God doesn’t play fair.
Much to my parents’ concern, I hadn’t been to church for a long time. And yet here I was, in my first term at university, sliding into a pew at St Ebbe’s Church in Oxford.
This, I can promise you, was not the result of any pious yearning on my part. Rather, it was because the congregation counted among its number a particularly lovely second-year student of modern languages.
Where earnest parental pleading had failed, she had proved to be rather more convincing.... continue reading
Met yesterday with an old friend who came up through the youth group I was involved in and who is now a missionary in South Africa. He thanked me for producing the Questions Christians Ask series, and then, like many others, asked me what is next on the list.
I went through the icons on the front of the books, talking about progress with each of them, and the difficulties with getting the level and approach right and with the commissioning some of the titles.
Ben reminded me of a talk I was once asked to give - that I had completely forgotten about. Apparently, I had been asked back to the youth group to talk about UFOs - a subject of deep concern to some of the teenagers at the time. I have not a clue what I said, what Bible texts I referred to, or what kind of steer I gave on the subject - but the conversation reminded me how short-lived some of our concerns can be. As a teenager, I was often involved in intense conversations about UFOs, fuelled by wild speculation from Erich von Daniken's books like Chariot of the Gods (ask any man over 55 and they will fill you in if this is a mystery to you). But it's just not something people talk about now - not in my experience anyway.
And when you read books on apologetics from 20 or 30 years ago, their lists of top questions seem strangely unfamiliar to modern ears - apart from questions about suffering and a God of love. You will search in vain for references to gender and homosexuality in the handbooks on evangelism from a previous generation - but now they are virtually top of the list. Our culture and it's questions just move on.
And our thinking and engagement must move on with them.
In memory of that talk, Ben sent me through the mock-up to the right. It's not a title we are going to publish any time soon - but perhaps there are other Questions Christians No Longer Ask titles you might like to suggest... Answers on a postcard, or by clicking the comment button below...
Work is well underway on our second graphic novel: Light in the Darkness
We're currently on the inking stage of this exciting project, which is the prequel to our first, popular graphic novel, 'The Third Day' - and we thought you'd like a glimpse of how it's going.
Light in the Darkness uses the biblical text of Luke chapters 1-2 and visualises the drama and emotion of Luke's narrative as we explore the characters of the very first Christmas...
We're expecting it to be available in early October - just in time for your Christmas shopping!
Watch this space...
The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfils the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.
Psalm 145:17-21
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Exciting times in the office this week with filming well underway for our innovative new product, Wonderfully Made.
Wonderfully Made is a pre-evangelistic resource for use within toddler groups - using DVD clips to promote discussion of parenting topics from a biblical perspective.
Watch this space for more information!
Home groups are coming to an end. Christian Unions are in abeyance for the next few weeks. Church meetings slow down as pastors and congregation members alike go off on their holidays. For a brief period of time, diaries can seem refreshingly empty ...
It may be that you're looking forward to a much-needed rest over these warmer months - if that is the case, please don't let me stop you! But if you'd like to keep on learning through the summer months, then why not consider using the summer break to dig into a short course in practical ministry from The Good Book College?
Since 2006, The Good Book Company has offered a range of distance-learning courses and some of our most popular are available to be studied over the summer vacation period.
So whether you're looking to dip a toe into Pastoral Care, Women's Ministry, Administration or Christian Mission and Ministry - we have a short course for you.
Each course takes in the region of 70 hours and is done in the comfort of your own home - with optional, practical assignments to help you consolidate your thinking.
Why not take a tour of our short courses here and consider fuelling up this summer with some biblical, accessible training that comes to you ...
It was a hot afternoon yesterday - text messages were flying about: partly reflecting on the sermon just heard, partly making plans for some midweek cake - and in the midst, a new word was born: intereveallenging. Yup, you read that correctly: intereveallenging.
In all honesty, I'm not convinced it will catch on... but it encapsulates what many of us appreciate most in a talk.
Interesting
Relevant stories that resonate with our lives. Pertinent questions - the kind of things our friends ask all the time. And an engaging style that makes us want to listen (no matter how tired and grumpy we - well, I - might be feeling at the start of church).
Revealing
A faithful exposition of Scripture. We're not there to be entertained - we want (and need) to hear from the Lord and there's no substitute for getting in to the text. An in-context foray into God's Word brings light to the dark places of our lives, helping us to see just how awesome God is.
Challenging
Talks that merely inform bring burdens - talks that encourage change bring life. There's no greater joy than becoming like Jesus and being spurred on to do that in the middle of a Sunday service is a simply wonderful.
So ... if you give talks, why not aim to be intereveallenging as you prep in the coming days. And if you listen, pray that your pastor will be unswervingly intereveallenging week by week ...
[Intereveallenging ... See, my friends, - I DID manage to use it in a sentence today!]
Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’
John 6:35-40
Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time will have experienced the pain of seeing people who had professed faith stop believing in Jesus. When I was at university, my Christian Union was very encouraged because a first-year student went forward at an evangelistic event and said she had become a Christian. A few weeks later she said she wasn’t a Christian after all. Last year I was preaching at a church and met the ex-wife of a man who had seemed to be wonderfully converted. Having been a committed Christian and church member for several years, he tragically announced that he was no longer a believer and was leaving his wife.
The first thing we should do when our friends fall away is to pray for them and seek to share the gospel with them again, urging them to come back to Christ. They may be suffering a temporary crisis of faith, but even if they turn away for a long time, we should not give up hope for the possibility of their salvation. They may be as bewildered as everyone else is at their decision to renounce their faith, and value some help in unpicking the reasons why they have changed their thinking. But they still need to trust in Jesus as Lord just as much as anyone else who is not professing faith. We should continue to love them and demonstrate to them the truth of the gospel in our own life (see Jude v 22).... continue reading
