I’ve been struck once again by the reminder that the simple things in life so often are the most important things. And it’s those simple things that we can lose site of as our lives invariably tend towards the complex. As my wedding anniversary approaches I find myself flustered, as I can’t quite locate the […]
Evangelism is a spiritual struggle. It’s a bloody, vicious war. There is no Geneva Convention or International Court of Justice imposing civility. Our enemy is not a gentlemen and he is out to totally, utterly ruin all that you love, cherish and seek to protect.
In this war we have been given tools, and I believe the role of persuasion – arguing, illustrating, and questioning – is a weapon that we are to deploy in this war.
Timothy was told by the Apostle Paul to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). We’re shown that evangelism is both a task, as well as an office or role (Ephesians 4), and a task that in the Great Commission (Matthew 28) all Christians are called to.
As we think through how to use persuasion in evangelism here are 8 points to remember.
I remember clear as day the thought in my mind as we swung out on the blind bend to pass the car in front of us, high up in the Alps: “I hope they’re right!” Quite what the French car we were overtaking thought, as our Rover 218 with 6 kayaks on the roof screamed […]
From the outside, they were just another group of men who would meet regularly at the pub. They met at the same place, most weeks, for a drink and a chat. They talked about all manner of things on their minds: what they were working on, what they were thinking about doing. This story becomes […]
New is cool. At least, this is what the advertisers would have us believe. If you don’t have the latest thing then you’re not ‘with the times’, or so the implied message behind the images selling us the thing tells us. And do you know what? So often the advertisers are right. My current phone […]
This is a direct continuation from Part I (astonishingly) so read that first. Here we are, then, having a bit of a play around with some of the sound bites that get erected as defensive shield walls by people. “Every thinking man is an atheist.” Ernest Hemingway Ok, Ernie…but what if I think hard about […]
There’s something called ‘an appeal to authority’. It involves glibly quoting someone more famous or more intelligent than yourself as though that proves the point you’re trying to make. Both Christians and Atheists do it, and it’s annoying. I call it the Stephen Fry syndrome (Melchett from Blackadder for our American readers): here’s a wonderfully […]
In our last blog we wrote about great online web resources for apologetics. This week we’re looking at some must-read books. These are all widely available and are listed in no particular order. Do you have a favourite book that we haven’t listed? Let us know about it, leave us a comment. Mere Christianity C. […]
We like books at CVM. We all like to read, and read widely across books, blogs, magazines etc. … There are always books floating around on coffee tables and desks here at the office and emails bounce back and forth with recommendations and suggestions. We also toss around ideas of books to write, and if […]
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