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The Professional Gap

by Editor

“Think of the money we’ll save if we don’t employ a professional and I just do it myself.” Words I once naïvely offered to my wife to justify cutting down a large tree in our back garden. We had been renting the property for over a year and I had grown weary of the way several neglected Conifers had been allowed to eclipse any meaningful sunlight entering the back garden. So, in a rush of blood to the head and meagrely armed with little more than a semi-blunt handsaw and dodgy ladder, I decided to remove one particular problematic tree at the edge of the garden. After a couple of hours of hard labour, I managed to remove all the branches with my saw and some extendable loppers. All that remained was to fell the lingering trunk of this twenty-five foot evergreen. Unfortunately, the height of my ladder only permitted me to cut into the truck at a maximum height of twelve feet. Not letting this deter me (though it really should have!), I pressed on with sawing into the trunk. As I approached the halfway stage, the destabilising truck began to sway. Suddenly it dawned on me just how heavy thirteen feet of think Conifer trunk actually is and I had no skill or experience whatsoever in ensuring that the trunk fell exactly where I wanted it to. As a cold sweat dripped down my back, I accepted the inconvenient truth that the felling was at the point of no return. It was too dangerous to leave the trunk in its current condition: conifer must fall. Just then, a slightly anxious neighbour appeared offering to move the car they had parked on the street on the opposite side of my garden fence. Feebly attempting to assure them that I would make the trunk fall into our garden and not out towards the road, they moved the vehicle anyway. A few minutes of nervous sawing later the trunk fell… smashing right through one of my fence panels and out on the street, landing in the exact spot where my neighbours’ car had been parked just moments earlier! It was like something out of a Laurel and Hardy skit. And – I kid you not – as if to rub salt into the wounds of my stupidity, ten minutes later a private tree services company who had been working in a local property, drove along the street, noticed the horticultural disaster I had created, and offered to tidy everything up and remove all clippings for £50. Armed with proper equipment and expertise, it took the professionals a mere fifteen minutes to fix a catastrophe I had spent hours creating. Explaining the broken fence panel to my landlord, however, wasn’t so easy!

There are many responsibilities in life that really are best left to the professionals. For example, electrically rewiring a house, road vehicle servicing, or Root Canal surgery. The reasons we are wise to delegate such roles to professionals is because, on the one hand, performing these jobs well requires years of specialised training and expertise, and, on the other hand, not performing these jobs well can lead to all kinds of future problems, perhaps even future tragedies. Yet, if we are not careful, the same mindset can subtly creep into our personal confidence and sense of responsibility when it comes to Christian evangelism. As convinced as we may be about the importance of the good news of Christianity being shared with others, we might find ourselves thinking: “This is not really something for me. Sharing my faith persuasively in today’s culture is best left to the professionals. After all, they are ones who can do it most effectively. And if I was to try to do this myself, I might make such hash of it that I create more – rather than less – obstacles for someone taking Christianity seriously!”

In my experience, this professional gap or obstacle to our engagement with evangelism stems from at least three influences: First, is the reality we all acknowledge that sharing our faith is never an easy, and almost always an intimidating thing to do, especially if significant friendships or professional relationships are on the line. Sharing our faith effectively requires important skills in areas such as the art of conversation, in avoiding rhetoric that makes sense only to people within the Church, and in finding the right balance between contributing your thoughts and inviting the thoughts of another by asking good open-questions. Most of us have all seen bad expressions of evangelism, so we know how we wouldn’t want to do it. Yet, we have also encountered exceptionally gifted individuals, for whom communicating the claims of Christianity persuasively and answering difficult sceptical questions appears as natural as breathing. Given the obvious disparity between the gifting of these evangelistic Jedi and a realistic acknowledgement of our personal limitations and inexperience in sharing our faith, it can seem like a no-brainer to point sceptics and seekers towards these “professionals”, rather than expect them to indulge a novice like ourselves.

The second factor influencing the potential delegation of evangelism to “the professionals” is the broader culture within many churches of subcontracting many elements of ministry responsibility to those employed to serve within these arenas. A prime example of this is in the context of youth ministry, where – as a former full-time youth and student worker myself – I often saw parents abdicate almost all responsibility for the spiritual wellbeing of their children to the youth pastor. After all, that’s what they are being paid for, right? Wrong. Yet the same mentality and expectation can creep in when it comes to evangelism. Because many of our historic approaches to evangelism involved getting unbelievers into an evangelistic meeting and “under the sound of the Gospel” – by which we meant exposing them to someone preaching from a pulpit and which would only ever be done by either the pastor or a guest speaker – actually opening one’s mouth and communicating the Christian faith to people became the responsibility of some gifted other; the major evangelistic responsibility most Christians bore was simply to get non-Christian friends and colleagues into a building so that they could experience the professional at work in their evangelism.

Finally, a third factor that I believe is influencing the Professional Gap in evangelism is the way in which much of Christian apologetics is often being unhelpfully modelled today. As UK society increasingly secularises and the vast majority of citizens now grow up biblically illiterate, many Christians now rightly recognise that effective evangelism requires more than simply confronting people with Gospel preaching à la Billy Graham. Most unbelievers have been so thoroughly baptised in secular ideologies and values that they struggle to easily comprehend the rationality of Christian claims and harbour a plethora of questions and misconceptions that they need addressed before they can ever entertain becoming a Christian. In response to these significant evangelistic challenges, many churches or  groups have turned to Christian apologetics, often expressed through the largely academic model of inviting a highly-educated Christian “expert” – either on their own or in debate with an equally intellectual sceptical opponent – to address some “big question” that demonstrates the credibility of Christianity and then be cross-examined on their ideas in a live Q&A session. I can remember such an occasion several years ago in my own church when a world-leading Christian apologist addressed the question of God and natural disasters. Unsurprisingly, this individual tackled the subject and ensuing questions with spectacular expertise and intellect. Yet, in my conversations with attendees following the event, it became clear that this high-level approach actually only served to reinforce, if not entrench, the professional gap in evangelism. Most of those who were there that night left reassured that at least some Christians out there had good answers to these intimidating challenges to faith. Yet when it came to any consideration of them personally engaging with these types of questions among non-Christian friends, the model of apologetics/evangelism that they experienced that evening only served to both convince them that apologetics was for highly intellectual Christians and, therefore, they simply didn’t have the capability (or even the genetics!) to do apologetics/evangelism if this was what doing it well looked like. The success of that evening actually became its failure, especially when this model of evangelism wasn’t supplemented with more plausible expressions and models of evangelism that normal people could have confidence they could get on board with.

As common as these factors might be in influencing a Professional Gap in evangelism we need to resist them strongly for both practical and theological reasons: Practically, we need to resist the professional gap because the frontlines of Christian witness have undeniably moved from the pulpit or Gospel crusade event to the staffroom, coffee shop, office watercooler and home dinner table. As emerging generations grow up increasingly vacuous of prior contact with local church ministries via things like Sunday schools, christenings, or youth organisations, it has become significantly more difficult for unbelievers to willingly attend evangelistic events in church contexts. Furthermore, it is my experience that the weekly in-house demands of full-time pastoral ministry mean that many church leaders spend far less time in meaningful relationships with non-Christians than the members of their congregation who mix with them every day in work, recreation and other social contexts. This raises important questions about where, and to what extent, local churches invest in evangelism, for, humanly speaking, it seems more likely that sustained efforts in training congregations to do effective evangelism outside the church could prove much more sustainable and even fruitful than sporadic approaches at getting people to encounter a specialist inside the church.

The second, theological reason why we ought to resist the tendency towards a professional gap in evangelism is simply because the notion that Christian evangelism is best left to the experts is one that is completely alien to the New Testament. Jesus’ Great Commission that his followers go into society and make disciples by sharing the message of the risen Christ was a mandate issued to every Christian believer  indiscriminately – including even those who still wrestled with doubts about certain elements of their faith (cf. Matt.28:16-20). Moreover, when the Apostle Peter urged the believers of Anatolian Peninsula to “…always be prepared to give to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope within you…” (1 Peter 3:15) as they lived out their faith in first-century society, he was not talking about public speaking from a platform and certainly did not have in mind that this endeavour would be the exclusive task of a small group of highly intellectual specialists known as the “Christian apologist”. It was a command given to every church member! Let us be clear: Absolutely nowhere in the New Testament is the practice of apologetics presented as some kind of spiritual gift, designated to some and not to others. Nor is there any distinct spiritual office of “the apologist”. Christian apologetics is simply what is happening when believers engage with others about their faith, exploring the questions that naturally arise from unbelievers and seekers, and offering persuasive bases for why Jesus’ claims and teachings can be trusted. It is to be a practice as universal and inherent to Christian experience as prayer or partaking in Communion. That is not to say that there is not often a vast disparity of confidence or proficiency in evangelism among believers, often due to things like personality type or levels of training and experience. After all, the New Testament does speak of the gift of evangelism and office of the Evangelist. However, it is simply to make the crucial point that simply because there are often disparities of ability in this area – disparities which may indeed make us feel like feeble amateurs when juxtaposed with those Premier League “professionals” – this does not mean that the Lord does not want us to be active in sharing our Christian hope with others and rather delegate the responsibility to others, no matter how competent. God has more purpose to our being involved in evangelism than simply how “successful” we can be in leading others to Christ. And just because there may be other individuals who are evidently and strategically gifted by the Lord as evangelists does not mean that we are not all as believers to be involved in what Paul described to Timothy as “[doing] the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 2:5). Each of us, no matter what our individual ability at any given moment in our Christian walk, need to be meaningfully engaged in communicating our hope in Christ in accordance with our own personalities, capacities and spheres of influence. And the mandate that Jesus has given each of us to be an active participant in this element of Christian life is not contingent upon the status of our individual confidence or proficiency in doing so, but rather upon the fact Jesus has commanded us.

So before we find ourselves falling for the professional gap again, let me conclude by offering four brief pieces of advice that I hope will encourage you to find your own place in God’s mission and not delegate it to the apparent “experts”.

  1. Remember that God intimately knows and takes seriously your individual personality, as well as your present levels of ability and experience in evangelism, and will not expect you to do operate beyond them. This is not to suggest that we shouldn’t be willing stretch ourselves and even take risks evangelistically at times, nor that the Lord has not promised to supernaturally help us in what to say in specific contexts where we are dragged before authorities without warning to give account for our faith (cf. Luke 12:11-12). It is, however, to reassure us that, like Jesus presented in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30), God entrusts each of us with real responsibility in his mission field, we do not all have the same responsibility; and the responsibility we do have before the Lord in this area is in direct proportion to the level of capacity that God has given to us. Of course, when we see or hear an exceptionally gifted evangelistic communicator operating in the sweet-spot of their calling and offering brilliant answers to terrifying questions, it is easy to assume that, if that’s what meaningful evangelism demands, we could never do it. What we need to realise is that this is only one particular aspect of what evangelism could look like, or should look like for that What we need to remember is that evangelism is far from a monolithic enterprise; there are as many different types of effective evangelism as there are personalities involved in sharing their faith. Some people are great public speakers who thrive on a platform communicating to hundreds yet aren’t great at 1-2-1 evangelism. For others, the thought of speaking on a stage terrifies them but they are brilliant at conversational evangelism among friends and colleagues. The challenge for us as individuals before the Lord is to discover and be content with where we fit best in participating in God’s mission, and the only way to discover this is to start trying things and trust that the Lord will faithfully show us were our strengths and weakness lie as we give evangelism a go.
  2. Remember that effective evangelism is a dynamic process and simply because we might lack confidence or levels of ability or knowledge today, does not mean that the Lord wants us to stay there and won’t help us develop. When 1 Peter talks about “always being prepared to give an answer..,” the word Peter uses for “being prepared” is a word derived from the idea of physical fitness. In other words, like physical fitness, our preparedness for evangelism is not a static process, but one that dynamically responds to if and how much we are exercising our evangelistic muscles. Today, we might seem like a million miles away from the abilities of other evangelists. But that is not to say that, with a little personal study or practice we cannot make significant strides in our ability. Of course, we may still never get to the level of others but that may not be what the Lord expects of us, so why expect it of ourselves. Instead, like David in confronting Goliath (1 Sam. 17), we need to avoid the expectation of wearing another’s armour and step into the evangelistic areas as ourselves, with the gifts and abilities the Lord has given – and is continuing to develop – in us.
  3. Start with small steps and do your evangelism with others. One of the most helpful ways to participate in evangelism – especially if you haven’t done it for a while and are a bit rusty – is to do it with others who are more experienced. Sharing your faith alongside others will help mitigate natural anxieties, help us avoid feeling that the responsibility to be successful is all on us, and provide the timely encouragement and support we all need in the crucibles of sharing our faith. It will also allow us an objective pair of eyes that can help us discover where are strengths and weakness in evangelism presently lie. Start with manageable steps so that you don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged. Remember that the most common apologetic that we see the Apostle Paul use when given an opportunity to explain his faith in the New Testament is his personal testimony. So make sure that you can explain your story in a simple and brief way that you can organically weave into conversation with others. Try to learn to explain your testimony in terms of why you are convinced that Christianity is true, rather than simply cataloguing the historic details of how you became a Christian.
  4. Finally, remember that, no matter what our familiarity with or abilities in evangelism, there is ultimately only one expert in Christian witness to the world, namely, the Holy Spirit. Even the great apostles were told not to begin the task of evangelising the world until the Holy Spirit with them, supernaturally empowering them with the only means available to truly transform human hearts (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). Therefore, no matter how gifted, knowledgeable or experienced we might appear to be, all of us are only ever going to be mere apprentices or junior counsel to the chief advocate and witness that God has given to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (Jn. 16:8). What an incredible assurance then that, as we obey Christ and take up the mandate of sharing our faith with others, God has not left us alone the task, but has given all of us – regardless of our ability – the True Professional evangelist, whose primary job description is to stand alongside us, feeble as we will surely be even in our best moments, and boldly bear witness to Christ in the world, endowed with supernatural power that only can change even the hardest human heart.

How to Share Your Faith Effectively – Gareth at Abbotts Cross

by Editor

Gareth Black had a great night with the youth fellowship at Abbotts Cross Congregational Church in Newtonabbey. It was something of a homecoming for Gareth too as he grew up at Abbotts Cross, became a Christian through the church and was a member of the youth fellowship too. “I have lots of fond memories and affinity with so many of the people there – and it was great to connect with old friends again”, Gareth said.

The other thing that made the evening significant for Gareth was that this was one of the first live events he did as the churches emerged from the last pandemic lock-down. 25 people met in the church’s sports hall and despite the fact that masks were on, and mingling, interaction and singing weren’t really permitted, several of the young people really appreciated being able to meet again in person. Some of them hadn’t really engaged much with the Zoom programme the church had offered during the lockdown, and they were especially enthusiastic about the meeting.

The subject Gareth looked at was “How to Share Your Faith Effectively”. He looked at the way that the first Christians shared their faith; not primarily through preaching, or running ‘evangelistic events’ but through everyday conversation and living out their faith in the public square. Gareth explained that the reason that they did this so confidently and effectively is that Christianity is an evidence based faith. A lot of Christians have never looked at that, and tie their faith simply to subjective experience. in response, Gareth have them a brief introduction to some of the evidence in history, science, philosophy and morality.

1 Peter 3:15 is a classic Bible text for dealing with all of this. It says, “in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”. Gareth encouraged the young people at Abbotts Cross to face up to the challenges in today’s culture, but not to be afraid of them. He especially encouraged them to resist the temptation to hide with a ‘privatised’ faith. A purely subjective faith, based on experience might be a private matter, he said; but challenged the young people to look at the publically available evidence for the Christian faith and to have the confidence to be a bit more ‘public’ about what they believe.

An observation that Gareth made was that a lot of Christians are prepared to give an answer for how they came to faith: their testimony. He underlined that that is good and important. However, he also pointed out that the text in 1 Peter says we are to give a reason why we believe! The importance of always speaking with “gentleness and respect” was Gareth’s next major point, because it is all too easy to put people off the message by the way we conduct ourselves.

He brought the evening to a conclusion with his “Top 4 Tips for Sharing the Gospel”. These are

  1. Praying
  2. Being in a good, healthy friendships with non-Christians
  3. Learning to ask good questions
  4. Learning to persuasively articulate why you think Christianity is true.

Afterwards Gareth said, “It was a good night! Despite the fact that regulations in place here at the time meant that there were restrictions on mixing, mingling or interaction and so it was hard to gauge what the young people were thinking – the leaders were very positive. I hope to be able to work with them again!”

3 Ways to Prepare for Objections

by Editor

C. S. Lewis knew what non-Christians thought and believed because he himself had thought
and believed those very things. He countered the popular notion that morality is just “herd
instinct”—something different societies formulate differently—by highlighting examples of
universally held ethics. He unravelled the theory that New Testament stories were mere
fables by comparing them to works of fiction, a collection he knew well. He articulated and
then dismantled the common notion that Jesus was a mere man or just a very good teacher
by listing the many extreme claims he made. One by one, he articulated common obstacles
to belief even better than sceptics did; he took them seriously and carefully removed them.
We need to develop that same flow in our evangelism.

Getting ready to respond to objections may seem overwhelming. But it works well to break
the task down into smaller steps.

1) Know Your Abilities

First, it’s helpful to examine our own abilities to respond to objections. Has there been
someone in your life who has shaped your thinking? Perhaps your training for your
profession has made you a more logical thinker or a more sceptical inquirer—or more
curious to learn, or more able to see connections between things that other people only see
as separate. Or perhaps God’s call on your life involves more practical tasks than academic
ideas. Perhaps you serve people in very tangible ways.

How have your experiences shaped your compassion for people or your capacity to show
care? How have years (or decades!) of accomplishing physical tasks or fixing broken things
expanded your patience or common sense? Your job, if you have one, is not just a vehicle
for making money. Your vocation (a much better word than job) has shaped you in ways you
may not have examined or appreciated.

Based on all of this, think about what kind of discussion you’d be best placed to have. What
common objections do you feel most confident to challenge? What settings do you think you
could most easily challenge them in? Ask God to allow these God-ordained strengths of
yours to connect with God-implanted longings in your friends.

2) Know the Objectioner

Next, it is worth taking another look at the list of non-Christians you pray for. What objections
are they likely to raise? Are they questions about suffering? Exclusivity? The Bible?
Morality? Hypocrisy? Something else? Have they raised some of these objections already?
How have you handled them in the past? It’s easy to get overwhelmed by trying to tackle all
of them at once. Pick one and try to find answers online or in good apologetics books. Think
of one or two statements you can make as part of an answer. Start the conversation there
and take one step at a time.

Prepare for more of a long hike than a short stroll. What about those friends who never ask
questions about faith or God or religion? That may account for most (or all!) of the people on
your prayer list—but don’t assume there’s no drama going on inside their heads. You may be
surprised how they’ll respond if you wonder out loud with something like “You know I’m
interested in spiritual things, right? Do you ever wonder about those kinds of topics?” or “If
you don’t want to talk about this, that’s ok. But I’m curious about your spiritual beliefs. Have
you ever been interested in faith or things like that?” Invite them to air their objections by
asking what stops them from investigating faith more—or even start by wondering aloud
what they think holds people back from belief in general.

3) Know What You Don’t Know

Here’s another idea. Don’t be afraid to restart dialogues. You may feel you missed an
opportunity when someone asked you a question. Perhaps you did! But asking for a second
chance does not hurt. In fact, it could communicate to your friend that you care about them
enough to mull over their question. It might also display a kind of humility that they rarely see
in Christians.

Returning to a previously blown opportunity could sound like this: “Do you remember that
time you asked me that question about God and I didn’t know how to answer? I’ve been
thinking about it. I think it’s a really important question. Would you be up for discussing it
again? I still don’t have all the answers, but I’d love to talk to you about it.”

Honouring Objections

One final caution: I do not think this process of responding to strongly held objections is
easy. Neither did C.S. Lewis. In God in the Dock, he warned, “This is very troublesome and it
means you can say very little in half an hour, but it is essential.”

When we read through the book of Acts, we don’t get the sense that spreading the gospel
has ever been easy: Peter, Paul, and other early believers racked up an impressive catalogue
of imprisonments, beatings, and straightforward rejection. But, in addition to presenting the
most important message we could offer, honouring people’s objections can be one of the
greatest expressions of love we can extend. It also helps to remember how this rigorous
process might end:

“There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke
15:10). Remembering this will help us as we endeavour to keep meeting our challengers with gentleness, respect, and honour.

This article is an adapted excerpt from Mere Evangelism. In the book, Randy Newman
shares 10 insights from C.S. Lewis to help you share your faith. Available here.

PEP Talk Podcast With Michael Ots

by Solas 1 Comment

For many people, God and faith aren’t the things they’re most interested in. But most people are interested in (and have an opinion on!) big questions about life. What are those questions? How have they changed over the years? And how can we show that a Christian worldview makes the best sense of these life questions?

With Michael Ots – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Michael Ots was Minister of Evangelism at Lansdowne Baptist Church in Bournemouth for five years before becoming a travelling evangelist. He is passionate about sharing his faith through university missions in the UK and outreaches in Europe with organisations such as IFES and the European Leadership Forum. His books include “What Kind of God?”, “What Kind of Hope?”, “But Is It True?” and his latest title “Making Sense of Life”. Find them all at 10ofThose.com

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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The Jesus Gap

by Editor

One of my guilty television pleasures is watching The Apprentice.  Why ‘guilty’?  Because, to be honest, I watch it mostly to laugh at the antics of the contestants.  As the years have gone on it seems that the producers have increasingly and deliberately selected from the thousands of applicants those who will make the most entertaining television – rather than those who are best qualified.  There’s the outlandishly arrogant ones, there’s the utterly clueless ones, there’s the know-it-all’s who can’t actually do anything – and yes there are also a handful of capable people each year.  Personally, I’m most impressed by the gifted sales people, who can sell you a biro pen.  I’m in awe of their skills, because if my family livelihood depended on my salesmanship then they would be going hungry pretty quickly.

Unfortunately I think that many of us have imbibed this idea that an evangelist is a sales person for Jesus – flogging off forgiveness for past indiscretions and offering the hope of future bliss for free!  However, this can be a huge hindrance.

For a start we will be tempted to change the message to make it more appealing to people – downplaying or bypassing altogether the hard truths of sin, hell, judgement and repentance – as no salesperson wants to be stuck selling something that no one is interested in purchasing.

Even more problematically, we will start to fear that unless we are the best possible salesperson, with the perfectly wrapped gospel presentation, accompanied by the perfect music and media performances, served with the tastiest snacks and finest coffee, delivered with the best stories and the cleverest arguments, complimented with the perfect smile, suit and life – then we cannot be effective spokespersons for Christ.

What’s so wrong with such a mindset is that it assumes that the weight of responsibility for winning souls rests entirely upon our shoulders and our skills.  On this view Jesus is not in His rightful place as the Lord of salvation – rather He’s simply a vending machine or a consumable product.  However, that’s just not what the Bible teaches.

I’ll never forget attending the Evangelical Ministries Assembly in the Barbican Centre, London, several years ago.  Rico Tice (founder of Christianity Explored ministries) was on the platform teaching on evangelism.  He took us to this passage in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”

Rico then pointed out that the process of evangelism is very simple: “We preach Christ; God opens blind eyes”.  Then he got us to stand up in the auditorium.  Multiple times all 1000+ of us were instructed to bellow out: “We preach Christ” – and responded “God opens blind eyes”.

You see evangelism isn’t about us, it’s about Jesus.  We are called to be signposts that direct people travelling along to broad road off onto the narrow road leading to the city of God.  Simply signposts.  Sure you can be a neon signpost with LCD screen, lasers, fog machine, etc. – but a plain wooden one with some painted words will do the same job just as well!  We are not here to point to ourselves – but rather to point away from ourselves to the saviour.

Rather than seeing ourselves as salespeople or marketers, the Bible defines us as witnesses who invite people to take a look at the person of Jesus.  Like Andrew to Peter in John 1, we can share with people our discovery: “Come and see: We have found the Messiah” – the one in whom the greatest hopes and answers to the biggest questions of life are embodied.  Like the Samaritan Woman in John 4, we’re able to say: “Come and meet the man who told me everything I ever did” – the one who has embraced us in spite of our many frailties and failures.  Evangelist Glen Scrivener suggests that a very simple way to witness to Christ in ordinary conversation with people is to share a word of testimony: “Without Jesus I could never have got through … that cancer diagnosis, that bereavement, that miscarriage, that depression, that redundancy, that betrayal…”.  We’re not selling a product to customers, rather we’re introducing our best Friend to our friends.

Transforming Scotland – “gospel contextualisation”

by Editor

This year’s Transforming Scotland events were all held on line, as they took place when lockdown restrictions were still in force. The March gathering looked specifically at the subject of ‘Gospel Contextualisation’ in contemporary Scotland.

Pete Lynas from the EA kicked proceedings off with a call for us to make sure that we are preaching the whole gospel. His observation, born out by other research is that the church has often truncated it’s message which has impoverished its witness. Gospel presentations which start with the fall and end at the cross provide a neat problem and solution; but miss our created purpose, and our eternal hope.

Andy Bathgate is a well-known figure amongst the Scottish churches. When I first met him he was with UCCF, spearheading student mission across Scotland. In more recent decades he has led the work of Scripture Union Scotland – a really significant children and youth ministry. Andy led the second session of the day – this time focussing on the needs of young people and ways of communicating the gospel to them. I was struck by his plea not to stereotype young people and take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to evangelism. I have children who are teenagers or student age, and they are all very different. Andy then broke us into groups to discuss what we have observed in effective youth ministry.

Solas’s Andy Bannister was the final speaker who led us into another discussion time. Transforming Scotland had the zoom call set up so that we were all together for the main talks, but divided into breakout rooms of six for the discussions – which were illuminating and helpful. Andy’s talk on apologetics, or ‘persuasive evangelism’ examined the shift in questions from “it is true?” to “is it harmful?” that we observe in culture today – and the way that in response faithful evangelism must engage minds, hearts and imaginations; and pointing people in need to Christ.

This was an enriching and illuminating meeting of some great minds. We pray that it will be a fruitful session of equipping the churches for more effective ministry. The guests came from the Islands to the Borders, from across the denominations and from all kinds of different ministries. However they were all united by a common conviction that what people across this land need is to encounter Jesus, to believe His gospel and enjoy the blessing and forgiveness of God.

Solas Rewinds – Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?

by Solas

Solas Rewinds through the Short Answers archive to bring you Episode 34 – “Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?” It is a common objection to the gospel but the historical data shows that it just isn’t true. So what is the cause, and what can be done about it?

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Frontlines / Christians at Work : The Doctor

by Editor

Pete Aird is a GP (Family Doctor) working in the NHS in England. He told Gavin Matthews all about the ways he shares his Christian faith through work, in person and online.

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

PA: Hello Gavin! Well I am a just a jobbing family GP! I’ve been in this practice in Bridgewater in Somerset for almost 25 years. I have about 1800 patients who are registered with me and I seek to co-ordinate and manage their healthcare. I deal with as much as I possibly can here in Primary Care, but then refer on where appropriate. I work treating people for mental health issues; increasingly so since the pandemic started. Covid infection rates in Somerset have been comparatively low, and we haven’t had more than about half a dozen people who have been significantly unwell with it. We’ve had a few deaths, but only one outside a nursing home where the real problems were focussed. But mental health and anxiety issues are huge, especially about jobs, security and ultimately a fear of death. When people have no hope beyond this life, it’s easy to understand why the threat of death is such a huge thing. I was also GP trainer for many years, but relinquished that responsibility a couple of years ago.

Solas: And of all those things, what’s the best part of your job? What gives you job satisfaction?

PA: Undoubtedly it’s relationships – both with patients and staff. It’s a real joy to be in one place for almost 25 years, laying down roots; knowing people is lovely. My best friend is the one Dr who has been in the practice longer than me who I’ve known all that time. I’m a Christian, he’s an atheist and so we give each other a bit of gip about that! Knowing patients in the long term is great too. I saw a lady this week with her new baby, and first saw her as a patient when she was two years old! Science and medicine is not my primary interest actually, people are though; and it’s in knowing and helping them that I get job satisfaction. I wouldn’t want to be a surgeon, doing complex interventions but never getting to know the patients!

Equally I haven’t warmed to the remote-consulting we’ve had to do during Covid. I’m looking forward to seeing people again!

Solas: tell me about some of the challenges you face in your work, and then about how your faith in Christ helps you to navigate those challenges of work?

PA: Well there are a few issues around medical ethics which are a challenge for a Christian, most obviously around termination of pregnancy. That’s not something I have anything to do with. Early on in my career I did the referrals, but didn’t sign the form but attached a letter which said “Down to matters of conscience I cannot sign the form”. I felt that that was my little statement. However I felt a little uncomfortable doing that and after reading Corrie ten Boom’s book, “The Hiding Place” about the way her Christian family paid a high price for hiding Jews from the Nazis, I decided I couldn’t even do that. Corrie and her family did what they thought was right – and the consequences followed. I thought it was wrong to be involved in terminations so I told all my partners that I was no longer going to do referrals and if they didn’t want me in the practice anymore then so be it. But they were all absolutely fine with it, so now everyone in the practice knows that’s my stance. So there are a few ethical issues, but most of those are pretty few and far between.

A lot of GP work isn’t really ‘medicine’ as such, but involves a lot of supporting people through life. People sometimes say to me, “I’d love to have a Christian GP” but I’m not sure about that. I think it was Martin Luther who said he’d “rather be governed by a competent Turk, than an incompetent Christian.” And I think that’s right. You shouldn’t want to be treated by a Christian doctor, but by a good one! The two are not mutually exclusive I hope!! If you come to see me with pneumonia, what I would say and what my atheist colleague would say to you would pretty much the same. However a lot of what I see is related to unhappiness, marital problems, which are often brought to the doctor for want of anyone else to take these issues to these days – especially as the churches are not the source of wisdom and support that they perhaps were a hundred years ago. So of course, what I say to a patient who has sadness and dissatisfaction with life may differ from what my non-Christian friend and colleague says. And occasionally my faith does come up. Now it wouldn’t be my role in the workplace to offer to pray for people when they are diagnosed with pneumonia or cancer. That said, there have been patents who are Christians and are aware that I am a Christian and asked me to pray for them. And inevitably if a patient asks for my advice my faith will shape what I say in some way. So for example a lot of people are attempting to be “awesome”. The gospel begins by saying, “Well, actually you’re not, and it’s OK – of course you’re not, but there is someone who was, and that is what will make it right, rather than you trying a bit harder or trying to achieve what you can’t!”

Sometimes when I ask a sad patient what they most want out of life they say, “I just want to be happy”. So ask them, “What makes you happy?”, and that’s where the problems come. I don’t think that happiness comes from looking within, but looking without. So I have occasionally said to someone, “Have you ever been to the top of a high mountain, or seen a wonderful rocky coastline with waves crashing majestically and thought, ‘could you sit there and look at that for ever?’” And they’ll often say yes! I’ll point out that they were happy, and it had nothing to do with them but rather they were admiring splendour, rather than being splendid themselves. Now if you want to be infinitely and eternally happy, you need something which is infinitely and eternally great and eternal to enjoy. At that point, where the conversation goes is up to the patient. If they ask, I’ll say that “to answer that, I’d have to involve my Christian faith, are you Ok with that?” If they say no, that’s it – but sometimes someone will want to know more and I reply, “Well I believe God is the one who is infinitely great and eternal and happiness can be found in Him. That doesn’t mean that you don’t try and do your best but also accepting that our best will never be enough.”

A lot of my writing in GP online forum’s picks up that theme, “you’re not amazing – and you don’t have to live on that constant conveyor belt of trying to prove that you are”. It’s Tomlin who said, “The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

The third issue is that sometimes when things just get crazy-busy; it is helpful to remember that God is in control of this, not me. God is ultimately responsible for the life of every patient, not me. I’ll do my bit, but finally he decides who lives and dies. That relives a lot of pressure because if it was all down to me it would be overwhelming. All my patients will ultimately die, and if trying to keep them all alive was all my responsibility that would be impossible, so it’s a relief not to have to carry that whole burden.

Solas: So you are clearly known as a Christian at work. What kind of reactions have there been to that?

PA: No one objects, I don’t get hostile comments from staff. My best-mate and colleague who is an atheist said this week, “So when they find life on Mars, how will that change your God-thing, then?” There will be questions to answer if there is! Another guy said to me as we Ieft for the Easter weekend, “Have a good weekend, oh no sorry, it’s Good Friday tomorrow, Christians are supposed to be miserable then!” He was being tongue-in cheek, I don’t get real hostility just some good natured gip!

It’s amazing how much people just do not understand the gospel though. If I say something wrong they’ll quip. “Oh, well, you won’t go to heaven now.” They think that if you do anything naughty you get disqualified! That’s something that concerns me too about patients who profess Christian faith – a lot of them still think that it’s functionally all about good works. I had someone recently tell me she was worried that God would reject her because she had been a smoker, and it was my privilege to tell her what the gospel really is.

When I share Christian insights in the “Resilient GP” group on Facebook, I get cheeky comments sometimes. I recently posted something comparing the “What would Jesus do” slogan with “What has Jesus done?” I got some disagreement, and Facebook isn’t usually a good forum for debate, but you can sow a few ideas there. So, very little antagonism.

I’ve had one complaint about talking about my faith with a patient which was sad. The complaint didn’t even come from the patient (who was very positive about it) but from a family member. My partners at work are all atheists, but they are happy for me to share my faith – as long as I do it sensitively and appropriately. On a couple of occasions they have sent patients to see me because they have come in with some kind of ‘religious’ issue.

Solas: Have you ever had anyone push back with any particular objections (such as faith is incompatible with science), or is it more “that’s nice for you but not for me’?

PA: Lots of the latter – that truth is subjective and you should just believe whatever you feel. My atheist colleague likes to debate science and suffering. I’ve thought the suffering issue through extensively and written on it. I’m less up to speed with the scientific issues, although I did read Richard Dawkins The God Delusion, and was amazed about how little he knew about Christianity. Then a lot of his criticisms of religion I would endorse too. These discussions are the result of a 24year long friendship. Even when I was called a “Bible-basher” last week by a colleague, it was with a laugh and a smile!

Interestingly some of the non-Christian staff I work with engage positively with my more overtly Christian posts online. There are plenty of bad things about Facebook, but one of the nice things is that I can post something and people can read it if they want to, or ignore it if they’d rather! But I think that it can be used to invite people to think and occasionally people have contacted me to ask more about the things I’ve posted about the gospel.

My Facebook presence is somewhat strategic. I wrote a series of posts for “Resilient GP” based on “The Christmas Carol” which went down really well. They weren’t overtly Christian posts. They were influenced by my Christian faith but weren’t directly Christian and got a really good response. But writing is not all about me, or how many “likes” I get. People need to like Jesus, not me!

So I decided to be more overtly Christian and the first time I did that I was a bit nervous. I did it winsomely, not obnoxiously – and having built up a little following I was interested to see if I would be heard saying something more Christian. I sometimes put up a link to my blog page too where there are a lot of direct Christian messages. At peteaird.org, there’s medical stuff, Christian stuff and some poetry too. I don’t preach Jesus every week on the “Resilient GP” forum, as that would be inappropriate as that is not the purpose of the group. Nevertheless, there are a lot of Drs who are struggling, and my faith is definitely something that has helped to make me resilient, and so I can share that. I don’t know how effective this has been, I can just be faithful.

Solas: What’s your motivation for sharing Jesus?

PA: It’s just such good news! I once went to a truly great Somerset Cricket game – it was amazing, and I told everyone about it. CS Lewis said, “We want to praise that which we delight in”, so why wouldn’t you want to talk about the best thing? The gospel is unquestionably the best news – eternally. If you love people then you don’t keep good news from them. Imagine if a Dr had a cure for cancer but was too embarrassed to tell people about it! I do want people to know. It’s not because I judge people, or want them to try harder or do better, it’s just the best news for them to hear. It’s important to make clear that I don’t think I’m better than them, but that I need forgiveness too.

Solas: What advice would you give to a younger Christian starting out as a GP who wants to be faithful to Christ there?

PA: Don’t leave it a long time before telling people that you are a Christian. It is much better to be up front from the beginning. If you don’t get a job because you are a Christian, just do the right thing anyway – God will decide whether or not you get the job. Be faithful to God, it’s not wrong to tell the truth and be yourself. Also, if all you ever talk about is your faith you won’t get very far. So, be interested in other things, and in people. You are a whole-person of which your Christianity is a major part and you need to represent that, rather than just irritate people if you only talk about one thing. Care about people even in small things, my colleagues disagree with me but don’t object to me – perhaps because I have lots of normal conversations with them too. Workplace evangelism starts with personal relationships, not sermons!

Solas: That is really helpful, thankyou!

PA: Lovely to speak you!

The Return of Genexis!

by Editor

Genexis is a series of unique events which allow people to explore questions of God, meaning and purpose in the company of leading world scientists and academics who present simple evidence for a creator.  Genexis events have proved to be popular with people who are not committed Christians, as they provide an evidence-based case for a creator in a thoughtful environment; where they are invited to think, not pressured to ‘convert’.

This year’s live events in Coventry (Sept 20, 21, 22) and London (Sept 27, 28, 29) will feature contributions from Professor Tom Mcleish, Professor Holly Ordway, Professor Paul Davies, Professor John Lennox, Tom Holland FRSL, Dr Sharon Dirckx, Dr Andy Bannister from Solas, Rev. Stephen Foster and Professor NT Wright.

Every evening in this remarkable series of public events will feature a series of short, engaging talks on scientific, philosophical and historical questions and promises to inspire much further thought, exploration and conversation about the nature of our existence, what it means to be human and if the there is a Creator God who is relevant to these great questions.

At Solas we are delighted to be involved in Genexis events again in 2021, having been involved with some of the online Genexis Course during lockdown last year. We are convinced that Genexis’ work in opening up these profound conversations in the public square is really significant. Many people have huge questions around life, purpose and meaning – but nowhere to explore them, and Genexis provides this. Others are simply unaware that there is evidence to consider for the existence of God, or that many atheist assumptions are also up for debate –and Genexis provides that too.

More details about these fascinating events can be found at the Genexis website, and free tickets are available here.

PEP Talk Podcast With Kyle Beshears

by Solas

What has driven the shift in recent years from hostility towards apathy in relation to the gospel? When people don’t care about the questions of God and faith anymore, what DO they care about? Answering that can help us return our conversations back towards the joy in our salvation and pique the interest of the apathetic.

With Kyle Beshears – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Kyle Beshears is the campus pastor at Mars Hill Church in Mobile, Alabama and a PhD candidate at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written articles for Themelios and the Evangelical Missiological Society Series on the relationship of apathy and belief in God, and is the author of Apatheism: How We Share When They Don’t Care. Read more at www.kylebeshears.com

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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The Impossibility Gap

by Editor

Some of my favourite places to speak at are venues like coffee shops, workplaces, or universities. After one such university event, where the Christian Union had asked me to talk on “Why did Jesus have to die?” we had an amazing time of Q&A after which I felt the Spirit nudge me to end the event by leading people who wanted to in a prayer to commit their lives to Jesus. It was an incredible evening and God was very much at work. But I remember that one particular evening not for how powerfully the Lord moved, but for a conversation afterwards. As we were packing up to leave, a campus ministry leader came up us and asked: “How did you do what you did there?”

“What do you mean?”, I replied.

“You just preached the gospel very openly then prayed, very publicly, and invited people to respond to Jesus—and you did that in a university meeting room. I didn’t think evangelism like that was possible in this day and age. How did you and your colleague do that?”

That’s not the first time I’ve heard that sentiment expressed: that evangelism simply isn’t possible. That a workplace, campus, group of people, or even our culture is so secular and so post-Christian that evangelism just doesn’t work anymore.

I confess I’ve occasionally fallen into the same way of thinking myself. A few years ago I became friends with Peter, a Christian GP. And I remember being very surprised when one day he casually remarked “I love being a GP, it creates so many fantastic opportunities for evangelism”. Without thinking, I said words to the effect of “Really? I thought the health service was so secular and any expression of religious faith so frowned upon, that evangelism just isn’t possible?” Those three little words just slipped out: evangelism isn’t possible.[1]

Why did I instinctively respond with incredulity? Why was that campus minister baffled by seeing evangelism take place on campus? Why do many of us (if we are honest) worry or doubt that evangelism is really possible in “this day and age”? I think it’s because there is a massive temptation to buy into the myth that the secular UK (or the West in general) is simply too difficult ground for the gospel. But is this actually true? And if we’re in danger of thinking this, how can we overcome the Impossibility Gap?

CHALLENGING THE MYTH OF IMPOSSIBILITY

Because the Impossibility Gap is so deep rooted in many of us (we haven’t deliberately adopted it, but we’ve become quietly and subtly infected by it), I want to hit it and hit it hard—so here are six powerful pieces of counter-evidence that taken together will, I hope, form a powerful corrective.

First, however tough a context for evangelism the secular West may be, Christianity has grown (and grown rapidly) in equally tough (or even tougher) contexts in the past. For instance, look at the growth of the Church in the first century. The first century Greek and Roman world was not easy, far from it. Yes, it was very religious, but religiously pluralistic—the pagan world had little time for the idea there was one God and that every other god was a false one. Add to that the ever daily threat and problem of persecution, as the young Church was seen as an increasing threat to the authorities. Yet despite those challenges—a hostile culture and hostile rulers—the Church grew from 120 people in AD33 to 31 million by AD350; or to put it even more dramatically, from 0% to 52.9% of the Roman Empire in 300 years.[2] The early Church didn’t look at the culture and think “impossible”, they looked at it and thought “What a challenge! Let’s follow the Spirit’s lead and see what happens”.

From the past, we can also look to the present. For today, Christianity is growing like wildfire in far tougher contexts than the West. Look at China, where the Church is growing exponentially despite the best attempts of the Communist Party to stamp it out, that there are probably about 120 million Christians in China. Indeed, China is on track to become the world’s largest Christian nation by the 2030s.[3] That growth has all happened in the past few decades. Or consider Iran, where a totalitarian Islamic regime rules with the iron fist of Sharia Law and has made conversion from Islam illegal. But despite arrests and torture, the Iranian church now numbers over a million and is the fastest growing church in the world.[4] There are similar stories across the Middle East. Christians in these terrifically difficult settings could easily say “Evangelism is impossible; it can’t be done!” but they haven’t and God is at work in amazing ways. Let’s be encouraged by and learn from their courage, faith, and example.

Third, sometimes the Impossibility Gap grows because we have a tendency to romanticise our own past. We imagine that churches were full to bursting in Victorian times (and before) and we pine for the lost Golden Age of Christianity, when our country was so thoroughly Christian it was like living in heaven on earth.[5] But that is far from the reality. In Victorian times, surveys of religious attendance show a very mixed picture. For example, Horace Mann, commenting on the 1851 Religious Census remarked that ‘a sadly formidable proportion of the English people are habitual neglecters of the public ordinances of religion’.[6] One can read contemporary reports of ministers grumbling how ‘There were only a dozen people in church on Sunday, and three of them were drunk’.

A little earlier in time and Wilberforce, that famous Christian MP and reformer, was so upset by the spiritual state of the country that in 1787 he wrote in his journal that ‘God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the Reformation of Manners’[7] (he meant by the latter the spiritual reformation of his country). A few decades earlier still, John Wesley was so concerned by the religious state of the UK that he threw himself into the re-evangelism of the UK, covering over 250,000 miles on on horseback and preaching over 40,000 sermons as he sought to share Jesus.

It is clear: the past was not a Christian utopia, but as tough then as it is now, yet that didn’t hold back Wesley and others from faithfully preaching the gospel. And I’m thankful that they did: it’s because of that Great Chain of Witnesses which stretches down through the centuries that you and I eventually heard the gospel ourselves.

Fourth, it’s helpful to remember that the West is highly unusual. The secularism that we see in places like the UK, Europe, and North America are a cultural blip both historically and geographical. In most parts of the world today, religion is growing—humanity is becoming more not less religious and worldwide, atheism is in decline. According to the latest research from the well-respected Pew Research Centre, by 2060 the number of people identifying as atheists or agnostics will have declined to 12% (from 16% today).[8] And those patterns are increasingly being reflected in the UK through factors like immigration. Many of the largest churches in cities like London are now immigrant churches—and there’s a beautiful sign of God’s long-term provision in the way that those immigrant churches are now helping to re-evangelise the nation that evangelised them through the missionary movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Fifth, remember that the UK and the West are not Christendom. Sometimes we can have such a myopic view of culture and history that we begin to assume that God’s plans and purposes for his Kingdom have the UK, or the US, or the West at their centre. And no wonder we then get distressed when those countries undergo seismic cultural shifts. But don’t beat yourself up too much: this is simply the same mistake that as intellectual a giant as St. Augustine made when, watching the Roman Empire fall (it was largely Christian by this point) he felt everything was over. Then Augustine suddenly had an epiphany: God’s purposes were not dependent on one culture, country, or Empire. Empires rise and empires fall but the work of God goes on; the gospel cannot and has not ever been pinned down to one culture.

In his book, Whose Religion is Christianity?,[9] African theologian Lamin Sanneh points out that Christianity is the only major religion whose cultural centre keeps shifting. Islam, for example, began and has remained an Arabic religion—Muslims read the Qur’an in Arabic, and pray in Arabic facing Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Or consider Buddhism—despite many postmodern westerners trying out Buddhism-lite, true Buddhism has largely remained an Asian faith. Atheism, which functions for many as a faux religion, is largely a Western construction and has remained so.

But Christianity, by contrast, looks very different. It began in the Middle East and rapidly spread outwards across the Roman Empire. It then spread eastwards into India (where the Mar Thoma Christians of Kerala trace their heritage back to St. Thomas), along North Africa, and upwards into Europe. With the Pilgrim Fathers it travelled across the Atlantic and became an American faith but now is growing so rapidly in China, Africa, and South America, that the centre of twenty-first century Christianity is the southern hemisphere. You can’t pin the gospel down to a culture. And that’s a hugely encouraging thought.

And then, sixth, we can easily overlook the fact that the Church is growing here in the UK. When I moved back to the UK from Canada in 2016, I quickly noticed that in the six years I’d been away, lots of green shoots of church growth had popped up. I kept meeting church leaders whose churches were growing—and in unusual places: inner city Liverpool, the stockbroker belt just outside the M25, or among Iranian immigrants. These are often the kind of places that are missed by surveys that focus just on the decline of old established churches.

I’m not alone in noticing this: a friend of mine, Sean Oliver-Dee, wrote a whole book about. Called God’s Unwelcome Recovery,[10] it tells the story not just of how God is at work in all kinds of places, but also why that story is less than welcome. One can understand why the secular media don’t welcome positive stories about the Church, but there’s the slightly sharper of question of why as Christians we sometimes don’t want to hear them. Could it be that we need a bit of wakeup call: after all, sometimes it’s easier to sit around in small huddles, telling ourselves horror stories of how bad things are, rather than getting out there and doing something—sharing Christ and serving our communities. When Christians do that, God seems to have a habit of showing up.

Furthermore, we can also miss the huge openness in our culture. When Solas partners with churches to put on accessible evangelistic events in neutral spaces like cafes, coffee shops, pubs, universities, or workplaces, Christians find it really easy to invite their friends and those friends often show up! There are incredible opportunities for evangelism in our culture if we are willing to step beyond the four walls of our churches, address the questions that people are really asking, and show how Jesus and the gospel are as relevant as they have always been.

OVERCOMING THE MYTH OF IMPOSSIBILITY

Those are six good reasons why we need to nail the coffin shut on the Impossibility Gap and then bury it, six feet under, and ideally lay down some concrete on top for good measure. Evangelism is not impossible—not in the UK, not in the West, not in any context. It may be difficult, it be tough, it may require some godly courage and willingness to follow the Spirit’s leading in new ways; but it certainly is not impossible.

But I also realise that the Impossibility Gap may not just have crept into our minds but also into our hearts and souls and that facts, helpful as they are, are not enough to rid us entirely from its icy grip and its frosty whisper “Can’t be done” in our ears. So how can we, personally, take steps to overcome the Impossibility Gap and inject more joy, excitement, and enthusiasm into our evangelism? Let me offer a few suggestions that may help.

First, try praying. Pray especially that God would give you greater confidence in his plans and purposes, especially his plans for the growth of his Kingdom. You might also read and pray your way through biblical passages that talk about God’s power and rule, such as Psalm 93—this a great confidence building activity.[11]

Second, start reading testimonies of what God is doing in people’s lives. Our friends at both Christianity Explored and Alpha have pages on their websites full of stories of how people came to faith in Jesus—it’s hugely encouraging to feed your mind and heart with these kinds of testimonies. We also regularly feature similar testimonies on the Solas website: for example, check out the stories of people like Christopher Yuan, Peter Byrom, Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, or Dez Johnston.

Third, take action. Get involved in evangelism, of any kind—either through something your church is doing, or by prayerfully committing to sharing Christ with friends, neighbours, or colleagues. Now this is point at which the Impossibility Gap may become really personal, because maybe on hearing my third suggestion some readers might think: “Even if the things that Andy says are true, I personally can’t do anything because God can’t use me. I that accept evangelism is possible in this country, but it’s not possible for me.” And if we asked you why, perhaps you would object that you are too young, or too weak in faith, or too inexperienced, or whatever.

I understand the emotional force of those objections, I really do. But don’t let them hold you back. Be encouraged, because when you read the Bible you discover that God used people with all kinds of weaknesses, failures, objections, and hang ups for his purposes. I would go so far as to suggest that I can’t think of a single example in scripture of a perfect evangelist who had everything all figured out and together.

For example, God used Abraham (a coward and a liar); Moses (knock-kneed with fear at the thought of speaking); Jacob (a thief and a cheat); Jonah (a racist who so hated his enemies, he didn’t want to preach to them); Rahab (a prostitute); David (an adulterer and murderer); the Gadarene demoniac (a social outcast); a bunch of frightened men and women, hiding out in fear of the authorities. If God was able to use all those people (and others equally messed up), he can certainly use you and me.

God is able to use even the smaller and the weakest to spread the good news of Jesus. A few years ago I was involved in a mission week at a major university. My colleagues and I worked with the Christian Union on the campus to bring the gospel to thousands of students. We would start each day with a prayer meeting and would encourage the 50 or so students who attended it to invite their friends to the various outreach events that day. One particular student, Lucy, a tiny slip of a girl, repeatedly said she hadn’t got the courage to invite any of her friends—she was terrified they would laugh at her or reject her: “It’s impossible, they’ll never come anyway” Lucy said sadly.

Finally by the Thursday of missions week, we had encouraged Lucy to pluck up the courage to invite just one friend to a lunchtime event that day, when the pastor from one of the nearby churches was going to speak on Christianity and sexuality. Her friend accepted the invite and came to the talk. During the Q&A she even asked a couple of questions and then hung around after the event to talk to the speaker. More questions followed—and more and more. For four hours she asked the speaker question after question until finally she said: “This all makes sense to me. How do I become a Christian?’ And there, at the back of the lecture theatre, Lucy and the pastor prayed with her friend to receive Christ.

The next day, at the morning prayer meeting, I have never seen such a rapid change in a person’s demeanour. From shy and timid, Lucy was now bold and confident—“God used me!” she kept repeating. “He used me! Me!” Despite her fear and trembling, Lucy had stepped up and the Lord had been faithful. And Lucy went from being the most timid person to one of the boldest student evangelists on campus I have seen, all as a result of that one experience of the Lord using her.

One of my favourite passages of scripture is Revelation 7:9-11 where John’s amazing vision of a “great multitude too numerous to count” are described, standing in heaven before God’s throne and worshipping. People, we are told, from every nation, language, people group, and culture. Which tells me that God plans to rescue and redeem people from every culture: from Iran to China, from ancient Greece to ancient Rome, right down to people from the secular post-Christian West. And the beautiful thing is that rather than do it himself, which he has the power to, God chooses to work through us, despite our fears and our inadequacies. God delights in using the weak things of the world—because it’s when we realise we don’t have the ability, we’re forced to rely on him, as we’re supposed to.

As C. S. Lewis would have put it, Aslan is very much on the move. And so the question is whether we going to stand, trembling on the sidelines and watch, or are we going to go with him. Maybe with shaky steps and fearful hearts and knocking knees, but nevertheless stepping forward, with confidence in our hearts and a song on our lips. Maybe a great missionary hymn to encourage us, such as this one:[12]

I, the Lord of sea and sky
I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save
I, who made the stars of night
I will make their darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

I, the Lord of snow and rain
I have borne my people’s pain
I have wept for love of them
They turn away
I will break their hearts of stone
Give them hearts for love alone
Who will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide
‘Til their hearts be satisfied
I will give my life to them
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

May this, indeed, be our prayer: “Lord, nothing is impossible for you! So here I am, Lord, please send me.”

[1]        Peter went on to explain how he’d just learnt to ask really good questions of patients: ‘Tell me about your diet, are you eating well?’; ‘And exercise: are you exercising properly?’; finally: ‘What about spirituality, are you finding space for that?’ Invariably patients reply along the line of: ‘Spirituality? What do you mean?’ And then Peter would say something like: ‘Well, you know, some people meditate; some people do yoga; in my case, I’m a Christian, I read the Bible, pray, and go to church—those kind of things.’ Peter went on to say that in the majority of cases, the patient would then ask: ‘You go to church, doctor?’ And now they’re asking him, and he is much freer to talk about his faith in reply to their questions.

[2]        A great account of the Early Church and its growth is F. F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame: The Rise and Progress of Christianity from its First Beginnings to the Conversion of the English. (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1982).

[3]        See https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html.

[4]        See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-story-of-the-irans-church-in-two-sentences/.

[5]        This kind of romanticism is not helped by songs like Jerusalem. It’s worth remembering that the answer to the first verse is ‘No they didn’t’ and the answer to the second is ‘Fetch it yourself’.

[6]        Horace Mann, Census of Great Britain, 1851: Religious Worship in England and Wales, (Ge. Routledge), 1854, p. 93. Census of Great Britain, 1851: Religious worship in England and Wales, abridged from the official report made by H. Mann. 1854, Census of Great Britain, 1851: religious worship, England and Wales: reports and tables [1690] H.C., (1852-3), Vol. LXXXIX, 1, [1852-3] and Census of Great Britain, 1851: Religious worship and education: Scotland: reports and tables [1764] H.C., (1854), Vol. LIX, 301, [1854]. See the discussion at https://richardjohnbr.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-was-state-of-working-class-religion.html.

[7]        Cited in Kevin Belmonte, William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007) p. 100.

[8]        See ‘Size and projected growth of major religious groups, 2015-2060’, Pew Research Center, http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/pf-04-05-2017_-projectionsupdate-00-07/.

[9]        Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003).

[10]       Sean Oliver-Dee, God’s Unwelcome Recovery: Why the New Establishment Wants to Proclaim the Death of Faith (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2015).

[11]       I can also highly recommend the 30-day devotional book, Confident, published by Keswick Ministries; it’s a brilliant series of short daily Bible studies designed to help grow your confidence in God.

[12]       Dan Schulz, Here I am Lord. There’s a great version you can watch and listen to here: https://youtu.be/mgLwH5RdtPk.

The Christian Education Project & Solas

by Editor

In something of a new departure for Solas, we have been asked to collaborate with “The Christian Education Project” who are providing resources for schools about Christianity specifically designed for use in the English GCSE curriculum.

The project is run by Helen Mullis-Kunda who used to be a full-time RE teacher in London. She says that while the RE curriculum is very rich in topics (including Sin and Salvation, Atonement, Grace, The Incarnation, The Trinity, The Role of Christ in Salvation and Philosophical Arguments for and against God) there was a need to provide new resources to explain them clearly and show their relevance to teenagers.

Based in the London Borough of Redbridge, the Christian Education Project has been especially helpful to teachers and schools from other faiths who have welcomed assistance from Christians in this area. Christianity is a compulsory element in the RE curriculum. Islamic state schools in London have been especially interested in accessing these materials and training conferences as they have appreciated assistance in this aspect of the curriculum from Christians.

The Christian Education Project is currently preparing a library of video clips on YouTube for teachers to use. There will be 60 videos in total, and will explore various aspects of Christian ideas, ethics and lifestyle. Andy Bannister from Solas has been involved in the video resources on the arguments for and against God, and in some of the differences between Christianity and Islam. Some teachers particularly expressed the desire to understand more about how Jesus is understood in the two faiths. Andy, who is a Christian but holds a doctorate in Islamic Studies, is ideally placed to help with this.

Helen Mullis-Kunda commented that one of the great encouragements she has had has been that these resources have changed the delivery of RE from being “dry”, to really showing the impact that faith has in people’s lives.

Solas has been delighted to be involved in this project. It’s really important for young people who have little knowledge of Christianity to see what it is really about, and encounter some Christians with real faith and life stories. Helen and the Christian Education Project are doing strategic work, and it’s been great to work alongside them.

The videos (including those from Andy Bannister) will be published here: