The apostle Paul is one of my heroes. On a recent visit to Malta where Paul was shipwrecked for three months as described in the book of Acts in chapters 27 and 28, I visited some of the sites associated with him: the offshore small island where he is thought to have first set foot in Malta; a church marking his time there with a pillar reported to have been …Read More
August Update
I went to an evening at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity recently (www.licc.org.uk) about atheism, with an atheist (I try to practice what I preach). He really enjoyed the lecture and the questions and answers session (he asked the first question – brilliant) but afterwards said the curved ball, the unexpected thing, had been the prayer at the end. The prayer had been short, relevant to the evening and …Read More
The e word
Images of white suited Bible thumping American TV evangelists; fundamentalists forcing their opinions on other people; fanatics using every which way to persuade, pull, or push people into converting; preachers standing in High Streets shouting about how passers by are going to hell unless they are washed in the blood of the lamb. All these stereotypical images of evangelism are from recent feedback I have had. From Christians. What …Read More
July update
Welcome to the July update. The aim of it is to keep you updated of the evangelism consultancy I am involved with for your own information and prayer support as well as hopefully inspiring you and your church in your own evangelism. My aim is to help God’s church communicate Jesus: * To help – Jesus served, Paul served, if it was good enough for them….* God’s church – The …Read More
Whose questions are we answering?
A couple of weeks ago I went to a church’s ‘Ask the vicar’ evening at a local pub. The vicar informally introduced the evening to the regulars and pointed out a doctor and a scientist were there also to answer questions about nature, suffering and science. After a couple of minutes talking amongst ourselves about possible questions, the floor was opened. The first question: what do we think about the Jehovah’s …Read More
Ten tips for Christian evangelists (courtesy of atheists)
I always think that it is good to try and look at things from the other point of view. So have a look at this which is written by an atheist. I know I don’t agree with all of it but it should make all us Christian evangelists (which all Christians are but not all in the white suited Bible thumping way) think about how we go about life: “1. …Read More
Ring the bells
Going to a muslim country, you regularly hear the call to prayer whatever you are doing—eating, shopping or sunbathing. If you are near a mosque at the time, men of all ages and backgrounds appear from all directions to come together to pray. It enters into every day life and is a reminder that there is more to life. Recently it made me think—what would be the equivalent in our country for …Read More
How do you like your eggs?
This Easter at your Church, how are you doing your eggs? Over easy? If you are involved in a March of witness on Good Friday, could you give out free Easter eggs to people you pass as a witness to God’s provision? Perhaps the eggs could have a piece of paper attached to them with a website to find out more e.g. http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/easter_faqs/ Sunny side up? Could you arrange an …Read More
Thank you and ‘hello’—not ‘good night’
Thanks to all those churches and people who have been so welcoming to me in the past few months, it has been great to be part of what you want to do for God’s Kingdom. In that time I have been involved in meetings about evangelism strategy with church leadership teams, meetings with church evangelism teams, planning for a new outreach to young families, visiting a church’s community shop to …Read More
Rev it up
Have you seen the second episode of the most recent series of Rev on BBC2? The Rev Roland Wise (played by Hugh Bonneville) has a “unique 3 point Transform your church plan” that’s going to make your church “not just present and engaged, modern and relevant but also full and solvent.” The 3 points are Invade, Evangelism and Deliver (I.E.D. – as it “blows the legs off failure”). As always …Read More