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Highlights of 2020
56 Plays4 years ago
Whew! It is finally 2021 and everyone is glad 2020 is behind them. But wait, something good must have happened. Although it was different and challenging, there was still a lot to thank God for in terms of how His gospel was advancing. Whether it was reaching new people online or a new openness brought about by difficult circumstances, Andy and Kristi reflect on the highlights of sharing the gospel in 2020.
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Transcript
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello
Introduction and New Year Greetings
00:00:10
Speaker
and welcome to the very first pep talk podcast of 2021. I'm Andy Bannister from the Solar Center, the public Christianity up in Scotland. And I am joined as ever all the way from the other end of the country by Christy Mayer. Christy, I guess Happy New Year is a great place to begin. Oh boy, thank you, Andy. Happy New Year to you too. How are you doing at the start of 2021?
Reflecting on 2020 and Hopes for 2021
00:00:31
Speaker
I'm doing really well and uh just uh just come off with kind of nice kind of Christmas break and even in these strange times yeah just sort of raring to go uh sort of slightly glad 2020 is behind this interesting year and uh excited for 2021. Yeah I'm really looking forward to actually just seeing what the Lord has in store for us this year.
00:00:52
Speaker
Well, I thought we thought it'd be a great sort of a way to sort of kick off 2021, sort of looking back really 2020, because although it was a difficult year, I mean, gold is at work in so many ways. And I don't know about you, kind of Christi, I look back actually when in a midst of the kind of chaos and some of the difficulties, also just some amazing opportunities. I thought it'd be really great to encourage people at the start of the year with some of the things perhaps we saw last year and perhaps lessons we can learn from that. So why don't I start by putting the question to you really, but what was perhaps more on some of the highlights
00:01:21
Speaker
of 2020 for you. I mean, obviously, we think about Covid, but there were three months before Covid. So, you know, what were some of the highlights of the things that you got up to and were able to do?
Pre-Lockdown Campus Engagements
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah, gosh, all that all that time ago before Covid, can you imagine a world before that? I see. Yeah, I am. Yeah, gosh. Yeah, because it arrived in March, didn't it? To some extent. And just before that, actually, before the lockdowns, I was in Oxford and I was in Cambridge.
00:01:51
Speaker
And I had the pleasure and just such the privilege as well to be able to chat with students and their friends through CU mission weeks there. So I spent a good chunk of, I guess it was about a week or so in each city doing their lunchtime events, speaking on a whole range of objections to the Christian faith and engaging with seekers and apathetics and atheists. It was a great couple of weeks.
00:02:18
Speaker
I think what's interesting too, I hope to, you know, encourage kind of listeners that sometimes we can think about universities as being these very kind of sort of secular places, but those mission weeks are tremendous opportunities and, you know, and you're remarkably modest because, you know, you are one of the most kind of sought after and in demand and gifted kind of mission speakers.
00:02:35
Speaker
I know kind of traveling the country doing amazing things, but Oxford and Cambridge interests me because out of the back of that mission, I remember you wrote a blog, I think it was a blog post or something, where you talked about some of the questions that the students had been kind of asking in the Q&As and stuff. And it was intriguing because they were some slightly unusual ones. They were slightly different from some of the questions we usually get, right?
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, they are. I know this is something that, well, first of all, thank you very much, Andy, it's very generous and very gracious of you to see what you did, but they are very different. I think there's a bit of a shift actually going on at university campuses at the moment, and other people talk about this widely too within UCCF, like Pete Dray, the head of creative evangelism and
00:03:17
Speaker
I
Shift in Student Questions on Faith
00:03:17
Speaker
think in the wake of kind of new atheism what's happened is that as we've as transcendence was removed students are kind of coming in kind of saying well but actually well you know this doesn't quite satisfy me um there's surely there's something there is something more and what can it be and so there's just this new level of openness and I think the questions really reflected that
00:03:40
Speaker
in seeing that to begin with, what they're wanting to know is, is the gospel desirable? And I think what I was trying to do in the talks is show them that it is, there's more here, come back, let's keep the conversation going. And then if I've done that to some extent as well as I can, then a lot of the Q&A then focuses on credibility. So I think what we've seen is a bit of a shift in that in previous generations,
00:04:07
Speaker
To begin with, you start the talk. You start with credibility questions, don't you? Like, is this true? Where is the evidence for this? Whereas now, I think through kind of postmodernism, but also just through the wake of new atheism, students are very much kind of saying, well, is this relevant? Is this desirable? Is this livable? Is this good for me? Will this lead to human flourishing? And then the question, the follow one after that is, OK,
00:04:34
Speaker
Is this actually true? Does this actually stack up? Where is the evidence? And yeah, I was just thrilled to be part of that conversation, really. That's a really helpful thing to think about, actually, for folks listening as we go into 2021, perhaps thinking about how we share our faith there.
00:04:50
Speaker
with
Adapting Gospel Message to the Audience
00:04:50
Speaker
our friends and our neighbors and our colleagues and so forth, that sometimes we can kind of get locked into these ways of presenting the gospel that perhaps we learned 30, 40 years ago. And the gospel doesn't change. But because the audience change, unless we kind of recognize that and begin where people are at, we're going to miss
00:05:06
Speaker
people entirely and of course that's thoroughly scriptural. The passage that was thrown to mind as you were talking there is you know Paul that in Athens you know when he sort of branches off almost doing cultural evangelism making connections out of their own poets and you know the architecture in the city and intrigues them to such a degree that at the end of that little dialogue in Acts 17 they turn to him and say we want to hear you again on this subject and I think if it's in our evangelism that was the back of our minds. How do we have conversations with people
00:05:36
Speaker
that sort of plant the seeds to begin with almost pre-evangelism such they're going okay this intrigues me this is interesting i you know i wish these things were true i want to hear you again and then the follow-up conversations you can perhaps move into more traditional territory but i i think you're absolutely right i think there's such spiritual hunger out there but um but we just need to be listening and making sure we're answering the questions that people are asking right
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I think that's it. You're just putting kind of a stone in the shoe, aren't we, in kind of wanting to just, I guess, just intrigue people to kind of, as, you know, C.S. Lewis was saying, you know, to come further up and further in. There's so much more here. And yeah, like you were saying, there's just such biblical grounding for what we're doing. And particularly, you know, it's a big debate, isn't it, when you think about contextualization and what is that and what does that look like? But
00:06:26
Speaker
I think recently I've just been reading more of Newbiggin and how we're all, we're all inculturated and that even our language as we speak in English is an act of contextualization. And I think I've just been really encouraged by that actually and seeing that it's not about compromising the gospel at all. But like you were saying, it's meeting people where their questions are.
00:06:49
Speaker
and then bringing them to see the beauty and goodness of who Jesus is and what he's done for us through the cross. So yeah, it's a real joy as I say to be part of that conversation. And I think that just goes, there's just such an unparalleled and to an extent unprecedented openness on campuses at the moment, which I'm just thrilled to see CU's making the most of that at the moment through their events and one-to-one discipleship.
00:07:16
Speaker
It's a privilege to see that. Anyway, enough about me, Andy. What have you been up to as you kind of look back on the year? You've been engaged in all sorts of stuff, haven't you? And particularly in the workplace, what have you been up to?
00:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting, as you say, the year divided in sort of BC and before coronavirus and after coronavirus, but actually for me, looking back, there's actually been some real highlights during the coronavirus time and one thing I noticed was lots of workplaces up and down the country have Christian groups on them, groups of Christians who've kind of come together to perhaps pray together or Bible study together, but also many who want to reach out.
Online Evangelism Successes during COVID
00:07:50
Speaker
and so on a normal year I offered off and traveled and speak at events in workplaces and businesses and of course hasn't been a normal year but I've been really encouraged to see how Christians have gone okay well let's just move this stuff online and you know we've got Zoom and these kind of platforms let's use those so two highlights for me Christy are two lunchtime events I did one for a group of Christians at London Stock Exchange
00:08:13
Speaker
and so that was I think sort of September time and just really wonderful group of Christians so missional and they'd actually had a mission week planned where they were going to have different speakers coming across a week and of course Covid threw that out the window so they just shifted it all online and actually found it was very easy to invite colleagues to come and watch online because actually there's a sort of anonymity that's safe for non-Christians to go just tune into zoom we don't need to see who you are you can turn your camera off
00:08:39
Speaker
do that if you want to. And so I spoke on where is God in a coronavirus world and really great Q&A afterwards, not hostile questions, just I think people really, you know, searching for hope and looking for something. And there were lots of those kind of questions around, you know, what you've said is would be wonderful if it's true. How can we know that it's true, which is exactly what I wanted. And then just last week, I think it was
00:09:03
Speaker
did another event this time for the Ministry of Defence and there's again a very active Christian community there across a lot of the MOD sites and I would have gone down in person and spoken at one of those sites but because we were online that actually meant they could bring a bigger audience in and there we looked at the question of can science answer every question and we used COVID as the way into that because you know politicians have been banging on about trust the science follow the science
00:09:28
Speaker
and so on. And our first minister here in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, actually came out and said, science has saved us, which is very interesting language. We use that as the way in. And again, just really great. The Q&A is where for me, I use that as the kind of sort of litmus test of how has it gone. And there were lots of folks who didn't have any Christian faith, but just really great
00:09:50
Speaker
questions. And similar to what you were saying, I think, along with university students, is if we can learn to engage the questions that people are asking, you know, whether it's, you know, sort of science, whether it's human flourishing, whether it's social justice, whether it's whatever it is, those are, we don't stop there, but those are the starting points that the bridge heads to the gospel. And we see that done in the Bible. Jesus did that, you know, Paul and the other
00:10:13
Speaker
first christians did that and it excites me when we can learn to do that um you know and obviously you and i stand in front of audiences because we do this more publicly the folks you know listening at home or in your cars wherever you're listening to this podcast um just encourage that with your friends with your neighbors with your colleagues just begin listening ask questions get to know them find out what intrigues them
00:10:32
Speaker
and use those into the things that intrigue them as the starting point, not the end point, but the starting point for a bridge to the gospel. And as you say, Leslie Newbiggan, folks who aren't familiar, Leslie Newbiggan was a kind of Anglican missionary in India for many, many years, and just sort of figured out there how to, you know, contextualize the gospel to that Indian setting, then came back to the UK, and in the 30 years, he'd been away, the culture had changed, and he figured out, I have to do this all over again from my own culture.
00:10:59
Speaker
and wrote a one of my favorite of his books is Gospel in a Polaris Society. If you haven't read that, folks, check it out. I mean, it was written, what, in the 1980s, I think, from the top of my head, but it's as relevant today as it ever was. He's like C.S. Lewis. You read him and go, man, we must have been writing yesterday because all the issues he's grappling with are issues that are around today. So, yeah, so those workplace things are highlights for me. And again, for folks listening, if you are in a
00:11:25
Speaker
If you're in a workplace, Monday through Friday or whatever, just maybe be thinking prayerfully about how, are there ways you can reach out at work? There are so many ways of doing that. And a little plug actually starting very shortly on the Solas website.
00:11:39
Speaker
Christian and I, we have a colleague, Solas Gavin Matthews. And Gavin is editing a series this year on the Solas website where every couple of weeks he's going to publish an interview with a with a Christian in the workplace somewhere about how they reach out at work. And we've got wonderful range of people, men and women, people of all ages. We've got engineers and pilots and teachers and nurses and, you know, every conceivable profession we've tried to cover so that hopefully there's something for everybody. So whatever career you're in, you'll find somebody this year whose story is a bit like yours.
00:12:09
Speaker
and we'll encourage you to reach out. So, Christy, we talked about universities, we talked about workplace. What about sort of more down-to-earth stuff? Obviously churches have been very restricted this year, but there have been some amazing examples of churches like innovating and stuff.
Church Innovations in Evangelism
00:12:22
Speaker
You know, is there anything that you've seen or you've heard this year, this last year, that you've gone, hey, that's a brilliant idea for kind of reaching out during COVID. Are there any kind of examples that you've come across, either directly or through word of mouth?
00:12:34
Speaker
Gosh, there's been so much, hasn't there? I think I'd like to ask you actually about how you found the online dynamic because some of the things that my own church has been doing and invitations that I've received to other churches is that they're just making the most of the opportunities that we have at the moment just through Zoom and other outlets and bringing people in.
00:12:58
Speaker
and hosting an evening, having either an interview or a panel of speakers. Actually, there was a great thing that was done here through Oak Hill. One of my close friends, Edward, did this conversations on COVID and invited a scientist and a lawyer and myself as a philosopher. We all had this conversation on what difference
00:13:23
Speaker
How has it changed for us in the workplace and what difference does it, does knowing Jesus make for us in the midst of this? And it was great, Andy. We had a great, there was a great turnout and you know, it is odd, isn't it? When you can, you can't really kind of gauge kind of people's faces and what they're thinking, but it's just wonderful being able to see the faces on Zoom. And so that's great. And then similar things I think are happening across the board. We interviewed Nate Dawson, didn't we, not long ago.
00:13:53
Speaker
And through her passion for evangelism network, she's been where we've been kind of putting on these events semi-regularly, just kind of looking at either big obstacles to the Christian faith or things like race and justice and what does Jesus have to say about these things. And again, inviting in like experts in those areas.
00:14:14
Speaker
And with those particular backgrounds, you can speak really meaningfully and persuasively and just beautifully about Jesus. And again, I think I've just been quite surprised as to the level of conversation you're able to have with people afterwards.
00:14:31
Speaker
because some of these events they are tricky aren't they because you are just like looking at a screen and you're not so much able to kind of follow up with some conversations but I think having kind of an online registration
00:14:45
Speaker
form really helps because then you can kind of send more messages out, you know, encouraging people to get in touch and to chat and to future events too. So yeah, I've just seen a whole range of kind of one-off events connecting COVID with the Christian experience in life and the difference that Jesus makes to thinking about some of the really topical issues that have come up this past year on justice, for example, or on women or whatever it is. And just seeing that done
00:15:13
Speaker
really excellently, but it's done excellently because I think these people are willing to have a go. And I think everyone's just willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt, particularly as we all moved on to Zoom in those early months. And to some extent, I think there's something quite endearing about that, that people are willing to sit with like a cup of tea of an evening and tune in on Zoom. And there's a nice kind of homey, ironically, strangely homey feel to it.
00:15:42
Speaker
How have you found that though, Andy? What kind of things have you seen happening in the local churches and perhaps that you've been involved into? Any highlights there?
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think some of my highlights, Chris, is I think I've been very encouraged to see examples of local churches just innovating and going, okay, it's easy to go. There are things we can't do because of COVID. We can focus on all that and we can't have our meetings in the same way. We can't do house groups in the same way. And we can just sit in a little circle and kind of get depressed. Or we can go, okay, we can't do those things, but what are the opportunities? In fact, that's one of the Bible passages I've come back to the most in COVID has been Philippians with Paul there in prison.
00:16:20
Speaker
And he sort of writes, you know, don't be depressed. Look at the opportunities. You know, I get to preach to the East Roman soldiers and because the gospel has gone sort of viral in Caesar's household and stuff. And I wonder about Covid the same way. And so I'm encouraged to see churches that have pivoted on this. So, for example, you know, we've just come out of the Christmas season. So there's been some wonderful examples of stuff up here in my part of Scotland. We've had one church I came across, you know, put there, put the church worship band on the back of a trailer.
00:16:47
Speaker
Not to get rid of them. That wasn't the gate they were playing, but they basically took the carol service on the road and just drove the carol service around the community. And people just loved it. They came out of their homes and really engaging. The church user has an opportunity to give a little bit of literature out and invite people to a Christianity Explored course online in the new year. One of my colleagues, Gareth in Northern Ireland, is part of a group of churches locally that figured out, okay, let's see if we can put a carol service on, like in the park.
00:17:15
Speaker
locally or socially distanced and so forth and you know right from the word go engage the council so there was no pushback from from local authorities or anything and everything was risk assessed and uh and they just had mass turnout basically they very quickly sold out it was free tickets but you know ran out of tickets
00:17:31
Speaker
And he said, what was interesting is the hunger. People really wanted to be together. They really wanted to come and be part of that. And this is this huge openness. And then I mentioned Christianity Explore, both Christianity Explore and Alpha. I've been really excited to see here in Scotland have been pivoted really well to doing those courses online. And it turns out it's actually in some ways for some people easier because, you know, they want to get babysitters, they want to leave their homes, they can just tune in online.
00:17:55
Speaker
And I think behind that has been Christians willing to invite. And I think that's something, you know, I've really encouraged to see Christians realizing, you know, this is an opportunity to reach out. And, you know, maybe we get it wrong, but I think there's something wonderful about the Christian faith that we don't judge one another, you know, in crazy ways. If somebody doesn't phrase something quite right, that's not the Christian faith. That's, I don't know what it is. But if, you know, in the same with evangelism, really, is to go, let's encourage one another and we'll make mistakes and things may go wrong. But I think God honors our willingness to be missional.
00:18:25
Speaker
and reaching out and so my hope and prayer for 2021 folks listening to this and for Christians throughout the country as we take the opportunity to go you know what let's just get out there and try stuff look what are the opportunities who what are the connections that we have we've got our next door neighbours we've got our colleagues at work we've got the other parents we see at the school gate and just be praying lord just you know give me the courage and give me some opportunities
00:18:47
Speaker
and just try some and just try some things and as you say Zoom works actually it has its limitations but it also has advantages and it works one-to-one as well you know if you bump into another parent at the school gate you know say hey why don't we catch up for a coffee we could do over Zoom you know you put your kettle on I'll put my kettle on
00:19:05
Speaker
or whatever, or talking over the back fence or whatever. So I just think, yeah, I've been really encouraged, Kristy, to see churches and individuals grasp the opportunities. And yeah, I think there's something interesting spiritually going on in the country. And
Faith and Post-COVID Recovery
00:19:19
Speaker
yeah, I'm going to be intrigued to see what happens in 2021. I do hope that actually when we come out of COVID, which hopefully God willing is going to happen in the next few months as the vaccination starts kicking in, boy, the nation's going to want to celebrate.
00:19:32
Speaker
and micros that Christians get behind that. Wouldn't it be great to have churches getting involved in kind of national day of celebration and stuff? That all happened at the end of the war. And I think there's a cultural moment here of getting Christians in the forefront of helping people celebrate and give thanks for coming out of an incredibly dark season. Let's not just leave it to the media and whatever to tell us how to celebrate. Let's get the Christian faith at the heart of going, wow, we're over this and we can move on.
00:20:01
Speaker
Well, amen to that brother.
Looking Forward to 2021
00:20:03
Speaker
Thank you so much. Isn't it a joy just to kind of look back on the year and we've only kind of taken a small slice of things that we've been involved in. But if you're listening to this, we'd love to hear actually what you've been up to and what you found.
00:20:15
Speaker
helpful, what you've enjoyed, if you've had creative ideas, and you know, please do get in touch. We'd love to hear those. I definitely love to hear those. So yeah, Andy, thank you so much for helping us to review the year and to just like look back on God's goodness and kindness to us. And yeah, I similarly just really look forward to this next year and who knows, God willing, that in a year's time when we hopefully do another year in review,
00:20:39
Speaker
what we will be able to to share and rejoice in as a result of God's work and through all of us. Brilliant, well to all of you who've tracked with pep talk this last year, thank you for listening and I hope you'll stick with us in 2021 and we've got a great lineup of guests and content as ever. So once again thanks for listening and Christie and I will see you in two weeks time.
00:21:33
Speaker
Bye!