. When Jesus came, he didn’t come as a warrior to judge, but as a baby to forgive. Then at the cross he pays the costly price of forgiveness; taking the cost of sin into himself.

All of this comes together in two verses in the Bible, 1 John 1: 8-9, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” In Jesus there is truth and reconciliation between us and God. I encouraged people who were there to have a truthful conversation with God about their sins, because reconciliation with Him is possible, forgiveness is available because of the cross.

As well as seeing churches working together, and getting out into the community; it was especially encouraging to speak at the end to someone who is not a church-goer who was intrigued by the message saying, “I have never, ever heard anything like this before – I think this message was for me”.

At Solas, we love working with local churches sharing the gospel of Jesus with their communities all over the UK. If we could be of service to your church, please do get in touch using the connect button above to talk to us about what might be possible.

Outreach in Dumbarton

by Editor

Lennox Evangelical Church in Dumbarton didn’t just invite Solas to come and do some evangelism-training with them; they made a day of it – by inviting us to work with them in an evangelistic meeting that evening!

They hired a local hotel for their annual outreach dinner this year which worked really well. Church members were encouraged to buy tickets and invite their friends to come for a good meal, and hear an after-dinner speaker. For many people, saying ‘let me buy you a ticket for a dinner in a hotel, and hear a short talk’, is a lot easier than saying ‘come to church with me!’ There seem to be quite a few people who will happily come to the hotel bar, who would not consider an invitation to an event in a church. The fact that Christians are offering to pay for their friends to come adds an element of hospitality and generosity to the invitation as well. The church subsidised the tickets to make it easier fr people to come as well.

The hotel provided a lovely dinner, and people sat around tables of six – chatting with the friends they had brought, along with others. After dinner, I spoke on “The Pursuit of Happiness”, which is a talk I use a lot with non-Christian audiences. I talk about the way in which we look for happiness in all the wrong places and really only if look for in it connection with the God who made you and designed you and in whom you can find true joy and happiness.

The audience seemed to be really engaged and the aim was to help the church to have further conversations with their friends about Jesus to help them discover him for themselves.

Professor David Galloway, the host from the local church said, “The real encouragement was that fact that several sceptics in the audience listened very attentively to the talk and I know of several follow on conversations that occurred afterwards. One is particular with a scientist. We’ll certainly have a chance to follow this up. The “Pursuit of Happiness” talk  just right for that occasion and that audience. we are now planning some follow up events to develop these contacts.”

One notable feature of the evening was that along with people from Lennox Evangelical, there were people from other churches in the area – and those with no church connection across all ages ranges. The youngest person I spoke to was eleven, and the oldest in their mid-eighties; with good range of people in between. Young adults are sometimes the hardest group to get to these events, but there were plenty of them present too, which was really good to see.

Thsi kind of evangelism can seem really daunting the first time you attempt it, so if you are wanting a hand in reaching out to your community, please do contact us at Solas. We work with all kinds of chuches in all sorts of different communities to help communicate the saving message of Jesus.

What Is Love?

by Solas

Have you ever wondered what love is? Is it just a chemical reaction, a trick pulled on us by biology to get us to mate and reproduce? If love is *more* than that, then why is it often so hard to find? And why do we all desperately want to be loved? The rock band U2 famously sang “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”—but what if our desire for love is a clue to something so much bigger?

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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 “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.

Have You Ever Wondered Why the Best Stories Are About Good and Evil?

by Editor

If you enjoy this short piece, check out the book it now forms part of: Have You Ever Wondered?

A strong contender for the four most well-known words in the English language must arguably be: “Once upon a time …” Whether we are children or adults, we love stories; indeed our love of stories is something uniquely human. From the earliest recorded cave paintings to the most modern movie, across time, country, and culture, humans are a storytelling species.

As a child, I loved nothing better than to lose myself in a novel. Now I am a parent, I’ve passed on this love to my children—they don’t care (that) much for television, but their rooms are lined with books. Shortly before writing these words, I was curled up in bed with my six-year old son reading him the first volume of the brilliant Wingfeather Saga; there were mighty protests of “Dad! Just one more chapter!” when I closed the book.

Some stories are here today and gone tomorrow, but others become classics, retold to generation after generation. When a story is first written, it’s hard to tell whether it will become a classic but I would suggest that one thing most of the great stories, the classic tales, all have in common is they are built around a common theme: the triumph of good over evil.

Whether it’s Frodo and the Fellowship’s struggle against the evil Sauron in The Lord of the Rings; or Harry Potter and his friends and their fight against Voldemort; or the epic battle of the Rebellion against the Empire in Star Wars; or Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist with the angelic Oliver up against the wicked Fagin; or T. H. White’s epic retelling of the Arthurian legend in The Once and Future King—the list could go on almost endlessly. Our most loved, most classic stories concern the battle of good over evil.

But have you ever wondered why we love stories? After all, if we live in a godless universe, all that matters is survival and reproduction. The only truthful story in this kind of world would be something like The Little DNA Molecule That Could, which I suspect would be somewhat lacking in the plot department. What kind of bizarre trick has nature played upon us, messing with our genes in such a way that humans—and only humans—seem to think that story matters? We’re more deluded than the craziest power-mad wicked step-parent in a Grimm Brothers’ fairy story.

But it gets stranger, because not merely do we love stories, despite their total uselessness to the whole he-who-passes-on-his-DNA-the-most-successfully-wins game, but as we’ve seen, the stories that have the greatest longevity are stories where good triumphs over evil. For sure, there is some pretty dystopian fiction out there; but in most of the classic stories, evil always gets a kicking.[1]

But in a godless universe, that’s a load of old rubbish, isn’t it? First, because “good” and “evil” are meaningless categories in a world which is just atoms in motion. Morality is just a nice story for children—but grown up atheists are those with the courage to say “Bah, humbug!” to all that. On top of which, even if you don’t have the courage as an atheist to go quite that far, the grim truth is that good doesn’t triumph. It simply doesn’t. Chaos wins in the end: suffering and death await all of us, await even the universe itself. The story of your life is the same as everybody else’s: “Born. Suffered. Died.” So our love of stories where good wins is merely delusion, wish-fulfilment, or brilliant marketing by publishers.

Yet have you ever wondered if maybe there’s more to it than that? Could it be that the reason that we’re drawn to these classic stories is because deep in our very bones we know that they resonate with reality? That in some way (part instinct, part common-species-memory, part something yet deeper still) we sense they are reflections of the one true story?

The theme of good triumphing over evil is, of course, profoundly Christian. It is the theme that runs through the whole of the Bible culminating in the story of Jesus and his victory over the forces of darkness. That Christian storyline is reflected in many of our favourite stories, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidently. For example, Tolkien wrote:

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.[2]

Whilst in a 2007 interview, J. K. Rowling described herself as a Christian and explained how the Harry Potter books were deeply influenced by her faith.[3] Even the Star Wars stories, for all of George Lucas’s interest in Eastern religion, are saturated in Christian ideas: think of the sacrifice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, or the existence of life after death that runs through the movies.

If Christianity is the true story of how a good God created a good world and placed human beings in it; of how we were corrupted by our love of greed and power; but how God then stepped into creation to rescue us, even at the cost of his own life, then it should not surprise us that when human beings engage in our God-given role of “sub-creation”,[4] of creating stories of our own, that these should reflect the One True Story.

But one last thought. It’s been suggested that you can divide most of the world’s stories into two types: comedies and tragedies. A tragedy is a story which begins with all going well and then ends in catastrophe for somebody. (Think of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the titular character’s downward spiral into murder and insanity). If you graphed the trajectory of a tragedy, it would look like a frown ☹️. By contrast, the graph of a comedy looks like a smile ?: at first it seems all has gone wrong, but then comes a dramatic turn of events and the story climbs up to victory (or what Tolkien called eucatastrophe).

If atheism is true, if we live in a godless universe, then we are living in a tragedy. No matter how high humanity may squirm up the greasy pole of existence, everything ends in wrack and ruin. But if Christianity is true, then no matter how dark things may look, as they looked for Jesus as he hung on the cross, we know that this is not the story’s end, but that evil will be ultimately defeated and that after the last tear has fallen, there is love. As Sam Gamgee said to Frodo in the film adaptation of The Two Towers:

It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why.

I believe that our love of stories was wired deeply into us by the God who created us, as one more clue, one more pointer to who we really are and for what—indeed for whom—we were really made. And so the question becomes, will we follow Ariadne’s thread, the trail of the stones in the wood, the light from the lamppost—will we follow these clues where they lead? Or will we slam the book shut, close our eyes, stop up our ears, and mutter: “I’m just a 1% bit of pollution in the universe” to ourselves until the lights go out.[5] Now that really would be a tragedy.

—

[1]        And even in dystopian fiction, like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, as a reader you’re meant to protest; not cheer at the triumph of Big Brother.

[2]        Humphrey Carpenter, ed., The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), p. 172.

[3]        See Jonathan Petre, ‘Christianity Inspired Harry Potter’, The Telegraph, 20 October 2007 (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/fictionreviews/3668658/J-K-Rowling-Christianity-inspired-Harry-Potter.html)

[4]        A term coined by J. R. R. Tolkien.

[5]        That was the atheist Lawrence M. Krauss’s memorable description of what he thought human beings were; cited in Amanda Lohrey, ‘The Big Nothing: Lawrence Krauss and Arse-Kicking Physics’, The Monthly, October 2012 (http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/october/1354074365/amanda-lohrey/big-nothing).

Confident-Christianity ‘lite’ in Dumbarton!

by Editor

Solas recently partnered with Lennox Evangelical Church in Dumbarton on Scotland’s west coast – where one of our board members, Prof David Galloway is a leader.

For several years we have run day-long “Confident Christianity conferences” with churches around the UK. These are designed to encourage and equip Christians to share their faith with others, engage in natural gospel conversations and answer their friends’ questions or objections. For these major day-conferences, churches have typically worked together to bring in a large crowd – and Solas has provided a varied speaking team with a range of expertise. Like so much else, Covid has changed much of this and many people don’t want to spend long periods of time in large crowds in busy buildings. Neither do they want to spend a whole day wearing a face mask!

Instead, we have begun to do “Confident Christianity: Lite” events. In these we don’t bring in a speaking team from all over the country, but I bring a very small team with me from Solas. We also don’t do a whole day – but usually a half day. After speaking to pastors and other local-church leaders, it became clear that many of them would welcome this smaller option in the current circumstances and we’re happy to help!

At Lennox, we did four sessions. I did an introductory session on conversational evangelism, slanted towards our witness in the workplace. Then we looked at the whole question of suffering and how to respond to the challenge that is to faith. David Galloway then explored the question of science and Christian faith and I ended with a look at evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Q&A is a really important part of virtually all Solas events, and we had a really good session of that in Dumbarton, with thoughtful questions from an engaged audience.

Churches seem to respond really well to these events, and we have a number planned for the rest of the year in various places. These half-day ‘lite’ events make some of what we do more accessible to churches who don’t – for a variety of reasons – want to mount a large conference. So we’re delighted to change our format to meet their needs. If an evangelism-training event like this could be useful in your church, we’d love to speak to you. Please do hit the “connect” button above to get in touch.

PEP Talk Podcast With Tracy Cotterell

by Solas

Jesus didn’t spend his life in church, he ministered in the real world. How can we think about life with Jesus as an adventure in the real world, not just someone we meet in church? Today’s guest Tracy Cotterell speaks to Andy and (filling in for Kristi) Gavin from Solas. She encourages us to identify our primary role as God’s child, participating in the Father’s business to reach the world. 

With Tracy Cotterell – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Tracy Cotterell is a former advertising planning director and served the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity for sixteen years, latterly as Managing Director. She has degrees in theology from London School of Theology and Redcliffe College, and is completing her doctoral programme at Portland Seminary in the USA. Tracy is LICC’s Senior Mission Associate, a Board Director of the Evangelical Alliance, and engaged in the development of disciple-making models for today’s culture. Her latest publication is Mark: Living the Way of Jesus in the World, the final title in LICC’s Gateway Seven Series of Bible Studies of which she is also series editor. Tracy is married to John, and they have three adult 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.

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Have You Ever Wondered Why We Long for Happiness?

by Editor

We are a happiness obsessed culture. Every day, a million Westerners type “happiness” into Google. There are hundreds of books telling you how to find happiness, podcasts discussing it, movies and songs all about it. Coming of age in the 90s, I can still remember the cheerful bubble-gum flavoured lyrics of R.E.M.’s classic Shiny Happy People. Whilst more seriously, among the most popular programs ever run at Harvard University were Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar’s lectures on positive psychology, nicknamed “The Happiness Course”.

But have you ever wondered why we humans pursue happiness? After all, the rest of the animal kingdom usually seems pretty content with just the biological basics: survival and reproduction. But humans? We need so much more than merely the bare necessities of life: so what is going on here?

Let’s explore this by thinking a bit more about happiness. Perhaps the first question is what exactly we mean by the word “happiness”. Ask most people “Do you want to be happy?” and of course they’ll say “Yes!” But inquire: “What do you mean by happy?” and that’s a bit tougher.

I love reading old books, for it gives one a different perspective, rather like talking to somebody from another culture. And reading one day I stumbled across something that Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, observed: namely that there are actually four levels of happiness and to be truly happy, truly satisfied, we need to ensure that we are living at all four levels.

Happiness level 1 is basically animal happiness and is all about fulfilling your appetites. So, for example, I see the chocolate donut. I eat the donut. I am happy. I feel good—and I can, of course, if it’s a box of six and my wife isn’t watching, repeat this exercise. Eventually though, the happiness will be over (and pretty quickly if I indulge too much, if I misuse this appetite). The same is true of that other appetite, sex. In the context of committed love, sex can be amazing. But abuse it, for example treating the other person involved as a means rather than an end, then a great deal of unhappiness can result. Furthermore, if you misuse your appetites—eating to cope with anxiety, or having transient one-night stands to cope with loneliness or boredom—you will soon end up deeply unhappy. And if you’re unhappy at level 1, suggested Aristotle, the only way is up, to level 2.

Happiness level 2 is all about comparison, about having more or being better than the next person. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, with developing a skill and using it well. Excelling in sport, succeeding at work, coming top of the class, all that can bring happiness. But be warned: you won’t be at the top forever. Indeed, trying to live at happiness level 2 can be deeply stressful, as you worry what happens when you are no longer the fastest, smartest, or whatever. And even when you do win, sometimes that can be a hollow victory. In the movie Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican bobsleigh team’s debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics, there’s a moment where the coach, played by John Candy, says to the team: “A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

When happiness level 2 lets you down, you need to move up to level 3. Happiness level 3, said Aristotle, is all about living for somebody other than yourself. One example would be parenting; pouring your time and energy into caring for children. If you’re not a parent, you can still find other ways to serve others, giving of yourself to others less fortunate. But the problem is that these things also come to an end: those you care for will one day no longer need you. And if you’re not careful, this approach to life can also become profoundly selfish: the real reason you’re helping others is really only because it makes you feel good.

So where now? If happiness levels 1 through 3 don’t ultimately satisfy us, presumably the only way is up? So what lies at the top of this ladder, what precisely is happiness level 4? Well, to paraphrase our old friend Aristotle, level 4 comes when you get connected to an ultimate source of happiness outside of yourself.

Which reminds me of something that Jesus of Nazareth once said. Jesus had much to say about happiness, often highlighting our tendency to look for it in all the wrong places, which wearies and drains us; and so Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”.

The basic problem with happiness levels 1 through 3 is the weight of the effort is based on us—so we exhaust ourselves running, trying to reach that ever elusive goal of happiness, only to watch it constantly recede into the distance, like the end of the rainbow. Trying to find happiness this way will drive you to craziness, cynicism, or both.

But Jesus offers us something refreshingly different. For Jesus claimed to be God himself, stepping into space and time and history, and as the very one who made us, he is also the one who knows what we really need, what we were truly designed for.

There is nothing inherently wrong with food and sex, sport and success, generosity and self-giving. But they can never ultimately satisfy us. And for a very good reason: we were made for so much more. But if we make it our goal in life not to merely to be happy but to know Jesus, the one who also said “I have come that you might have life!”, then we can discover something infinitely more than a happiness whose shine quickly fades; but we can discover a joy that nothing or nobody can ever take away from us.

Andy Bannister at Carrubbers Christian Centre

by Editor

I’ve spoken twice recently for Carrubbers Christian Centre on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. One of these was the final sermon in an evangelistic series they have been doing entitled “A Better Story”. And the ‘better story’ I was asked to present was on happiness. It was encouraging to hear that there were quite a few visitors present from outside the church too.

The idea of the message was to unpack the different ways in which we look for happiness. At a basic level we look for it in food and sex, but that is transitory – because no matter how good the experience, it comes to an end. Moving ‘up’ from those instinctive drives, some people then look for happiness in achievement perhaps at work, the sports field or academia. However the same problem arises here, the happiness gained there comes to an end. Moving even further up, people can gain some sense of happiness from serving others –perhaps being a parent and pouring energy and commitment into someone else’s wellbeing. And that’s all good – but once again comes to an end. Kids eventually leave home and no longer depend on you, and others we serve can outgrow their dependence on us. The essential problem with all these sources of happiness is that they all eventually, in one way or another, come to an end. When people make food, sex, pleasure, achievement or service the centre of their lives they will always be let down because we need something higher than those things to be the ultimate source of happiness. Now of course that leads into the gospel of Christ – and the story of our fractured relationship with a God who loves us and his son who came to redeem us because of his great love for us.

That’s a topic I have spoken about regularly with audiences of non-Christian people- because “How can I find real happiness?” is a question that a lot of people are asking today, not least because Covid has swept away so many of the things people had assumed were certainties. Many people have had things such as assumed job security threatened along with foreign travel, much of their social lives – and so much of what makes us happy.

The second invitation to speak at Carrubbers came because their pastoral assistant who was due to preach at their annual carol service was diagnosed with Covid the day before! So our great friend, and Solas associate David Nixon (who is also Associate Pastor at Carrubbers) phoned and asked if I happened to be available to deputise at short notice. Thankfully I was, and so a second trip to Edinburgh was hastily planned.

I spoke on “Is there something more this Christmas?” – asking if there is more to Christmas than the usual rounds of parties, food and fun. It all comes together around Matthew 1:23, which says  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). That tiny verse opens up the answers to the four key questions, “What is God like?”, “Where is God in all the suffering?”, “What’s gone wrong with the world?” and “What’s the solution?” (see more on these questions in my book). The Christmas message is that God is seen in Jesus, he’s here with us, that we are broken and sinful – but that Christ came to redeem us! The irony is that while at Christmas we often get deluged with gifts we don’t need; God has actually sent us a gift that meets our deepest needs – his own son, our saviour Jesus.

I closed with the words of my favourite Christmas carol – the final verse, of O Little Town of Bethlehem, which says:

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today

So- changing the “our” to “my” I invited people to pray those words with me. The church did a wonderful job with the music and the whole service. So it was a real privilege to preach the gospel in that setting with our friends at Carrubbers. We’re looking forward to doing a Confident Christianity conference with them later this year too!

The whole service can be seen here:  https://youtu.be/GmciIzXll_s

Why Are Human Beings So Curious?

by Solas

Have you ever wondered why human beings are so incredibly curious? Whether’s it our desire to explore the highest mountain, deepest ocean trench, or to put humans into space. Or our thirst for knowledge, or for constant technological improvement. There is something uniquely, wonderfully human about our desire to ask “Why?” But where does this come drive come? And is it a clue to where we come from?

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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 “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.

Questions, questions, questions! Gareth Black at Hollywood Baptist Church

by Editor

Gareth Black joined Hollywood Baptist Church in Belfast for an evening of questions! Billed as  “Making Sense of God in a World of Covid”. Gareth was grilled by Assistant Pastor Aaron Williamson on the perennial subject of “If God is Good – why is the suffering in the world?” –  around the the great issue of recent times the global pandemic.

Aaron put questions to Gareth such as: How has Covid changed people in terms of their focus and priorities? How can a good God allow this particular suffering? “God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it’s his megaphone to rouse a deaf world – CS Lewis.” If that’s true, what is God shouting to us through this pandemic? How do we take Covid seriously but not live and operate in a spirit of fear? How do we navigate different opinions around Covid and restrictions etc? How can we love and serve one another despite all the different opinions we have?

There were around 60 people at Hollywood that evening, and they joined in an extensive Q&A, which carried in informally at the end of the meeting!

Gareth said, “It was a great evening, with lots of really good interaction both in the meeting itself and from really encouraging people afterwards. There was much discussion about how the church should respond to these issues, especialy when we disagree about things like resrictions. The guiding principles in all of this are to be a good witness to the gospel, and to care for one another in the church as we work these things out together.”

The whole evening was captured on film and can be watched here:

 

 

Solas at Hillbank Evangelical Church

by Editor

It was a great privilege for Solas to spend two evenings doing evangelism-training with Dundee’s Hillbank Evangelical Church in the east of the city. Hillbank is a very friendly church, which is really committed to mission – and this was our first visit to them.

Matty Blakeman from Hillbank welcomed Andy Bannister and Gavin Matthews to the church- and Andy kicked the first session off with a new version of his talk on conversational evangelism entitled, “how to talk about Jesus without getting fired”. This explores helpful gospel conversations and the ways in which asking questions such as ‘why do you think that?’, or ‘have you ever wondered..?’ can move conversations forward. Jesus was of course, not just the master parable-teller and teacher; but also asked over 300 questions in the gospels to challenge, disturb, expose or explore his message and mission.

Hillbank Church graciously invited Andy and Gavin to tell them a little more about Solas’s work and so they gave the church a quick update on the evangelism and evangelism-training work Solas does, around the country, in-person and online. The evening concluded with a great time of Q&A. One of the great things about this session was that the questions submitted were clearly not just hypothetical ones such as ‘”If I ever meet someone who says……” but real life ones such as “how do I start a gospel conversation with my friend who is gay”, and “should we do our evangelism events in church, or out in the community in neutral venues?”

On the second week, Gavin Matthews returned to Dundee and introduced the people there to some of the stories from our Frontlines interview series. These short interviews are with people in all kinds of trades and professions who actively share their faith in Christ in their secular workplace. These include William, running Christianity Explored in the City of London finance sector, Stephen a Scottish science teacher, and Georgie a nurse – and many more, all sharing the gospel in different ways. The church then divided into discussion groups to talk about what might work in their context. Gavin brought the session to a close with some thoughts from Ephesians 2 on why the gospel of God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ really is good news to share.

Church leader Matty Blakeman said: ‘What impressed me most about the evangelism training was the fact that both speakers, though obviously well read, spent very little time quoting authors or unpacking complex apologetic arguments. The emphasis was very much on how to help and encourage the ‘every day Christian’ wherever God has placed them, whether in the workplace or in a group of friends or neighbours. This made things so incredibly relatable for all who attended. Two excellent nights that we’d hope to replicate sometime in the future.’

From Solas’s perspective, we really enjoyed out visits to Hillbank, had a wonderful welcome, enjoyed real fellowship together and made new friends. We’d love to go back there again!

PEP Talk Podcast With Mitch & Amanda

by Solas

Today on PEP Talk we hear from an inspiring couple in evangelistic ministry together. Andy and Kristi cover all sorts of ground with them, from experiences in street evangelism, the gospel opportunities across Ireland,  to the joy of working together.

With Mitch and Amanda – PEP Talk

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Our Guests

Mitch and Amanda have been married for 22 years and together they lead Crown Jesus Ministries in Ireland. Their passion for evangelism drives the ministry to fulfil its vision; to see the people of Ireland Crown Jesus Lord of their lives. They have two teenagers, Noah (16) and Megan (13) and two border collies, Mollie and Max. Mitch loves eating curry, drinking coffee, cycling and supporting Chelsea FC while Amanda will either be found out for a long walk, watching a gripping crime series or cheering louder for Tottenham!

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.

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Frontlines / Christians at Work : The Pensions Manager

by Editor

Brad McLaughlin works in the financial sector, for Aviva, the insurance giant. He spoke to Solas’s Gavin Matthews about the Christian Network Group in the company and how they have been inspired to move beyond just enjoying good fellowship and out into mission in their workplace.

Solas: Tell us a little about your job? What are your roles and responsibilities?

BMcL: I am a pensions proposition manager with Aviva, looking after a number of products that are no longer actively marketed. I make sure that they’re still the right thing for our customers. We conduct regular reviews of the products which requires technical knowledge. There are compliance issues that we need to get involved with too, I engage with our outsourced partners to make sure that they’re looking after our products appropriately. Then there are reports that need to be written. The field is constantly changing, and we are managing priorities within limited budgets.

On top of that, I’m really enthusiastic about extracurricular activity within the office. When some proposal is made to improve office life, I am the first one to raise my hand. For example, I cycle to work so I took on the role of ‘bike users rep’, improving things for everyone who commutes by bike. Then there is our site forum where we discuss how we can improve our overall office working environment and I dive in on that sort of thing.

Like most companies, we have a diversity and inclusion policy, and structures in place to guard various ‘protected characteristics’. Within Aviva, we have multiple communities looking after each of these characteristics, one of these is called “Origins”, which makes up black and ethnic minorities, social mobility and faith groups. So I joined the steering group for the Origins community. Most people on that group are there representing an ethnic group, and I’m there representing Christian faith – which is interesting!

Solas: What’s the best part of your job?

BMcL: I really enjoy my job and going to the office and seeing everyone. I especially enjoy creating connections between people and ideas within the company. Sometimes huge progress can be made by connecting different people working on similar projects in different parts of the company. I also enjoy the technical side of my work, as well as any opportunities for public speaking and picking up the pieces of work that no-one else wants to do! It’s a hugely varied role, and a very fulfilling job. There’s a lot of freedom for me in the role, in the way that I approach getting the job done.

Solas: What are some of the challenges that you face at work – and how does your faith in Christ help you to navigate those?

BMcL:That is a big question! My faith has given me probably a greater stability in life, while there are always uncertainties to manage in work. If you work in any large organization for a long enough time, you will know that there are always changes to organizational design, change or restructure. So actually having something that’s foundational outside of work gives me a greater sense of both stability and purpose. My Christian faith also gives me a drive and desire to actually make this office a better place. If I’ve been given this gift – it’s incumbent on me to try to do what I can to make where I work a better place to be, to bring more love, more connection, more humility, more opportunities for faith, and more conversations.

Solas: Do people you work with know that you are a Christian? How do they react to that?

BMcL:We are in a very secular culture that doesn’t tend to acknowledge or allow much space for faith. The idea of having open discussions around faith doesn’t usually provoke hostility so much as make people feel uncomfortable and want to step back.

The first time I wanted to run The Alpha Course within the company two people complained and said that I shouldn’t be doing this. But what was amazing was that because I’ve been so involved in the Origins diversity and inclusion work, which crossed over a number of boundaries – I was defended by people who aren’t Christians. They said, “We know Brad and that his intentions are good, and that this is OK”.

One of the other interesting things has been that in setting up the Christian network in the company, I’ve discovered that there are a whole lot of Christians, who didn’t feel free to  speak about their faith – or even to be known as a Christian in the workplace. I’m probably one of the extreme outliers in terms of how comfortable I am speaking about my faith. For many people there’s a deep worry that if they open about what they believe, they’ll be shunned and told, “You hold thoughts that are no longer acceptable in modern society.” But we’re trying to help develop a culture in which there is a genuine diversity of people and ideas, where we can have real discussion – and people with conflicting ideas can come together and really talk about them in a good way.

Solas: Have you ever had opportunities to share your faith with people you know through work? What things have helped you to have good conversations about faith? Did you deliberately set about to have these conversations, or did they occur naturally?

BMcL:I am part of the Christian network at work. We’d always been meeting together to pray and have fellowship and it was great! Then we had somebody from TransformWorkUK speak to us. We were challenged to do more than just meet together, with a feeling that God has a bigger purpose for our group. We were a bit stuck in one place so decided to do something more and planned to run Alpha at work.

So I got permission, put up the posters and we ran Alpha! We booked a room, organised the food and got about 30 people for the first session. We were six sessions into it when lockdown happened, so we had to complete the course using Teams, the company intranet system (like Zoom). That was interesting, because when we advertised it there, we got interest from people in other offices within the company. I work in the Bristol office – but I received messages from several other sites saying, “Wow, I didn’t realize that there was a Christian network here!” and they joined in too. And quite a few of those people were Christians already and were amazed that there was a Christian presence at work. Others came, not sure what they believed or why – and some left Alpha saying that they had definite Christian faith.

In the Origins inclusion group, I’ve also helped people of other faiths set up their groups too – which has been interesting. I have friends across many faith groups and those who are atheists too – but helping to set these up, in a non-discriminatory manner has actually opened the door for Alpha to run here. I’ve been able to say that our company is a good place for people of faith to work in; and that if anyone wants to explore the basics of Christianity they can come to Alpha. At interfaith week last year one of our senior executives gave a speech in which he spoke of his own curiosity about faith – but that he still didn’t know what he believed. That was very helpful, because it almost gave ‘permission’ to the wider company that it was OK to have conversations about faith and values, and those of us who are Christians have something we want to contribute to those discussions obviously! That created a lot of opportunities for me to talk about my faith in Jesus.

Then World Religion Day was marked in January and we used it to engage with people who believe differently to us, including the atheist network. When I set up the first Alpha course at work I approached the head of the ‘Atheist Network’ directly and asked him to come along and we’re good friends now. After Alpha he said he still didn’t believe but he had a much better understanding of what Christians believe and that it was a lot more nuanced than he had realised. He has spoken positively about Alpha – and that has made it easier for other sceptics to come along.

Solas: How do people react when you talk about your faith in Jesus? Interested? Angry? Apathetic? Do they ever raise objections…. What were they and how did you respond?

BMcL: It’s fairly easy to have a conversation with my atheist colleagues because actually there is already an engagement with the issues with them. On our “Yammer” (internal work place networks) groups anybody can post and you create questions. I have a Muslim colleague and there were some occasions where he used those groups to try and convert Christians – and persuade us that we are wrong! But when he posted his questions asking Christians for answers and evidence – that created an opportunity to share my faith that is not me rudely pushing my agenda but responding to other people’s questions. He’s asked about why we have so many Bible translations, and things like that.

The main thing that I think that I’m fighting against is apathy and indifference and trying to find ways to help people think about what is outside themselves. One thing that helped with this was a photography competition we hosted around the theme of ‘awe and wonder’. We ran the competition online, people shared their images and stories, and inevitably conversations began.

Solas: Why do you want to talk to colleagues and friends about Jesus?

BMcL: Firstly I desperately want other Christians to not feel alone. I’ve had many different people email me saying, “I thought I was the only Christian here, I didn’t know there were any others!”. So talking openly about Jesus at work has been massively helpful.

But Christians finding each other is just the start, because I believe fully that Jesus is the truth.  I’ve got what I would call classical liberal views about freedom of speech, and I think in the in the war of ideas we should “throw all the ideas in there and the true ones will win!”. So I don’t care how many other ideas you put in there; truth will triumph in the end! But that only works if there is real discussion and the truth is given an opportunity to shine.

Solas: What advice would you give a young Christian entering your field of work who wants to be faithful to Christ there?

BMcL: God will position you where you are needed. I’ve found myself in a position of far more influence than my grade in the company hierarchy would necessarily dictate. And I think that’s an encouraging thing for people to be able to reflect on. Being perhaps at an entry grade doesn’t preclude you from being able to take on greater responsibility from a Christian perspective and have a significant influence in the workplace.

So I am significantly bolder and more open than I’ve ever been in in my life in terms of being open about my Christian faith.

I would say really clearly be upfront about who you are right at the beginning. I often introduce myself by saying that I’m responsible for the faith network in the company, and that I am a Christian who loves discussion. I will often say to people, “What’s your faith background?” For many people in Britain that may be a weird question – but it gets really interesting responses. Because it’s an opportunity to say I want to understand you as a person.

I would say yeah, be really open up front and be willing to be far bolder than you may naturally comfortable with because actually the British are so polite you can get away far more than you think you can ?. I’m sure I abused the fact that I’m Canadian, and that people assume that I don’t know what’s considered polite here or not! But there are huge opportunities out there. I see some of the other communities and I think they’ve been 100 times bolder with an even smaller population than Christians have been. The Pride Network, has massively more influence than their numbers would suggest they might have. I respect the way that with a small but really committed group of people who are willing to be very open and upfront about who they are, they have gained a lot of influence. There’s nothing to stop a group of very committed Christians from doing the exact same thing, in a really very positive way.

So that would be my advice: be upfront, and open. Actually the other thing is don’t just do your job. Do more than your job. I wasn’t into running, but I helped set up the work running club as a way of connecting with people. Which leaves me horrified by how out of shape I am when it comes to running, but it also leads to connections with people, friendships and conversations about all of life – including my faith.  Find those opportunities that are beyond just your job.

Solas: Thanks Brad, that has been a really useful and inspiring conversation – thanks so much for your time!

BMcL: No Problem – it’s been good speaking with you.