🎉Cyber Week Sale: Get 30% Off Everything!
One of the ways the CE website helps personal evangelism is by giving answers to tough questions Christians are often asked (and sometimes ask ourselves, too!)
Carl Laferton, one of the creators of the site, explains the thinking behind these video answers:
"We wanted the answers to come across as warm, conversational, and real. Often videos like these can come across as: 'Let me show you why you're wrong, and a bit stupid.' Or they can try to say absolutely everything about a particular topic or use words that are only heard in church. Our goal was for every answer to meet people where they are at, to recognise the validity of their question, and to point people to Jesus in non-jargony language, encouraging them to keep thinking about the issue.
"So we stripped down the setting and lighting so that it didn't look staged or stylised, and went for a simple edit style. We didn't use an autocue, so that the answers would sound real, not scripted (which meant multiple, painful takes at times!) And we used a wide variety of people—some hugely experienced pastors and evangelists like Vaughan Roberts, Kevin DeYoung, Lizzy Smallwood, and others who have secular jobs and are at the coalface of relational evangelism each day, such as Dawn Evans and Abi Styles.
"Of course, while our main aim was to help non-Christians think through their questions and point them to Jesus, the great thing about these answers is how much Christians can learn from them, about how to go about answering their friends. I learned loads from filming and listening to these guys!"
Below are two of the answers: Dawn Evans, a schoolteacher in the midlands, on suffering; and Jon Cawsey, who works for a church on an Essex council estate, on whether decent people deserve to go to heaven. You'll find all of them at: www.christianityexplored.co.uk/tough-questions.
With mission season coming up, we're featuring a series of posts this week on the Christianity Explored website, a great resource for churches and individual Christians to point interested non-Christians to this Easter.
In this first post, Carl Laferton, one of the creators of the website, talks to The Good Book Company's David Berkeley about why there's a website at all… what it does… and how you can use it.
To grab a load of cards with the web address on, go here.
Or why not link the site to your church's website ...
There are moments when the children and young people in our churches are less than calm. Times when the pain and frustration and rebellion of their hearts overflow in spectacular ways. Mornings when they just lose control and scream ... or suppress their ire and seethe.
In short, there are occasions when anger in young people is a big issue for Christian youth and children's workers. If you would value some help in thinking through how best to respond to such situations, why not listen to a great seminar on Dealing with Anger in Children and Young People, given at this year's Bible-Centred Youthworker conference? Click here to begin.
Can you help us come up with a title for a new Good Book Guide?
We're looking for a title for the new Good Book Guide on Esther and would be glad of any suggestions you may have. Major themes of the book are God's deliverance, perfect timing and sovereignty even over the superpowers of this world, and our need to trust in God's sovereignty and faithfulness to His promises.We'd love to hear from you!
OK, I confess – I’m not universalist in my understanding of the gospel. But I do believe the gospel message is universal. The offer of new life in Christ is available to all irrespective of age, education, nationality or taste in music. No one is too bad to be forgivable through Christ – or too good to need forgiving. The gospel is perfect for anyone – but evangelistic courses are not. That’s why I was delighted yesterday to put the finishing touches to the latest member of the Christianity Explored range: Christianity Explored Universal.
The idea behind the Universal range is that it uses clear, simple English that is accessible to as many people as possible. It is ideal for internationals for whom English is a second language, but also for anyone who would find this feature useful. The course doesn’t involve listening to any talks. Instead, there are eight straightforward Bible studies in Mark’s Gospel. The questions and concepts are kept as simple as possible, and don’t make any assumptions about previous Bible knowledge. There are short summaries and illustrations as you go along, and plenty of help to understand tricky Bible words or phrases.
I’m excited about Christianity Explored Universal because it works with such a wide range of people – groups of international students, a homegroup that wants to study Mark, or someone exploring the life of Jesus on a one-to-one basis. And if, as we hope, the Lord graciously uses this course to bring many people to know Him for themselves, there’s a follow-on course – Discipleship Explored Universal – to help them begin to grow in their love and knowledge of Him.
Christianity Explored Universal will be launched in September in the UK (it will be a few weeks earlier if you are in the States). Discipleship Explored Universal is available now, as is a range of short “Access for all” tracts that again use simple, clear language to explain the gospel message.
Another great visual representation of gospel truth from Tim Challies. This time, it's Philippians 4:8 (with a spot of Greek thrown in!):
Few of us would admit it. But most of us have them. Doubts are a normal part of the Christian life.
But what are doubts? Are they helpful or harmful? And how should we respond when they hit?
If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, why not check out the great seminar that Trevor Archer gave at the recent Bible-centred youthworker conference? Click here for the audio and here for the handout.
Tim Challies has posted a helpful PDF listing some of God's attributes, including:
Would make a great basis for prayer.
Get the Hi Res version or the PDF
If your youth and children's worker has gone missing this week, there's a good chance they may be in Hertfordshire. No - they're not on holiday. Nor have they been kidnapped. They've probably joined the 162 leaders who work with under 18s meeting together at High Leigh for the 2012 Bible-centred youthworker conference. A great chance for them to get inspired and equipped for the ministry that lies ahead of them this year!
Throughout this week we'll be blogging on what's going on at High Leigh. But first, a quick reminder of what went on last year:
If you’re a smartphone person, have you got the Explore app yet?
It’s been encouraging to see the reviews for the app, launched this week, from users. We were hoping that delivering Bible-study notes straight to people’s phones would make reading God’s word easier, quicker and more flexible—and it’s looking like it has:
“What your iPhone has been waiting for: This is a GREAT development—the iPhone is an ideal medium for getting hold of Bible-reading notes, and these are great notes. What’s not to like?”
“Explore was always great but to now have it at all times is great! No internet connection needed once downloaded and Bible passage included. Thanks team.”
It’s dead easy to get—just go here to start accessing Explore wherever you are, whenever you want!
A couple of people have asked us why, in the UK, the monthly rate for Explore on the app (ÂŁ1.49) is a bit more than it is when you buy the paper version (ÂŁ1.33). Which is a great question! Essentially, there are three reasons:
And as ever, any profit we do make on the app, as with the paper version, will be ploughed straight back in to developing resources for the future; with getting to you Bible-centered products which make a loss but which are vital for ministry, such as children’s Bible-study notes; and with providing virtually-free resources for to Bible teachers in the developing world who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
Your £1.49 goes quite a long way—and it’s only half the cost of a large Starbucks coffee!
If you’ve got the app already, as many of you have, do let us know what you think of it on Apple’s app store or Android’s Market.
