'Facing the Challenge' at Carey Baptist Church in Reading UK
Not a course to help the church 'dumb down' but to communicate the unchanging truth of the gospel.
At the beginning of the year, our church embarked on an eight-week process of discovery. This was a new and interactive course attended by a cross-section of the church, about 200 people from 13 year-olds to 80 year-olds after Sunday lunch.
This course, Facing the Challenge of our times, subtitled, 'A course for churches, Christian Unions and individuals who want to understand today's world and respond to it positively and biblically', is published by Focus Radio in Southampton and has a web site- www.facingthechallenge.org - and we were one of the first churches to try it.
It brought us alarmingly up-to-date with the changes in our society over the last 30 years and helped us to (wait for it) 'engage with the culture'! The starting point is that the Good News does not change, people's needs do not change, but the way people think does. The challenge is to 'find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ' (1 Corinthians 9:22). The eight sessions helped us to enter today's mindset, look for the opportunities, see the big picture, look at the changing church, build bridges and reach out. Now, just in case you are getting anxious reading this, let me reassure you that this is not a course to help the church to 'dumb down', but to communicate the unchanging truth of the gospel. The course is very easy to follow, with plenty of accessible material, scope for discussion and further reading.
How did the church members get on? Here are three comments: 'It showed how isolated the evangelical church is, viewed with suspicion by many who now reject truth as a concept.' 'Good spread of ideas and very stimulating format.' 'I felt a bit helpless when trying to witness. This helped me sort all this out.'
Need more convincing? Well, David Jackman said: 'A first rate course... its range of study methods is brilliantly suited to both personal and group use.' Bob Horn: 'The challenge is to understand our changing times and learn how to present unchanging truth today. This excellent course is clear, concise and usable - ideal for groups.'
Sheila Stephen
Carey Baptist Church, Reading
Reproduced from 'Evangelicals Now', September 2001. Used with permission