It's always great to hear about how God has worked in people's lives to bring them to faith in His Son. It encourages us to praise God; and reminds us that no-one (including our own non-believing friends and family) are beyond His reach.
And real-life stories of conversion also show those investigating Christianity that real people really do follow the Lord Jesus—that He makes a difference to people's lives.
As Tim Keller, Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, says: "Testimony shows how comprehensive Christian fulfilment is. Christ not only appeals to our minds, he fills our hearts. Testimony enables more experientially oriented cultures and temperaments to see the attractiveness of Christianity."
Below are two amazingly moving testimonies, introduced by Carl Laferton, one of the creators of www.christianityexplored.org.
Deb Stein
"Deb's story needs very little introduction—it's best just to let it speak for itself. But I do remember filming her. She did a couple of trial runs and then we switched the camera on. She told her story in a single take. When she finished, we were absolutely silent. I was on the verge of tears."
Rob Prendergast
"Rob is one of the nicest guys I've met. His is a great story of being saved out of both nominal Christianity and then a lifestyle that left him a long way from Christ. When we finished filming his story, Rob mentioned he does some rapping—and he just started rapping to camera, without any prep. It was fantastic, and so we put one of his raps on the end of his story as a bonus feature… to reward people who watched to the end of his story!"
How could you use these testimonies?
You'll find all the real-life stories at www.christianityexplored.org/real-life-stories. There's also a page of people sharing their experiences of going on a Christianity Explored course at www.christianityexplored.org/course/who.
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:
