One of the key insights from our book of the summer, Honest
Evangelism, was that we need to face up to the way our society has changed in
the past twenty years. In the past,
Christians had to remove certain objections people had about Christianity (such
as it being boring, irrelevant or untrue) and once they had done that, people
would often be willing to give the gospel a hearing.
Today things are different.
Rico Tice writes:
Of course, there is no silver bullet solution to this, but
it’s worth noticing that the one form of gospel proclamation that seems to be
bearing significant fruit in recent years is evangelistic one to one Bible
reading.
The great strength of this approach is the currency it
operates by. It works by trust. If you’re not a Christian it’s a big step to
go to a church meeting or Christianity Explored Course – you don’t know what
you’re letting yourself in for, but opening the Bible over a beer/coffee with a
Christian friend is much less of step, because you trust your friend. You know what they’re like. You’ve seen something of their life. So, although opening the Bible with them
might be a new experience, it’s easier to give it a go because you’re doing it
in a safe environment.
This is why we gave out sample Bible studies at the carol
service as the main way of investigating things further, and it’s why we have a
whole stack of free “Uncover” booklets available , which contain six further
Bible studies on John, for anyone who wants one. They’re nicely produced and there is a
well-designed companion website that’s worth checking out.
So why not pick up a couple of copies, have a nose through
it, and pray for a natural opportunity to ask someone you know if they’d like
to look at the Bible with you?
