Missing: Good Samaritan

He passed by on the other side.

Luke 10 v 31

From phone-tapping to evangelism

Here’s the coffee-break conversation.

“I see someone else reckons they’ve had their phone tapped.”

“Yes, it seems like every C-List celebrity is on some tabloid’s hacking list! Do you think privacy is important?”

“Well, of course. We have a right to privacy, to be able to have things other people can’t pry into.”

“Yes, good point. There are quite a lot of things about me I wouldn’t want my nearest and dearest knowing, let alone splashed across some national newspaper. Though ultimately we can’t really keep anything at all private, can we?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, God knows everything about us. We can’t keep things private from him. He even knows the secrets of our hearts. And Jesus said that one day they will be made known for everyone see (Luke 12 v 2-3). I find that quite a sobering thought, really. Don't you?”

And (hopefully!) we’re off…

Ebooks and tree books

For the first time, Amazon sold more e-books than paperback books in the US in the last three months of 2010, it has announced.

This is probably something of a milestone in the reading world’s journey from looking at pages to looking at Kindles, iPads and so on. And while the US is ahead of the UK in this trend, it’s likely that (as with everything else) Britain will follow their lead.

We’ve just started to produce ebook versions of some of our products (you can get the Christianity Explored paperback as an ebook) — but we’d love to know a couple of things from you:

• Roughly what proportion of your church have devices that can read ebooks?
• What would you most like to see released as ebooks: daily Bible reading notes (like Explore and Engage), small group notes (like Good Book Guides), or books (like If you could ask God one question)?

Do stick answers, and any comments/opinions/advice on the whole brave new world of ebookism below!

Sharing the gospel in the Age of the Leaks

Perhaps, when we look back at the time we’re living through, we’ll call it “The Age of the Leaks”. There’s been the expenses scandal; the Wikileaks revelations; and in the last few days, a news story about how the Palestinian negotiators were secretly prepared to give up far more than they admitted in public.

All of which means people are massively suspicious of what those in authority tell us. Even if they tell us they think that black is black, we’re waiting for a leaked document revealing that really they think it’s probably white.

We have become instinctively distrustful of what we hear. Yet, at the same time, I know that I tell stories which put me in the best possible light, and keep quiet about things I know might damage my reputation.

And perhaps that’s why I was struck by a particular comment in some Explore Bible notes I’ve been editing for the July-September issue, written by Christopher Ash, who is the Director of the Cornhill Bible Training course in London.

On trial for His life, Jesus told the high priest: “I have spoken openly to the world … I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me” (John 18 v 20-21).

Christopher comments: “What Jesus said privately was the same message as the one He gave publicly. He had no secret agenda. He had nothing to hide.”

How wonderful to have a leader who says what he means, holds nothing back, and never seeks to distort or deflect.

But Christopher points out that we need to copy this approach in how we speak about the gospel with people today:

“Like Paul, who ‘renounced secret and shameful ways [and did] not use deception, nor … distort the word of God’ (2 Corinthians 4 v 2), we need to think about our openness about the gospel.

“There ought to be no part of the Bible’s teaching that we keep secret, or only talk about when we’re with people who are already Christians.”

Part of your church's youth or children's ministry?

…then check out the blog of the Bible-centred youthworker conference, which is running from Monday to Thursday this week.

Tim Thornborough's updating the blog from the conference—and there'll be loads more stuff going up over the next couple of weeks.

We'll be putting the highlights on the Good Book Blog, but keep coming back to the conference blog for news, encouragements, and the main points from seminars such as:

• Dealing with depression
• Turning the nominal into the committed
• Does the future have a church?
• Time-keeping and admin
• Facebook or Fakebook?
• The role of preaching in youth and children's work

If you weren't able to get the time off/money together to go on the conference itself, spending a few minutes a few times over the next few weeks to visit the blog is the next best thing!

What do “evangelicals” believe?

Something interesting's come out of a study conducted by the Evangelical Alliance, who surveyed over 17,000 professing Christians (self-identified evangelicals and self-identified non-evangelicals).

Here are the headline figures:

“Evangelicals” are more likely to see the Bible as their supreme authority (83% as opposed to 43%), and read it each day (52%-26%). They're more likely to talk about their faith with non-Christians (58% at least once a month, compared to 38%). They're far more likely to see sex outside marriage as wrong (62%-26%).

So far, so unsurprising. One thing that did strike me is the difference between younger and older evangelicals:

Young evangelicals (16-24) are less likely than their elders to:

• agree the Bible has supreme authority for their beliefs, views and behaviour.
• give money.
• pray or read the Bible every day.
• agree that women should be eligible for all the church roles that men are.

And they're more likely to talk to non-Christians about their faith.

One interesting quote in the report from Andy Frost, Director of Share Jesus International, on this younger age group: “For many, beliefs have been shaped by good youth work and summer festivals, rather than personal devotions.

“One of the greatest challenges is to enable this age group to take responsibility for their own discipleship amidst busy, media saturated lives.”

Do these stats reflect your experience in your church? How can we as older Christians help those younger ones to spend time with God in his Word and in prayer? And do let us know: how can we as a publisher help you “on the ground” to do this?

Damien Hirst on death

“Everybody thinks about death every day. You try and avoid it, but it's such a big thing that you can't. It's like everything you do in life is pointless if you just take a step back and look at it.”

Damien Hirst, the artist of dead cow/diamond-encrusted skull fame, in the Daily Telegraph, with commendable honesty. Death renders everything “pointless” — death mocks all our ambitions and achievements.

Which pretty much sums up the message of Ecclesiastes: “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1 v 2).

Hirst concludes: “You've got to find a reason to live. We need to find hope wherever we can.”

He finds reason for living in his art, which is “a celebration of something”. But how does art remove the pointlessness from life that the reality of death brings? How does art bring hope to a man who knows death will come?

If you struggle with the thought of mortality or perhaps death is preying on your mind; there is good news for you.

Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11 v 25-26).

Here's the man who would enable you to say "Life: there really isn't anything else".

And here's something well worth celebrating in art.

Making the connection

How can we serve the church of Jesus Christ in their work for the Gospel?

At The Good Book Company, all our thinking about what we do is based on this simple question. We've never seen ourselves simply as publishers, booksellers or conference organisers.

And that's what's behind this new website and blog combo that you are looking at now. The website will help us offer you more resources, more efficiently, and with more special offers than before.

And this blog is not a thinly disguised attempt to put an extra book in your hand, or take an extra pound from your pocket. Nor is it a platform for us to show off our Bible learning, or to impress you with our sharp mindedness (you probably wouldn't be very impressed anyway!).

It is about trying to be an online community of ordinary Christians: a forum where we can serve one another with the gifts and connections God has given us. Connections with what's going on in the news and in our culture; connections with ideas for practical ministry, whether it's in the pulpit, at Sunday School or over coffee with a friend; connections with other resources and encouragements online; but above all connections with the Bible and our daily lives.

So please come back and be part of the community that this blog will start to create. Read, comment, contribute as you like! Sign up to the RSS feed. We'd love you to help us, as we try to help you, as we aim to serve Christ together.