There’s a great new resource come out from the Good Book Company, a four-week evangelistic course on a DVD, featuring Pete Woodcock and Lizzie Smallwood. It’s based around 4 stories that Jesus tells in Luke’s Gospel – The Rich Fool, The Two Lost Sons, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector… Each episode is based around 3 5-minute teaching clips and one testimony. Here’s 5 reasons why I think it’s great:

1. 4 Weeks seems like a good length for a short course… some people might be put off by a 10 week course
2. You don’t need a really good speaker… they’re there on the DVD
3. You can choose to have a bloke or a lady speaking, depending on your context
4. It’s really simple, short and down to earth
5. Each episode finishes with a helpful testimony

Here’s what a lady involved in a Mums and Toddlers group at my church thought:

I thought it was really good for anybody that it would be totally new to the idea of reading or doing a study/course. Very accessible and the testimonies were brilliant. The stories were well chosen to build up the picture of Jesus. I think it would provide an excellent step on from ‘Tiddlywinks’ and youth groups for people who are interested in finding out more about Jesus but Christianity Explained may bo too soon/too much. The people doing were generally very good, but sometimes a little cheesy! But certainly better than many I have seen on DVD format. Still think first hand person is probably best way to hear things, but think its generally a good resource.

You can buy the starter pack for just £16 – including DVD and 3 study guides

You may well be in the middle of exams, you may have finished, either way I need to let you know about a great little resource from the Good Book Company called ‘Don’t Panic!‘. DP is written by Martin Cole and Andrew Roycroft and is essentially a 4-week Bible study guide to help you through exams.

The main ‘feature’ of the booklet is 4 weeks of very short Bible study / devotional times, with the aim of helping us to focus and trust in Christ at difficult times. The studies are simple and help to get our priorities sorted. We start in Nehemiah, go to the Gospels, Psalms, 1 Peter, Colossians and a few other passages here and there. They’re not deep studies going through whole books or chapters, but simple thoughts to get us to put God at the centre when there’s plenty of stressful things competing for our attention.

Each week also includes both a revision timetable and prayer diary to fill in. The booklet is very easy to keep with you during your revision and easy to turn to at any time. There’s also 3 Su Doku, and some word puzzles, the latter were too difficult for me, but it makes for a better revision break than Facebook! There’s also some short articles about how to revise and how to cope with the stress that exams bring, and an interview with a real student, particularly helpful because it’s so honest and down to earth!

Criticisms – I think the cover looks silly, and it would be nice to have the Bible passages printed in the booklet so you can be out revising and not have to carry a big Bible as well. But these are minor things, basically this is a great idea, not one that’s been done before to my knowledge, and it’s been done really well – clear, simple, biblical and God-focused. If you’re a student get it! If you’re a parent, get it for your kids! If you’re a teacher buy it for Christian students you know! If you’re a youth leader, get copies for everyone in your youth group! If you’re involved in running a CU, why not invest in a few copies for your members?

It’s a real bargain at £2.50, and the usual discounts are available if you’re buying in bulk for a group or if you have a UCCF Student Card. I’m hoping there’ll be a new edition out for next year, with new studies perhaps, new puzzles, new articles? News coming soon about some new Bible reading notes from the Good Book Company…

So chapter 1 of Reason for God, following the introduction, Keller addresses the issue that he says he hears frequently in his ministry, he sums it up with the word ‘exclusivity’. That is people taking issue with religions that make truth claims and then who try to persuade others of those claims and who refute the truth claims of other religions. The argument put against religions making truth claims is to say, firstly that all religions are basically the same – equally true (or equally false), and also to say that the divisiveness between these exclusive claims is what causes so much of the war and violence in the world.

Keller talks through the 3 main responses to the problem of religion: to outlaw religion, to condemn religion, or to keep religion private. He then goes on to explain why these responses don’t work, and are inconsistent.

Outlaw Religion – take the 20th Century, the regimes that claim religions cause war and violence have suppressed those beliefs with more brutal violence. The belief that as we advance technologically we would evolve out of religious beliefs has been proved untrue. Those countries that have tried to outlaw Christianity have failed, China being the obvious example.

Condemn Religion - that is by argument and education to make religious belief socially unacceptable. There are several objections raised in this section, “All religions are essentially the same“, “Each religion only sees part of the truth“, “Religious beliefs are culturally and historically conditioned“, and that “Religious beliefs are arrogant“. Keller in essence argues that all these criticisms find their root in unprovable, exclusive claims, and in making the objections reveal their own arrogance, and therefore hypocrisy.

Keep Religion Private - I guess this is a big thing at the moment with all the news about voting on embryo research… Keller argues that we all have religious beliefs (a set of beliefs formed to answer life’s big questions), and that whether we’d call ourselves religious or secular these ‘religious beliefs’ affect all areas of our life – the secularist still makes decisions based on religious beliefs.

There are a number of things I like about Keller’s approach here… firstly he doesn’t assume too much, he’s not specifically talking about Christianity or referencing the Bible, he’s dealing with more basic issues, yet at a level which is intellectually and philosophically robust. Secondly he’s well researched, quoting both secular and Christian academics, using the secular philosophers writings to prove his points – clever! Thirdly, he’s gracious, he exposes the folly and hypocrisy of some arguments, but does not then become proud in his writing, but urges engagement with the big questions. Finally, he’s honest, he doesn’t try and get out of the facts, mainly that religions are divisive and do cause problems!

Keller concludes with a well worked in (not just crowbarred in) explanation of the Gospel of Grace, of Jesus Christ the sacrifice for sinful humans, and the example of unity and peace in truth.

You can listen to the talk on Exclusivity from Redeemer.

Remember I said about Tim Keller doing a talk at a Google Authors event… well here’s the video from that…

The good people at the Good Book Company sent me a copy of this little new book produced by the Christianity Explored guys. It’s designed to be an accompaniment to the course but can stand alone. Until now I’d only skimmed through it, we ordered 25 copies for the events week at Sussex – 5 lunchbars, 5 people each day interested enough to read a book, seemed reasonable… they were all gone by the Wednesday, I think because they look interesting and contemporary, and they cover a broad range of questions.

The book goes through 13 common questions, that seekers, and for that matter Christians will ask about the Christian faith. It’s a small book, about 100 pages, so there’s not a huge amount of detail to the answers – the authors have suggested further reading of a more technical nature.

First thing I guess to say is that this book is not a ‘Reason for God’, ‘Mere Christianity’ kindof book, it doesn’t deal with the big philosophical questions about God, nor does it deal with the complex Science and Evolution questions, and the questions it does deal with, well it only has 10 pages for each, but to go deeper there is the further reading list already mentioned. I suppose also it’s not really apologetics in the ‘be-thinking’ style, although the style of the questions might give that impression. The methodology of the book is more like simply pointing people to the Scriptures and using stories and illustrations to explain the words of Jesus – a good approach!

So who is the book for? Well, it’s aimed at anyone who’s already interested in thinking about God, someone who has genuine questions (so it’s the perfect accompaniment to a Christianity Explored course), and the questions it deals with are more of the moral and spiritual questions about God. I guess it’s fair to say that just in the style of writing and illustrations used that it’s aimed at a younger generation, well under 40, not that young then!

Here are the 13 questions:

1. If you’re really there, God, why on earth don’t you prove it?
2. Isn’t the Bible just a bunch of made up stories?
3. All good people go to heaven, right?
4. If you’re a God of love, why send anyone to Hell?
5. If Jesus really was your Son, how come He got killed?
6. If I can be forgiven everything, doesn’t that mean I can do whatever I like?
7. How can anyone be sure there’s life after death?
8. What about followers of other religions?
9. Isn’t faith just a psychological crutch?
10. Why do you allow suffering?
11. Why do you hate sex?
12. Why don’t you just do a miracle?
13. So, God, if You could ask me one question, what would it be?

I very much enjoyed the laid back style of the book, there’s lots of good, contemporary illustrations that are both funny and personal which I think helps the reader to warm to the book and to what the author has to say. It’s also very Biblical, which I guess may not be great if that’s the reader’s big obstacle to faith, but it’s good that the question about the reliability of the Bible is addressed at the start, and of course I thoroughly believe in Biblical Evangelism – after all the book is about asking God questions, so God’s word must be where we look for the answers!

One part I particularly enjoyed was from question 3, author Paul Williams recounts his time working at the Bedfordshire Times, a newspaper I have read on at least one occasion. He explains the time when he got an opportunity to sit at the bosses desk… great little story, amusing, and a great illustration of Sin, our dethronement of God. It’s also good that the book ends by directly addressing the reader, what would God ask us? We are taken to the parable of the rich farmer… what good is it if we gain the world, but forfeit our soul?!

You can get this book from the Good Book Company for the bargain price of £5, yep you worked it out, that’s £3.75 if you are the proud owner of a UCCF Student Card! Consider getting some copies especially if you’re running lunchbar talks or hosting a Christianity Explored course.

Unexpectedly, Father bought a copy of Keller’s book, came in the post today. So had a read of the introduction. Keller sets out to explain the situation we are at in our culture (a distrust between sceptics and believers) and why we should all honestly and carefully approach the big questions in life. Here’s some initial points…

• Relate to the American context… there’s a lot of talk about the social, political, religious issues in the USA. The UK is very different, but I think we can see our own issues of how the church relates to the culture, and how faith and society can engage.
• Believers and Sceptics need to move beyond the point of denouncing each other to the point of being able to disagree.
• Believers need to be honest about and wrestle with their doubts – “a person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if they have failed over the years to listen patiently to their own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection”
• Atheism is not believed by a consensus of society and is not empirically provable, therefore it takes just as much faith, and has just as many doubts as any other belief.
• Keller concludes the introduction with 3 stories about New Yorkers who came to faith having struggled with suffering, self-image, and the intellectual credibility of Christianity.

Keller seems intellectually robust, philosophically aware, and yet humble, personal and honest. Looks like it’ll be a good read if I get round to it! Having read Mere Christianity the other month, it does seem like the ‘modern’ version, with Keller writing to the next generation than Lewis was.

Here’s a video of Tim Keller on his book tour, giving a talk at a university. I didn’t really listen to the talk (I’d already listened to the individual ones on the Reason for God website) but was more interested in the Q&A afterwards, he’s very gracious in his answers and is clearly very well read – I’d have liked him to come and do a lunchbar at Sussex.