Category Archives: Evangelism

Christianity Explored in Arabic

Would you like to help make history? South Sudanese Christians have asked for our help to fund the translation of the Christianity Explored course into Arabic.

One of our partners I have worked with in Juba writes,

“there is urgent need to translate the CE material to Arabic to benefit mainly those South Sudanese Christians who came from Arabic background. They are taking their discipleship seriously and they have great impact on other believers in South Sudan.”

We need to raise $1,000 US Dollars to facilitate the translation of the course material by this Summer. In August we hope to return to South Sudan and continue to train church leaders to use the course. If you would like to help make this possible, we would be pleased to hear from you. We are working with the charity Fields of Life to make this happen.

Here are photos of some of our adventures introducing Christianity Explored in Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and South Sudan.

Becoming a Contagious Christian: Our Message

How good are you at memorising messages? Probably better than you realise. I suspect over the years you have memorised hundreds and hundreds of messages. Lets test you. Let see how many of these messages you can complete, and for a bonus, who said it.

To our members we’re the fourth…emergency service:
Bread wi’ nowt …taken out: Allinsons.
Don’t leave home… without it: American Express
Soft, strong and…very long: Andrex
ithink therefore… iMac: Apple
Vorsprung durch… technik: Audi
I’d love a… Babycham: Babycham
The United Colors of… Benetton: Benetton
Ahh… Bisto!: Bisto
The taste of… paradise: Bounty
Du pain, du vin… du boursin: Boursin cheese
The World’s Favorite… Airline: BA
Go to work on… an egg: Egg Marketing Board
Let the train take… the strain: BR
A glass and a half in every… half pound: Cadburys
And all because the lady loves… Milk Tray
For mash get…Smash
The man from Del Monte he… say yes
Put a tiger in… your tank: Esso
Now hands that do dishes can feel… soft as your face.
No FT… no comment.
The best a man… can get. Gillette
Guinness is… Good for You.
Refreshes the parts other beers.. cannot reach: Heineken
Beanz Meanz… Heinz
Graded grains make… finer flour : Homepride
Don’t say brown… say Hovis
Say it with… flowers. Interflora
Have a break. Have a… Kit-Kat
Never knowingly… undersold. John Lewis
Because You’re … worth it. L’Oreal
It does exactly what it says… on the tin: Ronseal
Toilers in Agriculture… Strengthen the fodder basis of animal husbandry! Raise the production and sale to the state of meat, milk, eggs, wool and other products!: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

OK so we all watch too much television but do you see the power of a well-constructed message? Why do we remember these messages? Because they are simple, memorable, visual, sometimes humorous, but most important, they are convincing, they are true – mostly. All except the last one perhaps. What is the Christian message? Can it be summed up in one sentence? How about, “For God so loved the world that… he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

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The Contagious Christian: Our Mind-Set

I got a surprise call from the BBC recently. “Did I have a spirit of adventure? Could I think on my feet and cope without home comforts? Did I like a challenge? Was I willing to appear on their programme ‘Bare Necessities’? Two teams compete against each other to see who can survive in a remote location somewhere in the world for a week with only the bare essentials provided. Was I willing to join a team of three vicars competing against three bookmakers? Naturally. With God on our side it would be no contest. Could I participate at short notice? Did I have a passport? Could I go anywhere in the world? For an audience of 2 million, when do we start? Did I have any phobias? Real men don’t have phobias – at least we don’t admit them to strangers. Would I be prepared to eat anything? Yes with my eyes closed. Could I work in a team made up of strangers? Try me. The last question – Did I have one wish? ‘To see heaven on earth’ I heard myself say. The interview lasted half an hour. It felt a cert. I was in. They loved me. The delightful programme co-ordinator assured me she would come back to me in a few days. I put the phone down and began to prepare myself.

Joanna thought I was utterly and completely mad. I had three weeks to get fit. The first thing I did was block into my diary a two hour gym session every day for the next three weeks. I had three weeks to learn how to survive in the wild. I got out my SAS Pocket Survival Guide. I began to learn about which plants and animal parts you can and cannot eat. I learnt how to trap game. How to collect water. How to make a shelter from branches and leaves. How to start a fire. I also began to prepare myself psychologically. What it would be like to join a small team of strangers thrown together in full view of the TV cameras? I began to listen to tapes on team building, determined that we were going to work well as a team. It didn’t matter if we won or not as long as by the end of the week we still cared for each other and glorified God. Finally I began to prepare myself spiritually. What did God want me to achieve through the programme? How could I show that being a Christian makes a difference in a godless cynical world? Christian Aid had nominated me because they wanted viewers to realise most people in the world have to survive on bare necessities every day and thought I could help get that message across.

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Becoming a Contagious Christian: Motivation

Have you ever wondered how God might start a conversation to get someone’s attention? How about these for starters?

“Please don’t drink and drive. You’re not quite ready to meet me yet.” God

“When you’re weary, feeling small. When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all.” God

“Can you imagine the price of air if you had to buy it from another supplier?” God

“I was thinking of making the world in black and white . Then I thought naaaah.” God

“If you think the Mona Lisa is stunning, you should look at my own masterpiece, in the mirror.” God

“Don’t’ forget your umbrella. I might water the plants today.” God

“If you missed the sunrise I made for you today, never mind. I’ll make you another one tomorrow.” God

“How can you possibly be a self-made man? I specifically recall making you.” God

“I think you are the most beautiful person in the world. Okay, so I’m biased.” God

If that is how God might start a conversation to get someone’s attention, how might you? How do we become fruitful in sharing our faith? How can we become contagious Christians? That is our theme for the next five Sundays.

It is ironic that the word ‘evangel’ means good news but the word evangelism or evangelist is so often associated with negative connotations. Why is that? We sometimes equate evangelists with men in dark suits with loud voices standing on soap boxes on street corners haranguing passers by.

You may have experienced the kind of teaching that suggests your spiritual maturity depends on how often you witness to others. And like me you may have felt a failure or guilty. That is why I am really excited about this series Becoming a Contagious Christian because we are going to learn an entirely different way of sharing Jesus. No matter what your background, your personality or temperament. It doesn’t matter whether you are an extrovert or an introvert. God has wired us uniquely. In Scripture we find many different examples and approaches to evangelism and I’m confident there is at least one that is natural for you.

By the end of this five week series, my prayer is that every member of Christ Church will:

1. Be sure that they are a Christian.
2. Be able to share their faith naturally using a simple tool.
3. Have discovered their preferred evangelism style.
4. Be able to tell the story of their personal faith journey.
5. Become a contagious Christian among friends & family.

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Christ Church Hosts Jews for Jesus

On Palm Sunday we are delighted to welcome Yoel Ben David again as our guest speaker. Yoel was raised by his Jewish Moroccan Mother and Scottish father in England and France. After school in England, Yoel moved to Israel where he met Adel. When they married, Adel and Yoel were Orthodox Jews. A year later, when he was serving in the Israel Defence Force, they became believers in Jesus in Jerusalem.  Yoel joined Jews for Jesus staff in 2004 and since has led several outreaches in France, Israel and the USA and served in the UK during 2009. He returned to the London office of Jews for Jesus in July 2010 to assume his present responsibilities as Head of Evangelism.

See also Yoel on Y’Shua and the Harvest

Jesus and Other Faiths

Introduction:

We live in a world in which uncertainty and agnosticism are more valuable than conviction and commitment. People can make their own way to God if they are sincere and determined.  And that everyone should find their own way to God. So my way is just as good as yours.

Sincerity and Truth
Many people think all religions lead to God because they assume that all religions are essentially the same when you reduce them to their core beliefs. They liken the religions to different paths up a mountain, believing that as we approach the summit we realise how much we have in common. But this just isn’t true and only shows they have not looked deeply enough at what the various religions teach. If you let each religion speak for itself, you find they differ greatly on the basic concepts-God, truth, reality, the basic human dilemma and the solution to that dilemma. They differ so much that many of their statements contradict one another. For example, God cannot be both personal, as Christians, Jews and Muslims believe, and impersonal, as Buddhists and Hindus believe. Jesus cannot be a false Messiah as Judaism teaches, a prophet as Islam teaches and the Son of God as Christians believe. Those are contradictory statements. According to the rules of logic, contradictory statements cannot all be true. Therefore, all religions cannot possibly be true. It is a logical impossibility. And if they are not all true, and if they lead us in different directions, then not all of them can lead to God. The Sincerity of adherents of other religions is not in question. You can be sincere but sincerely wrong.

Persuasion and Respect
Some people make this assertion for another reason. They think that it is intolerant to believe only one religion has things right. But this response shows a misunderstanding of what intolerance really is. Intolerance comes from the word “tolerate.” To tolerate means to allow something, such as a belief, to exist even though we don’t like it or agree with it. Tolerance does not mean never disagreeing with anybody. The word implies disagreement. True tolerance means allowing differing views to coexist without necessarily agreeing with them or claiming that all views are true. Therefore, we can hold that one view is true or better than other views without being intolerant or disrespectful. If we were truly intolerant, we would silence other points of view. But merely engaging in persuasive conversation with someone you disagree with is not intolerance. We show more respect for each other when we take our religious claims seriously than when we clothe them in a patronizing cloak of relativism. Continue reading →

Jesus is the Lamb of God

A Highland farmer was overseeing his animals in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW coupe appeared out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a white Armani suit, Ray Ban sunglasses, YSL tie, and Mediterranean tan, leans out the window and asks in a perfect Oxbridge accent, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?”

The farmer looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, “Sure, why not?” The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Mac Book Air, links by wifi to his iPhone 5. He turns on his Garmin Nuvi sat nav to get an exact fix on his location, uploads his location to a NATO satellite which then creates a series of ultra-high-resolution images of the hillsides around him. Downloading the photos via a real time image enhancing facility in Hamburg, Germany, within seconds, he prints out the full-colour, 150 page report on his portable LaserJet printer. Taking off his Ray Bans, the young man unbuttons his Armani jacket and smiles to reveal two rows of perfect ultra-white teeth. Turning to the farmer he says, “You have 1,586 cows and calves.” “That’s right. Well then, I guess you can take one of my ‘calves’,” says the farmer. He watches the young man select one of the animals.

He looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the farmer says to the young man, “Now, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf and your sunglasses?” The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?” The farmer looks up, scratches his stubble, leans on his stick and says, “You’re one of those non-elected ‘special advisors’ to the Prime Minister working for one of them publically funded Quangos with offices in Westminster but living tax free in Brussels aren’t you?”, says the farmer. “Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess all that?” “No guessing was required” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I don’t need to ask. And you really don’t know a thing about cows…this is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my sheep dog.”

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Jesus – the King of the Jews

I am sure you have been appalled at the violence we have witnessed in the Middle East this week. One of the first and most perceptive challenges to the makers of the provocative film “Innocence of Muslims”, comes from a fellow evangelical pastor and film maker, Steve Martin. On his blog The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, he writes,

“I have no sympathy for anyone who would assassinate a US ambassador. But I have even less sympathy for filmmakers who spread hatred and for pastors who knowingly incite violence.”

He then asks,

“Which is the true story of America? Is it that of hatred that stokes violence, or of friends who join hands across religious lines to work for the good of all? Those who attacked Amb. Stevens, thanks to sociopaths like Terry Jones and filmmaker Sam Bacile, believe we are a violent people bent on domination. Sadly, there is some truth to that perception. But I believe that goodness and love is the true story of America, and certainly of the Evangelical community. Goodness and love, however, rarely make good news. It’s time that they do.”

Jesus is the King of the Jews from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

While the film “The Innocence of Muslims” which denigrates Mohammed, continues to inflame tensions across the Middle East, another incident this week typifies how some Jewish fundamentalists portray Jesus. Vandals from an illegal Jewish settlement near Jerusalem set fire to the entrance door of the Latrun Monastery early Tuesday and spray-painted slogans like “Jesus is a monkey”.

Upsetting? How should we react? The best way to introduce Muslims to Jesus is not to denigrate Islam or cast aspersions on Mohammed. The best way to introduce Jews to Jesus is not to denigrate Judaism or demonise Israel. The best way is the simplest way, to demonstrate the love of Jesus and invite them to meet him too.

These Sunday mornings through the Autumn, we are exploring John’s Gospel discovering that Jesus is indeed God’s love in person. So far we have discovered from John 1, that Jesus is nothing less than God on earth and that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one who takes away our sin. Today I want us to realise that Jesus is also the Jewish Messiah.

As we sit at the feet of the Master, notice three parts:

Andrew tells Peter and they follow Jesus (John 1:35-42)
Philip tells Nathaniel and they follow Jesus (John 1:43-49)
Jesus confirms their faith and promises more (John 1:50-51)

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Sam Yeghnazar on Elam Ministries

Sam Yeghnazar on Elam Ministries from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

Sam Yeghnazar is the Founder and Director of Elam Ministries. He preached this sermon at Christ Church yesterday.

Elam was founded in 1988 by senior Iranian church leaders with a vision to serve the growing church in the Iran region. From the beginning, Elam’s passion was to train and equip Iranian Christians to reach and disciple their country men. In 1990 six emerging leaders arrived in England from Iran to begin their fulltime ministry training. They lived in a small, two-bedroom flat and used the kitchen as a classroom. Since then, Elam has seen many years of God’s faithfulness. By God’s grace, the ministry is growing and is being used to strengthen and expand the church in the Iran region in a significant way.