PEP Talk Podcast With Richard Gibb

by Solas

During the periods of restrictions we’ve had during the pandemic, some churches have become very creative with their outreach activities. Today Andy speaks with the pastor of a small church plant about their “drive-in church” and Christmas carols on the back of a tractor and trailer. Full of ideas and enthusiasm, it’s great to hear how a small church is having a big impact.

With Richard Gibb – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Richard Gibb is on the leadership and preaching team at Loch Leven Church in Kinross. He is married to Alison and works as a Director for a management consultancy firm. Richard, who helps lead activities within the new church, studied Theology at Wheaton College near Chicago and at the University of St Andrews. He swims each day and had a mid-life crisis a couple of years ago when he took up judo!

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 NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE GAP 1

by Editor

In our house growing up it was a weekend ritual to watch “The Waltons” – an American drama with a family of three generations living under one roof during the 1920s and 30s.  One of the ensemble characters was the Reverend Matthew Fordwick.  Fresh out of Bible College, he made quite an impression on the quiet little village with his hell fire and brimstone sermons, screamed at the top of the voice: “REPENT!”  However, it wasn’t a good impression – his preaching scared the children and hardened the religiously apathetic father, John Walton.  Only after a public moral failure and being granted a second chance by the village did his character mellow and his preaching begin to reflect more of God’s grace.

Sadly, not only have Christians had bad experiences doing evangelism; but non-Christians have had bad experiences of Christian evangelists.  Many of us will have had friends or family members tell us upon discovering we are a Christian: “Oh I hope you’re not like… [fill the gap]”.  Such experiences can cool our enthusiasm for speaking about our faith in Christ – because we can assume the person is closed to considering the gospel, or because we are afraid of being lumped in the same category as the Westboro Baptist Church.

But what if I told you there is a way to talk about Jesus without being offensive?

Although the gospel is an offensive message, we ought not to be offensive as its messengers.  I think that the media mogul Marshall McLuhan is right when he observes that the ‘medium’ matters as well as the ‘message’.  The apostle Peter agrees.  In his famous passage exhorting Christians to be prepared for gospel conversations he adds: “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” (v.15b-16).

Someone who has helped me bridge the negative experience gap is the secular psychologist Jonathan Haidt.  He makes the case that human beings are more than brains on a stick.  Instead we are powerfully directed and influenced by our hearts (emotions and desires) and not just our heads (reason and logic).  He writes: “We are emotional actors! We are highly intuitive beings who act first, and justify later. Our beliefs, convictions, and values are far less “rational” than we imagine”.  That’s why, no matter how much of an expert you are in health matters, the allure of the box of doughnuts is so difficult to resist.

Central to all of Haidt’s work is the image of the Elephant with a Rider perched on its back.  If you imagine: our emotions/desires/intuitions are like the elephant, while our intellectual reasoning is like the rider perched on top.  While the rider has a certain control over the elephant’s course and direction, if the elephant decides to do its own thing (responding to something it sees or smells or hears nearby) then there is very little the rider can do about it.  The elephant is much larger and stronger than the rider perched on its back.

The subtitle of Haidt’s book “The Righteous Mind” reveals one of the questions that animates his work: “Why good people are divided by politics and religion”.  He is distressed by the growing polarisation and decline of civility in western societies – where people regard those who disagree with them as dangerous.  Haidt argues that these divides in politics will not be bridged by facts and figures alone.  Rather he traces this partisanship down to the breakdown of community and relationships with people who see the world differently to us (and warns that our social media echo chambers have only escalated this problem at an exponential rate).

So Haidt suggests that if you want to get people to consider your point of view and perhaps changing their own mind, then you need to do more than talk to their Rider with facts and arguments, you also need to appeal to their Elephant.  How?  Well Haidt in the 21st century makes this suggestion that I believe runs parallel to what Peter wrote in the 1st century:

“The elephant can be steered by the presence of other friendly elephants: Do you want to influence the people who disagree with you? You have to talk to their elephants. The main way we change our minds on moral, political or religious issues is by interacting with other people. We are terrible at seeking evidence that challenges our own beliefs—others must do us that favour. We are good at finding errors in other people’s beliefs. But the interactions must be civil. When discussions are hostile, the elephant leans away and the rider works frantically to rebut the opponent’s charges. But if there is affection, admiration, and trust, the elephant leans in and the rider tries to find truth in the other person’s arguments. The elephant may not usually change in response to objections from its own rider, but it may be steered by the mere presence of other friendly elephants”

This reflects Haidt’s own testimony.  Although he was a secularist he experienced a change of mind about the value of the Christian faith after his experience of welcoming church communities during his field research.  As he has reflected elsewhere: “When your heart is open, then your mind is open”.  As the old saying goes: people want to know that you care before they care about what you know.

So what does any of this have to do with evangelism and apologetics?  Well one of the ways in which apologetics goes wrong is when you start thinking that your job is to WIN ARGUMENTS with people rather than to WIN PEOPLE for Christ.

Haidt’s image of the elephant and its rider reminds us the significance of leading with compassion and concern for people, before seeking to share the reasons for our hope in the gospel – so they have open hearts and open minds to consider what we have to share about Christ.

It might be that as we grow in relationships with people that we discover that there are significant hurts and bad experiences of abusive churches or hypocritical Christians in their past.  It may even be that we discover that there are things that we have done or ways in which we have been perceived by colleagues, friends or family as offensive or insensitive.  In those cases we may need to apologise and ask for forgiveness – confessing that all Christians are sinners in need of the pardoning grace of Jesus, acknowledging that churches are hospitals for fellow sick people (rather than museums for saints) in need of the Great Physician, embracing that we are merely beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.  For one of my friends, whose father was converted late in life, it was only when he realised the extent to which his unbelieving father had felt judged by his believing son and apologised, that the door was reopened to look into the gospel.  So let’s ask for God’s help to build bridges across the negative experience gap to connect with people and tear down barriers of offence that we have unwittingly erected ourselves.

The European Leadership Forum (ELF)

by Editor

Earlier in the year I had the opportunity to speak at the European Leadership Forum (ELF). That is a conference which brings Christians from right across Europe together to teach, equip and train them in everything from evangelism to apologetics to theology to preaching and much more! It is an amazing conference!

Because of the ongoing Covid-related restrictions on international travel, the conference was online this time. In some ways that actually increased the richness of the event as it meant they had people from other continents joining them for the first time.

I spoke at three ELF sessions this time.

They asked me to speak firstly on ‘short and sharable messages on digital media’. Friends of Solas will know that we have our Short Answers videos that have been viewed somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million times (it’s hard to track the numbers!). ELF asked me to think through what we do when we communicate through short answers and how can we teach that to others. So we talked about the rationale behind Short Answers, that is creating video pieces which are short, succinct, accessible, free of Christian jargon. We talked about the content of Short Answers and the way in which they take people’s questions and objections and respond to them; then how hard we have worked to get people to share them. After all, it’s one thing to create a good resource, it’s quite another to get it seen! Another critical part of the Short Answers series is that they are free to view. It’s really important not to hold back gospel resources but to get them out there. So it was great to share so much of what we have learnt through Short Answers and we pray that as a result others will be stimulated to be creative in digital space in different contexts across Europe.

Here’s an example of a Short Answers video.

My second session was entitled, “5 steps for answering any really tough question”. In that session I really wanted to stress that rather than trying to learn complex, detailed answers to every tough question there are five steps that we can work through whenever a tough question arises. It begins with the importance of really listening to, and connecting with the questioner. It continues with giving the questioner cause to think about or even question their own worldview. So for example if someone says, “how can you believe in a good God when there is evil in the world?” then its worth getting them to think about atheism. Can you meaningfully use words like “good” and “evil” if we live in an atheistic universe? The next step is to think about a biblical worldview and how the Bible sheds light upon the question and then critically how we connect that to Jesus. we need to show people difference that the gospel makes to the question being posed. Then lastly we looked at the importance of connecting people to good resources.

My third session at ELF was about “Joined-Up Evangelism” which was about helping people to connect their deepest longings to the gospel. We live in a world in which so many people are just apathetic about God and faith – but a lot of Christian apologetics has focussed on how to answer hostile atheists and their objections. But what if your friends don’t have objections, but are just apathetic and disinterested. So in this session, I looked at the way that those deep longings that our friends have for things like justice, beauty, meaning, truth, identity, significance and value (the list goes on and on!), only make sense and join up in a coherent when seen through the Christian faith. We looked at that with the help of the great Christian thinker from a few centuries ago, Blaise Pascal, who said, “Talk about the gospel in such a way that good people wish it were true – and then show them that it is.” Sometimes we leap to the ‘show them that it is’ stage, but people aren’t interested in engaging with evidence for the resurrection of Jesus yet. What they want to know is what difference Christianity will make. So in that talk I showed that Christianity makes a massive difference to all the things we humans are wired to care about.

Have a look at the European Leadership Forum website, because many of the talks given there by me and loads of others are available there. We look forward to working with the ELF more in the years to come.

The Terrible Consequences of Atheism

by Solas

Why does atheism have such terrible consequences? With the help of several famous atheist thinkers, Andy Bannister explores the implications of atheism for human value and dignity, freedom, and for meaning itself. If all the things that you care most about actually only make sense if Christianity is true, maybe it’s time to give Jesus a closer look.

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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.

Frontlines / Christians at Work : The Coffee Shop Owner

by Editor

For this edition of Frontlines, Gavin Matthews spoke to the owner of “Pots of Coffee”, Mark Davis.

Solas: Hi Mark, thankyou for speaking to us for Frontlines. Tell us a little about your job..

MD: Well, we have a coffee shop, with a gifts and gardening shop which we have been running for 23 years. The gardening shop came first and lots of people said to us, “wouldn’t it be great if you had a wee coffee shop in here too!” We prayed a lot about it, because it was a big investment for a family business and all kinds of circumstances came together to make it possible. One of those was that we would need an experienced coffee shop manager, then a good friend at church called Stephen told us he was selling his coffee shop for family reasons, but was available. The amount we could afford to pay him, was exactly the amount he needed to keep his family. So everything fell into place. We had been praying, Stephen and his wife had been praying and it was lovely to see the way God dovetailed the two situations. We didn’t set out with aim of running a coffee shop, but we’ve been lead in this direction and have seen how God has massively blessed us in it and our community through it. We started with 35 seats but the coffee shop has grown and grown and is now 120 seats as the need for social space is so great.

It’s a small business with 13 staff so everybody has to be a ‘jack of all trades’! My wife, Rosemary is an accountant but she also does the cooking. I am mainly front of house, although I do a bit of cooking as well. In truth, my wife Rosemary is the real engine room of the business, she works very hard – and we do work very long days; 12-16 hr days are normal for us.

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

MD: Without any doubt the best thing is people and conversation! I’m a Biochemist by training but if there was ever anyone totally unsuited to being a biochemist it was me! I am really just a people-person. In hindsight I can see how God shut several doors to me, in order to move me in the right direction. We all want to know what God wants us to do with our lives, and I think that God has made me and wired me for people and so this role that he has placed me in has been such a blessing. I love seeing people coming in through the door, hospitality is a very Christ-like thing, and so I love being in the hospitality ‘industry’. I love welcoming people in – and allowing them to open up about whatever is going on in their lives. Obviously all that is within the context of having to do a day’s work too!

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

MD: One of things about entrepreneurs is that we are never satisfied. We set out targets for productivity, income, and social-things and then when those targets are met, we set news ones. We never rest on our laurels, because our attitude is ‘if you’re not moving forward you’re not moving at all’. Now that is hard to reconcile with what Paul writes in the Bible, “for I have learned to be content in all circumstances”. We have a very successful business, with 400+ people a day through our coffee shop. So the challenge is to learn contentment! Lockdown obviously helped with that a bit – because not every change I wanted to make was possible, and I had to learn to rest in the situation we were in! So that’s a challenge for me because I’m a wee bit hyper! Rosemary and I have two children, but the business has felt like a third child at times and it’s been hard to make sure that priorities have been right around those three.

Not opening the shop on Sundays has been absolutely vital for this too. There is a huge pressure to do so as Sundays would be the busiest day of the week for us if we opened. A lot of our Christian customers respect the fact that we don’t open on a Sunday, and support us. And that’s good because there is a temptation to compromise our values and pursue the most profit. Instead, the coffee shop gets used for Alpha courses and church youth groups then.

Solas: Does being a Christian make a difference to the way you approach work?

MD: Colossians 3:23 is our motto – which we wear on our uniforms and is on the wall in the shop. It says, “In all things, whatsoever you do, do it as if for The Lord and not for man.” So when we recruit we make that clear to all of our staff that that is how we try to live our lives. So customer service is massive for us. If The Lord walked in the door, how would we treat him? That’s how we aim to treat all people who come in, regardless of how much they might spend, they all deserve the very best treatment. For some people the only refuge they have in a day is the time they spend here in this coffee shop. We have all the big coffee shop chains locally – but we want our customers to have a very different experience than that. Something different, and more personal, and we want people to ask why it is different and what drives us.

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

MD: Yes, they do and so do the customers. Along with the Bible reference on our uniforms, we have posters on the walls with quotes on them. Many of them are secular quotes, but there are some Bible verses amongst them too. Then we play secular and Christian music in the shop – and all these things are a talking point for people. We talk openly about our faith and reactions have been by in large – fantastic! There are loads of coffee shops in our town so people have plenty of choice and if they don’t like our coffee, our Christian music or our cakes or our ethos, there are plenty of other places to choose from! In twenty-three years we have had four complaints about our faith. A member of the gay community went on a vitriolic rant on social media because they disagreed with a Bible verse on our wall. Then someone wrote a review which complained that although the food was lovely ‘we had to sit under a Bible verse looking down upon us’. Then one lady complained that the people at the table next to her were discussing the Bible – and that I should stop them! Two young lads had come in and were doing a Bible-study, so I said to her that I had no control over what customers talk about, be it the weather, the football or their faith. She said, “Well, I’ll never be back here again”. Then someone complained about Christian music – but really it’s my shop, and my choice on the sound-system!!

The staff like the Christian ethos. It’s not threatening, everything we do is very ‘soft-touch’. In fact we know that a lot of people who are not even churchgoers apply for work here because they like the ethos and feel it’s safe here for them. Quite a few folks like that ask if we have jobs for their teenage kids, because they want them to work in a place where the employer cares about the staff.

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?

DM: All of the above! As I mentioned we’re often able to use the coffee shop for church youth events and Alpha courses on Sundays when it’s closed. So we have this wonderful space available in the town centre, which we can use in a non-profit way on a Sunday to serve – so that I suppose is a deliberate and planned way of sharing the gospel here.

But spontaneous conversations are huge and they occur everyday and usually start with a sincere, “How are you today?” We celebrate birthdays, we commiserate losses – all of life. One day I looked down the shop and could see eight tables and there was someone on every one of those tables who was going through a tragedy. A divorce on the first table, a bereavement on the second, a motor-neurone disease diagnosis, someone who had lost a child on the next and so on. I’d spent time talking to all of those people, and a member of my staff said to me, “How do you cope with speaking to all those people?” And I said, “That’s part of what we do here, and I have the privilege of sharing what God means to me – into all of those people’s lives.” She said, “What do mean by that?!” I said that each of us meets tragedy and joy in the journey of life, and that God has helped me through the joys and tragedies I have experienced. The next day she came into work and said, “What you said about God yesterday – how would that relate to me?” Which meant we could continue the conversation.

One customer comes in every day. He’s been bereaved, and he chats to me for half an hour every morning, about his late wife and about life. He wants to talk about things such as what happens when we die and if there is a better place. I said that I believe there are wonderful promises about the future when we trust The Lord. So he asked what it meant to trust The Lord and it was a lovely opportunity to share that with him. But I never, ever, force conversations – it has to be natural. And of course when you have regular customers for many years, they also see you live your life, and trust you as a person too; so relationship usually comes first.

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?

MD: Some people want to know more, others aren’t so happy. I was chatting to an older Christian gentleman who was had lost his daughter and was really suffering. In the conversation we talked about our great hope and joy being that when we pass from this life we enter something which is perfect, complete and the way it was meant to be. As I walked away from the table, a man on the next table said to me, “you know that’s a load of claptrap don’t you – I suppose you believe in creation too?” I told him that I do believe that God made the universe. I was a biochemist – so we were able to have really good chat about abiogenesis – and the origins of life. I gently challenged his claim that the big bang came out of nothing, created everything; and that that was a more intellectually sustainable argument than my argument that God had created everything. It was a really busy day in the coffee shop and I only had about three or four minutes to chat, but he came back another day to talk more.

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

MD: Really because of my own experiences, and my experience of being a dad – of knowing the difference that God has made in my life and in my kids lives too. There is also a sense that ‘there but by the grace of God go I’. I could be one of the folks that don’t know Christ yet. It has been a huge privilege that He opened my eyes and I now have the promise of an eternal future in him – and so sharing that is a natural thing. If you were a doctor and had a cure, why would you not want everyone to have it too? I’ve been granted the privilege of having a forum in which to do that. Who else gets the privilege of seeing maybe 400 people a day? I get to share in their lives, and their journey. People need hope today more than ever and there is no greater hope than in Christ.

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

MD: The verse that we hold so dear, Colossians 3:23 has stuck with me through all we have done over the years, and is the key to hospitality. If you can treat people as you would wish to be treated yourself; and if you can do everything as if you were doing it for The Lord then everything else follows. You have to have a passion for people, but if you are doing everything for the Lord, then even on days when it all goes pear-shaped, you won’t feel defeated – but you will try to improve. Finally remember that you are not in this alone. You may have many members of staff but you also have someone more important present. He’s your counsellor, your helper and your sustainer and the person who provides the opportunities for you to have an opening into peoples’ lives.

Solas: Thankyou so much for speaking to us Mark!

Solas and Dundee APC

by Editor

Two of the things that drive us at Solas are our commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ; and our partnerships with local churches. So we were delighted to accept the invitation from our friends at Dundee’s Associated Presbyterian Church (APC) to spend a morning with them.

Although lockdown restrictions were easing when we joined them at Dens Road Church, numbers were still limited, face masks were in place, and several older, more vulnerable members of the church tuned-in online for the morning.

Andy Bannister kicked the morning off with an informal seminar, looking at some of the ways we can initiate good gospel-conversations, especially in the context of the secular workplace. Many Christians are recognising their workplace as a mission-field to which they are called (for more on this click here). Andy looked at various biblical principles for helpful conversation and showed how they could be applied to some contemporary examples. As we so often stress at Solas, listening to people is such an important step in evangelism, as is asking good questions which can disarm hostile atheists, and interest the apathetic, if used well.

The morning worship service was conducted by Philip the church’s pastor who introduced Psalms, and led Bible readings and prayers before Gavin from Solas looked at 1 Peter 3:15. While apologists focus on “always be prepared to give an answer for the hope you have” – on Sunday we set that in the context of 1 Peter 3, where the apostle encourages the church to also exhibit the beauty of the gospel in their speech and behaviour. The emphasis there is that we are to commend the gospel to a hostile culture in speech, character, integrity and generosity, because we recognise the Lordship of Christ and want the world to see His glory!

The APC is a really friendly and welcoming church, which we enjoyed visiting. The local church is central to God’s mission in the world – and it is essential that every parachurch organisation such as Solas constantly remembers that. Our aim is to be a helpful gospel-proclaiming resource, for the church to use. It was great to chat to the folks in the church at the end of our time together, and to hear how they are active in God’s work. Andy had one memorable conversation with a student who had recently come to faith and been baptised and who has many non-Christian friends who have many questions for her about her new faith. He was able to give her a copy of his new book!

Our prayer is that mornings like this will be an encouragement to God’s people to step forward in evangelism and outreach. If you would like us to serve your congregation in this way, please do get in touch with us.

PEP Talk Podcast With Dominic Muir

by Solas

Street Evangelism. A phrase conjuring up images of crazy preachers with placards reading “The End is Nigh”, one that strikes fear in many Christians. Is it a thing of the past, with no place in our multicultural 21st century cities? Or is it still a means that God can use, even one He still calls us to?

With Dom Muir – PEP Talk

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Our Guest

Dominic Muir is an apostolic pioneer, evangelist, teacher, author (‘God Hunger: Meditations from a Life of Longing’ and ‘Firebrand: Devotions from a Life of Burning’) and revivalist with a passion for street ministry and the priesthood of all believers. Dominic runs Jesus Fields (www.jesusfields.com), a bi-annual gathering of radical disciples, The Wesley Academy, an online school of evangelism, is co-founder (with his wife) of I Am So Many Things (www.iamsomanythings.com), a business and ministry which celebrates true identity through courses, books and beautiful products and is also founder of ‘David’s Tent’, a three day annual Christian worship event in the UK (www.davidstent.net). Dominic is married to Thea and they have two 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.

Support the Podcast

The Hypocrisy Gap

by Editor

There is a popular Christian meme that does the rounds on social media every so often. It reminds us that amongst the Biblical heroes involved in God’s work are some pretty dodgy characters. It usually begins “Noah was a drunk, Jonah ran away, Sarah laughed at God, Thomas doubted (etc etc); and you think that God can’t use you??” It’s a simple point, well made. If God included such a cast of rogues in his word; then why do we think that we can’t be in on his plans because of our sin?

Yet – many of us back off from evangelism out of a sense of unworthiness. Apart from the obvious fact that our deepest spiritual and psychological issues are not fixed by memes (!!), what is going on here?

The first thing to note is that we instinctively know that while that popular meme is undoubtedly true, and nothing but the truth; it’s not quite the whole truth. Anyone who has read the Bible will also know that God also demands radical holiness from us and urges separation from people who claim to be Christians but practice things such as sexual immorality, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, fraud, and greed. Jesus himself taught the necessity of quite extraordinary standards of holiness in conduct, speech and attitudes too.[1] And of course hypocrisy is hardly a great advert for the faith…

Reading these texts we all often experience a profound sense of our own sinfulness before God, and need for forgiveness. It also makes us very, circumspect about claiming to be God’s ambassadors here on earth, and putting ourselves in the position of calling others to be reconciled to God, when we know that there are stubborn lumps of our old nature which continue to reside in us; which are not in line with that message.

If you think Paul’s teaching about church discipline in Corinth is hard; then read Jesus’s battles with the Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious hierarchy of his day! Jesus’s main bone of contention with them was not that they sought to uphold the law (although they did often miss-apply it) but that they were religious hypocrites; who brought the message of God into disrepute by having attitudes and lifestyles that did not embody their teaching. When Jesus called the religious leaders ‘whitewashed tombs’[2] he was utterly scathing in his denunciation of outward shows of religiosity which were not matched by an inwardly sincere spiritual life. Or as my Solas colleague Gareth Black wrote, “your character should never be playing catch-up with your calling”. Religious hypocrisy stinks no less today, where it occurs in the local church or amongst the public scandals of televangelists, than it did in the gospels.

So, should we read the teaching of Jesus and keep our mouths firmly closed in the knowledge that sinners like us can never adequately represent Him? Or should we look at the flawed folks in the Bible God used in His work, take heart and get on with mission regardless? Are we inevitably locked into this conundrum – or is there a way out?

The answer, I think, lies in the gospel of Jesus itself.

The texts in scripture which tell us about the holiness of God and His righteous requirements for our lives are supposed to help us see our sinfulness.  “The law was our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ” is how Paul phrases that in Galatians. It’s God’s perfect, exacting standards of inward and outward holiness which drive us into the arms of Christ where we find forgiveness.

There is a critical step that we all have to take as we receive that grace and forgiveness though. Because in order to receive forgiveness of sin, we must come to God in confession. 1 John 1:8-9 tells us that denial of sin, is a fatal condition; but that confession opens the path to receiving forgiveness from God. Confession is the humbling business of agreeing with God about our sinfulness, and no longer seeking to explain or excuse that which we find within ourselves that falls short of his standards.

Confession is also the essential key to answering the question about how sinful people like us can represent a Holy God by proclaiming His gospel. Imagine, if you will, two people sitting alongside each other in church who have committed the same sin – they’ve embezzled £10,000 from church funds. They are equally guilty of an identical offence before God. However, while the first person thinks she has got away with it, the second has confessed their sin, and sought forgiveness. Obviously although they are both sinful, the latter person has stepped into integrity before God, by confessing her sin; while the former remains in the stench of religious hypocrisy. Confession is the step into integrity.

That’s why the Bible doesn’t just say that we need to confess our sins to God, but also that there is a place for confessing our sins to one another.[3] A Christian student I knew very well had a really difficult conversation with his non-Christian mates in the halls of residence we lived in. He hadn’t really been living in a way that commended the gospel of Jesus to his friends. So he decided to confess. He said to them, “I owe you an apology. I’ve invited you to church and CU stuff, and told you about my faith, but I have completely let you down by the way I’ve behaved in the last couple of weeks. Please don’t dismiss Jesus, because of my mistakes.” His mates stared blankly back in incredulity, as this was not what they were expecting to hear. Yet – he was able to share more of his faith later that term, because he had chosen the path of integrity.

We’re all sinners, who have traded away our ability to speak adequately for Jesus, but confession restores integrity.

This point actually drives us to the very heart of the gospel. Christian author Tim Chester has pointed out that our job is not to present ourselves as flawless adverts for Jesus, because the message that we would present with our lives would be, “I’m good, and Jesus can make you good like me.” And that is categorically not the gospel message (nor is it true!). The message that needs to ring out from us is, “I have been forgiven for all my sins by Jesus and you can be too!”. The famous image which captures this thought is that in evangelism we are not millionaire philanthropists who are feeding the world, but one beggar telling another beggar where we have found bread.

That means that while hypocrisy is a barrier to evangelism, forgiven sins are not. It means that when we share the gospel we do so admitting our mistakes, doubts, sins and shortcomings. The more we take God’s call to holiness seriously, the more some of these flaws seem to matter in fact. It means we can share the grace of God with a humility that is attractive to people who are also flawed; rather than with a self-confidence which will crush those who are aware of their sin; and a hypocrisy which will alienate everyone.

The late Dominic Smart, wrote a wonderful little book about Peter in the New Testament. It details Peter’s spectacular fall into sin and the way in which Christ restored Him. One of Dominic’s astute observations is that Peter’s fall was an essential element in his preparation for future ministry. Bold, garrulous, overly-self-confident Peter had to be broken in order to be more useful. Jesus used Peter’s crushing failure in order to re-forge a close-discipleship based not on Peter’s own determination; but in dependence on Jesus.

For you and I that means that the message of our lives and our lips need to be consistent. That should look like a humble recognition that we need forgiveness that we speak about. And, we should be people who are (certainly far from perfect), but making progress in the Christian life – visibly before others. The acts of the sinful nature should be in retreat, and the fruit of the Spirit growing in us; with the knowledge that confession is the step back into integrity, with every failure.

So, our Christian meme with which we started is right – up to a point. God can and does involve sinners like us in his work. In His grace he has both saved us and prepared good works for us to do. He has called flawed people to transmit His flawless message. Yet – not because those sins, flaws and failures don’t matter or have no consequences; but because that very gospel message we transmit is the medicine for our own condition. So humbly, and with the integrity of confession, we can step forward in evangelism. God uses people like us.

But I leave the last word to Dominic Smart, who wrote this about Jesus’ restoration of Peter:

“We do a pretty good job, with the devil’s help, of writing ourselves off. We kick ourselves when we are down; we’ve learned to do it when we are young. Many of us have picked up from the world, or our parents, or our siblings, or at school that we are sub-standard. So we adopt that position in life. We need to be reminded by the physician of our souls, when we have fallen, that the love which he has placed in us – a love for himself, has not been eradicated by our sin. It is actually true that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.”[4]

Jesus then, when he had restored Peter’s relationship with him, gave him valuable work to do. No less, are flawed people like you and I, invited into partnership in the work of God.

[1] 1 Cor 5:11, Matthew 5:20-48.

[2] Matthew 23:27-8

[3] James 5:16

[4] Dominic Smart, “When We Get It Wrong: Peter, Christ and Our Path Through Failure”, (Authentic, 2002) p89

Five Reasons Why God Exists

by Solas

“Sceptics often (quite rightly) ask Christians: “”What’s the evidence for your beliefs?”” In this five-minute Short Answers film, Andy Bannister shares five pieces of evidence that God exists — that’s one per minute! If you (or a friend) are a sceptic and want an introduction to the mass of evidence for God’s existence, this is the perfect video to begin with.

Each argument that Andy covered briefly and at speed is unpacked at length elsewhere on the Solas website in our “A Beginner’s Guide to Apologetics” series. So you can investigate further by following the links below:

1) The fact that there is there something rather than nothing https://wp.me/p9HhRI-6w2

2) The fact that the laws of physics are so intricately fine-tuned https://wp.me/p9HhRI-6w9

3) The real, objective nature of good, justice, and morality https://wp.me/p9HhRI-8h7

4) The fact we are drawn to pursue (and need!) meaning and purpose https://wp.me/p9HhRI-8h6

5) The historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus https://wp.me/p9HhRI-8ab

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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.

Frontlines / Christians at Work : “The Soldier”

by Editor

The Army has a unique lifestyle and culture. In this edition of Frontlines, Gavin Matthews spoke to Jacob Reuter about what being a Christian in the British Army looks like. Jacob spoke engagingly about how his faith helps him in his work; sharing his faith in the jungles of Brunei, and running evangelistic events for soldiers in England.

Solas: Hi Jacob, so please tell us about your job, and what your roles and responsibilities are?

JR: Hi! I Serve in the Life Guard Sqn within the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, the most senior regiment in the British Army.  I am a Lance Corporal of Horse, a Junior Non-commissioned Officer.  I began my time in the army as a Trooper but am working my way up through the ranks and taking on more roles and responsibilities as I progress. I began my soldiering within the Household Cavalry Regiment (the combat side of the Household Cavalry) and spent six years in various roles, such as driving and firing CVRTs (small tanks) and also dismounted reconnaissance within the jungles of Brunei and Belize. Since then I’ve been based in the Hyde Park barracks in London, which is the home of the ceremonial work of the Household Cavalry. This consists of riding and caring for the horses and parading in front of the Queen on state occasions.  I am now about to start the farrier apprenticeship; which is the traditional blacksmith’s role of making and fitting shoes onto horses.

Solas: And of all those things, what do enjoy the most?

JR: That’s a hard question! I feel very blessed to be where I am, because in the Army you constantly work in very diverse teams of people, from all around the UK and the Commonwealth with all kinds of backgrounds. And all of these people get crammed together in confined environments where we have to learn to get on and live and work together. I also love being a Christian in that context, working out how I need to act and speak to demonstrate what I believe in. That’s a challenge, but it’s weirdly enjoyable! That’s not to say that it’s great all the time – but I have a hunger to serve God in that environment where I am serving the Queen.

Solas: And what are the challenges of Army life and how does being a Christian help you to deal with those?

JR: Well, being a Christian is both the hardest and easiest thing about being in the Army! The military is something of a magnifying glass on culture in the UK. Learning to stand firm in my Christian faith in that environment is a challenge. Then the job itself is challenging. The physical training required in the Army is hard. But I find my strength in knowing God’s sovereignty and can pray through trials. In a very tough PT session, I’ve learnt that I can make the most of the hard times by actually enjoying God more! There have been challenges when people have questioned my faith too – questioning why I try to stay true to it and the Bible, or when they ask what I think about controversial topics.

I came to faith in my first week in the Army so I’ve been learning on the job how to go about faithfully and lovingly answering people’s questions. Equally the times when I have felt hounded with questions have been the best opportunities to share the gospel and just tell people about Jesus. I don’t know all the answers to all the questions – and that’s OK, but I do want to leave people with the gospel; because if your heart is in the right place and you point them to Jesus -you’ve done what you can do!

Solas: And does being a Christian make a difference to the way you approach the work?

JR: In the Household Cavalry, particularly in the ceremonial roles, we have very early starts – I’m often up for work at 4AM! There’s a lot of repetition in the job too, kit-cleaning and so on. Some people say it’s like “Groundhog Day” and find it hard to keep the energy and enthusiasm going. So I deliberately pray that I will keep positive and be enthusiastic because it is too easy to slip into moaning and groaning about life. So when repetition gnaws, I remind myself that I am living for a bigger purpose than that. It’s hard – I’m human, but knowing that God is sovereign over all things and is working for my good even in this environment is great to remember. That then inspires me to do my best in the role.

Solas: You’ve mentioned that you are known as a Christian at work. How have your colleagues reacted to that?

JR: So, there’s been a big mixture of reactions! I’m intentional at being open about my faith, but not by shouting or wearing a big sign that says ‘look at me, I’m a Christian!” But I’ve found that communicating that I am a Christian clearly – and early on  – when I meet new people makes it so much easier because then people know who I am which then opens opportunities for further conversations.  When I was a new Christian in the Army I didn’t know much about good reasons for my faith or how to answer difficult questions. I wanted to share my faith with others and what I could say to people was, “anyone coming to church?” Since then, as I’ve matured in my Christian walk and in my career, there have been times when people have probed me about my faith – asking what I think about various topics. Some of those moments have been quite hard, but I’ve tried to use those times to further my faith, grow in my knowledge of how the Bible answers these questions to then be able to respond with a clearer answer in the future. Most of the questions that come up will be about heavy contemporary or political issues. People generally don’t ask what I think about Jesus, or the resurrection; but they might say, “what’s your view on abortion” or something. As I said, The Army reflects wider society and its concerns.

I’ve found more recently – with some of the younger lads coming through that there is a lack of knowledge of the basics of Christianity, like “who is Jesus?” And some of this younger generation are quite open to finding out, because they know very little about Christianity at all. So that’s led me to be able to share a lot with them. So, while my peer group tend to ask acute questions about big issues; the younger lads ask more general ones; such as ‘what is the Bible and where did it come from”?

Solas: Have these conversations about faith been spontaneous or have you intentionally set out to share?

JR: Well both really. When you first join the Army everyone goes to the first church service, and then it’s optional after that. So I could say to people, “who wants to come to the next service?” and sometimes people would, but even if they didn’t, it might start a conversation. Then whenever you do a course in the Army we start with an ice-breaker in which you stand up and introduce yourself to the group and “spin-a-dit” which means tell a short story about something interesting. So at the start of one course I felt really challenged to share that I was a Christian. I stood up and said “I’m a Christian, I’m not the padre so I don’t give out sweets, but if anyone wants to go to church on Sunday, speak to me.” There were a few chuckles and smirks but because I had got it out there –  it led to some great conversations with some of the guys on the course. I’d always leave my door open, and people would pop in and ask me all kinds of questions about my faith. So, in answer to your question – both deliberate and spontaneous! I’ve been able to do some one-to-one Bible studies of John’s gospel with some colleagues as a result of some of these conversations too.

When I was posted to Windsor I met a chap called Steve Penny at church. Steve was an ex-Marine, training to become a SASRA Scripture Reader. I wanted to share my faith, and Steve wanted to help me, so we started a thing called “Beer and Burgers” where we’d invite our mates from camp to the pub for beer and burgers followed by a short talk or testimony and then chat and questions. That led to a midweek church service in the mess. I’m trying to get similar things going in London now.

In the Army, because we work, live and breathe in such close proximity to each other, there are just so many opportunities. If you have a Bible and it is out and being read, people will notice. When you are living on camp, if you keep your door open, guys will just come in and chat. On exercises we live even closer to each other. For example when I was in the Brunei jungle, living and breathing with those guys for weeks – it gave them all time to ask all kinds of questions. Yes – it comes with all kinds of banter and everything else, but being so deeply immersed with other people is just such an amazing and unique opportunity.

Solas: What’s your motivation to share your faith in the workplace?

JR: I love it! It’s not easy but I really love sharing my faith with other people. It is such good news – keeping it to myself would make no sense at all, I’m trying to grow and become more like Jesus and he shared God’s word. He shared God’s love and message with people around Him, and if I want to be like Him, I need to do the same. And I do love sharing my faith, I can’t say how much it really is good news.

Solas: What advice would you give to a young Christian entering the Army who wants to be faithful to Christ there?

JR: I’d say make sure you keep up your effort and enthusiasm. Don’t be half-hearted but immerse yourself in it. Get involved. Then wherever you are based, find a local church and go to it. Find other Christians who are in your work environment and understand it, meet up with them regularly and be open to pray for one another and read the Bible together. Read your own Bible, and be bold in your character and stay true to what you believe in while you are at work. Never forget that God is sovereign over all things, and share the good news with others whenever you can.

Solas: Thanks Jacob that’s great!

The Introvert Gap

by Editor

The tap flowed messily into the watering can which sploshed over like a waterfall after a flood, while a melange of obscenely coloured plastic toys littered the lawn in a Hansel and Gretel style trail from the tap right to their toes, where they stood; two small, muddy and sodden little boys, with the sheepish grins of children who knew they had been busted.

It was my own fault; a lesson that I should have learned by now – 5 years into my journey through parenthood. I had noticed the quiet and I ignored the sensible voice in my head willing me to go and check on them, choosing to make a quick cuppa and enjoy the moment of calm. As the saying goes, it was the “calm before the storm”.

As an introvert I find moments of quiet to be a necessary part of sanity preservation during the day. I savour any moment of quiet that I can gather, sipping a cup of (lukewarm) coffee in peace and taking time to still my busy mind. As the real-life example above shows, I am also all too aware of the dangers of quiet. On my own quiet can mean recalibration for my busy mind, but with my boys a moment of quiet is likely to mean the above story has happened- someone has “made puddles” and made an absolute mess of the garden. My point in these anecdotes? Quiet holds power and quietness certainly doesn’t mean nothing significant is taking place!

When it comes to evangelism, “quiet” is not one of the qualities we first think of. and I think we do ourselves and God a disservice by overlooking the power of quiet evangelism. Of course we need the confident speakers who can talk to the masses about the God we love, but if we are not gifted in this way that doesn’t mean we are off the evangelism-hook. As the part of body of Christ, it is important to recognise the need for all the parts, not just the mouth. There are ways to share Christ quietly, confidently, and helpfully that we need to pursue. There are, after all many introverts who might recoil from an uber-confident extrovert evangelist; but might better hear the gospel when shared.. quietly.

God is relational and He broke the mould by sending a saviour to whom we can relate. Instead of being a distant God, we have a hands-on saviour who walks with his people through gritty daily life. We see this all throughout Jesus life, and is a pattern which can help us to be evangelists in our daily lives too. Sharing life with people and loving them well is a powerful tool that God can, and does, use for his glory. The key is to love well; and love is a call to action.

I have a mug that has Christian affirmations on the inside, more appearing as the coffee goes down. It reminds me that I am a child of God, created with intention. I try to always remind myself that if this is true for me then it is true for others too, and to try and live in accordance with that. Whether it’s chatting to another parent on their own at the school gates, working hard to show the boss and colleagues that we value our work, being honest with our Christian friends when life isn’t easy and going deeper than comfortable but surface-level friendships, we should aim to show others their God-given value and to build community where we are. It’ll look different for everyone, but the opportunity will be there somewhere if we intentionally pray and search. Once we are in community with people we can show them the unrelenting love that Jesus poured out on us. Desmond Tutu said that “the good news to a hungry person is bread”, and while that’s an overstatement in itself, I think that’s a great lesson in how to start to do quiet evangelism in real life. If we are in community with people, doing life with them, we learn to see where their needs are and then we can show them how Jesus cares about them where they are.

When a close friend lost her baby in a miscarriage she didn’t want to hear a sermon. She wanted someone to look after her elder son while she went into hospital, and for someone to hug and cry with her afterwards, lamenting alongside her. This friend, who once described herself as a “loud atheist”, saw that she was cared for and her baby was valued, and this has opened up many hope-filled conversations.

Remembering our own humanity with all its limitations keeps our eyes focused on God, who has no limitations. We can befriend people who are of different (or no) faith, who think and live differently, and we don’t need to be scared of doing so because we are confident that our God is bigger than any situation or conversation. Talking to people who are Muslim, or gay, or from a different culture, for example, can seem really scary. If we stop treating them like a project, and more like community then it stops being so scary. Remembering our humanity means remembering theirs too.

As a parent, I hear approximately 20947758303 questions per day and if I’m totally honest there are days where I can’t muster any more than a half-hearted “just because” in response. I sometimes forget that questions are great, they encourage us to expand our minds and open doors to amazing conversations. Our God is not afraid of questions, whether they are from us as Christians or from the confident Muslim person who we think is trying to conversationally trip us up. God has already accounted for us not knowing all the answers! Through the Bible, as well as community of other Christians, God has equipped us to learn. If we can’t answer a question we can safely admit to that, then go and pray about it, speak to Christians who we think might have better understanding than us on that question and ask them to point us to where the Bible talks about it. We need Christian community to keep us from being swayed from the truth in an effort to make conversations more comfortable. Sometimes that means we have insight to share and often means we have to learn from others. Love in action means being honest, and sometimes that feels incredibly vulnerable so having Christians to pray with and for us is so powerful and vital if we actually want to be helpful to the people we are telling about Jesus.

In my garden, the quiet meant my children were busy using their imaginations and all the tools at their disposal (all. the. tools.) to create something that was, in their opinion, beautiful and brilliant. If we use the quiet to build community and love well- using the tools we have been given, the evangelism that happens there will really be beautiful and brilliant.

Why Our Desires Point To God

by Solas

Have you ever wondered why it is that almost universally, across time and cultures, human beings have innate desires for things like meaning, significance, purpose, and spirituality? In this SHORT ANSWERS video, Andy Bannister helps show how our deepest desires are a very big clue indeed to our being not random collections of molecules, but creatures created by a God in whom those desires can be truly met.

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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.