Gavin Matthews fills in as host this week, so Andy can swap chairs for an interview about his latest book, How to Talk About Jesus Without Looking Like An Idiot. From “crunchy Christians” to comedy footnotes to Master Question-Asker, Gavin finds…
Well at Fellowship Film one of our top values is “people over product”. That’s because often in the film industry the ‘product’ is seen as the ultimate thing and people are used simply as a means to an end. So it’s considered normal to step on other people to get where you want to get to, or to very quickly fire and replace anyone who isn’t getting the job exactly right. But we wanted to be a film company that wasn’t so cutthroat, where people feel valued and encouraged to do their best work.
Do you find the thought of talking about Jesus to friends, neighbours, classmates or colleagues daunting? Do you sometimes find yourself thinking “what if I say something that makes God look bad?” Or wondering what happens if they raise a…
The saying, ‘he’s all things to all men’ has come to mean someone who tries to please everyone, because they have no principles. Originally though, when the apostle Paul coined the phrase it meant something quite different.
“It was great to welcome Dr Ben Thomas and Gavin Matthews up to Forres to hold an evening Solas event with controversial subjects! We spent the night looking at how to share the gospel with LGBTQ+ people and how to approach transgender issues which are becoming more frequent in our churches. It was a very welcoming and informative night with a Q&A session that could have run on past midnight! This Solas event was a superb way for us to tackle difficult subjects with clear biblical guidance, open discussion and lots of useful information. This is the second Solas event we have run as a Church and they have drawn a lot of interest from our fellowship and others, and we look forward to running more in the future.
One other point to observe, (and this is actually kind of gobsmacking) is that Reason for God does not have a chapter on sexuality. And that is just astounding. In 2008 it did not occur to Tim Keller that sexuality was worthy of chapter in his book on apologetics. Because by 2012 sexuality was almost the only thing anybody wanted to talk about! Now there are a far wider range of concerns. But it just goes to show you how fast the apologetic situation can change.
Do you find the thought of talking about Jesus to friends, neighbours, classmates or colleagues daunting? Do you sometimes find yourself thinking “what if I say something that makes God look bad?” Or wondering what happens if they raise a challenging…
Perth Baptist Church (PBC) invited Solas to lead three evenings of encouraging and equipping Christians in persuasive evangelism, which we were absolutely delighted to do! PBC do not run a traditional Sunday evening service, but have been pioneering what they call ‘MPGs’ which stands for Multi-Purpose Gatherings.
So, if we had the remarkable teaching of Jesus without the person of Jesus, we could dismiss it. But actually while his teaching was unique, it’s the person of Jesus that is ultimately significant.
“Welcoming Solas to Grantown was a joy. The desire to bring together believers from across the Spey Valley was realised in an impactful way. Not only did we hear practical guidance on sharing our faith in Jesus, we also connected with believers from multiple churches who hadn’t previously known of each other, even though they were in the same town.
There was a really good audience in Milgavie, over a hundred people were there from the four churches in the town for a joint Sunday night meeting, and it was great to see a good mix of ages – with students right up to retired folks.
Riverside is great church that Solas love sharing with – and on October 1st we will be working together on a Confident Christianity conference in Ayrshire, with Riverside and several other churches who co-operate under the Keswick-in-Ayrshire banner. Look out for details of the conference in the autumn, or for updates on the Solas events page here.
Do you find the thought of talking about Jesus to friends, neighbours, classmates or colleagues daunting? Do you sometimes find yourself thinking “what if I say something that makes God look bad?” Or wondering what happens if they raise a…
If you’ve clicked through and read any of these articles you’ll notice that Solas writers all share a particular ethos, which is to share the Christian gospel through the issues of the day. That means that we are deliberately trying to avoid two things. The first is getting embroiled in co-called ‘culture-wars’ in which we seek to win arguments about topical issues as end in itself. Instead every article seeks to use the issue at hand as a way of exploring an aspect of Jesus’ life and message. The second thing we’re trying to avoid is presenting Christian truth in a stale or unimaginaive way that won’t engage secular readers, but instead will show the relevence of the Christian gospel to life.
As we left the conference, speaking about Jesus felt that little bit more possible than it did at the start.”
