Category: evangelism and mission

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

The problem with that Titanic illustration

I want to pick up an illustration which I suspect most of us from conservative evangelical backgrounds have used at some point (or something similar). Andy Prime uses it in a sermon on the Gospel in a new book. He gets us to imagine the scene in the aftermath of the Titanic hitting the iceberg. … Continue reading The problem with that Titanic illustration

Heart languages

When we first started seeing South Americans coming along to our church, they expressed gratitude for the love and welcome we gave them.  They particularly appreciated that we were willing to go out of our way to provide translation but they admitted that they were struggling and needed something more. These hungry people were desperate… Continue reading Heart languages

Why I don’t think we should bring back the Gospel Service

Richard Baxter writes here in favour of bringing back Gospel Services.  Well actually, he doesn’t. He;s arguing for something else. I’ll come on to that a little later.  I thought though first of all, it might be helpful to give a bit of background to the concept of the Gospel service. Back in the 20th… Continue reading Why I don’t think we should bring back the Gospel Service

The danger of desperately seeking relevance

What put the focus on what churches were doing regarding the Women’s World Cup final was probably an article reporting the comments of the Bishop of Derby.  It was in this article where she said that church life could in effect wnork around an event like a football final.  However, people’s attention was caught and… Continue reading The danger of desperately seeking relevance

Do we need to break the Gospel down to make it clear?

Matt Smethurst writes on The Gospel Coalition site: “When it comes to the gospel, we don’t need to dress it up to make it cool. We need to break it down to make it clear.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/3-reasons-avoid-evangelism/ The context of the comment is in an article about why we can sometimes struggle with and seek to… Continue reading Do we need to break the Gospel down to make it clear?

What happens when Jews read Matthew’s Gospel together for the first time?

Rabbi Jonathan Romain writes in  the Church Times that his Synagogue congregation have been reading through Matthew’s Gospel together, an exercise in Jewish-Christian dialogue. HE acknowledges the imbalance in the conversation as is caused by the fact that Jews are unfamiliar with the New Testament whilst Christians have read the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). In… Continue reading What happens when Jews read Matthew’s Gospel together for the first time?