Category: evangelism and mission

Were we just Halloween lite?

With most events and activities, we tend to spend a bit of time planning before hand but also reflecting afterwards.  Christmas tends to see a lot of up front planning and a lot of resources provided from outside, Easter not so much so.  Halloween, reflecting perhaps our uncertainty of where it fits in tends to… Continue reading Were we just Halloween lite?

What should we do about Halloween?

Graham Nicholls writes for Affinity about the dilemma that many Christians face when approaching Halloween.  I suspect that the dilemma arises because the event itself is messy.  You are encountering not just one festival or “holiday” but several and they have all got muddled up together. First (though not chronologically) there’s the festival from which… Continue reading What should we do about Halloween?

Is reaching urban Britain  “cross cultural”?

In “Hope for the City”, I talk about reaching urban Britain as requiring “cross cultural mission”.  But is it?  I’ve also wanted to insist in recent blog posts that we shouldn’t be thinking in terms of a minority working class but rather about people who are simply normal ordinary members of the same society. So,… Continue reading Is reaching urban Britain  “cross cultural”?

More on class and church

I had some interesting responses to my recent observations about class and the church.  These ranged from “Yes there is a working class but it’s a small minority in the wider society, so we cannot really suggest that the church is dominated by a minority culture.  The culture that dominates is the culture of wider… Continue reading More on class and church

Cold contact: Going door to door

Steve Kneale writes here about the pros and cons of door to door evangelism. He does so by helpfully comparing Christian outreach to the methods used by charity fund raisers.It’s worth noting that all he says about door knocking could be said about other forms of cold contact evangelism including street evangelism I should also… Continue reading Cold contact: Going door to door

Is it the working classes that we should be focusing on?

Steve Kneale has also written about the book on Class that I recently reviewed.  Steve deals more with the reaction. Why does the book seem to have received such a gushing response from some quarters but causes a negative reaction among working class Christians and those he refers to as “practitioners” who are engaged in… Continue reading Is it the working classes that we should be focusing on?

When people know nothing at all about Jesus

On a Friday afternoon, a group of us from our church get together at a local pub for one of our small groups.  The approach is “Ask anything?” Sometimes one of the group will raise a question that’s been bothering them but if not, the group leader will put forward a question to get us… Continue reading When people know nothing at all about Jesus

Can we appreciate Alpha?

Following Russell Brand’s baptism, there has been a lot of interest generated in the media about celebrities and evangelicalism including this rather sneering article in The Times.  John Stevens, National Director of the FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) shared the link on Facebook and commented to the effect that whilst there is a tendency… Continue reading Can we appreciate Alpha?

Tom Holland, Jordan Peterson and Gospel confidence

A couple of years ago, conservative evangelicals seemed to go crazy for two prominent secular authors/speakers operating at a popular level, Jordan Peterson and Tom Holland.  Peterson’s star seems to have waned somewhat but Tom Holland remains popular and has been invited onto podcasts and to speak at evangelistic events, usually with a format that… Continue reading Tom Holland, Jordan Peterson and Gospel confidence