Introducing Primer

If you’ve not come across the Primer resources before, they’re brilliant! For a fuller introduction, check out my interview with founder and editor, David Shaw. The rich combination of pastoral articles, interviews, theological studies and some guided reading from church history – but all focused on one particular issue or doctrine in each edition – means you get a ‘deep dive’ and a brilliant catalyst for help your church leadership reflect together on putting theology into practice.

As Shaw has said, “we want you to turn off the devices, put on the kettle, draw others round, and see the difference theology makes to the life of the church. It’s designed to be enjoyed, scribbled over and wrestled with.” Aesthetically, Primer’s also an absolute delight to engage with, thanks to the creative talents of Jonathan Bennett. There’s space to make notes, questions to aid discussion, and just having it on paper means our digitally-trained brains are forced to slow down and process.

Show & Tell

Doing a bit of teaching on apologetics this year with CCL, I was thrilled when I discovered that the latest Primer is on that very theme: ‘Show & Tell: The Meaning & Role of Apologetics‘. For a topic that can often be akin to marmite amongst Bible-believing evangelicals (to caricature: “Don’t bother with apologetics, just teach the Bible…” or “We’re not meant to argue people into the kingdom”), this is a really helpful digest of careful theology and praxis.

Dan Strange (Oak Hill College) has spent years teaching and writing on apologetics and its interface with cultural exegesis, a theology of religions and public theology (indeed his forthcoming book, Plugged In, is much-anticipated). He provides the opening essay and tackles the idea that apologetics is something of a ‘dark art’. It’s a helpful introduction to the different models of apologetics, highlighting the theological differences ‘under the bonnet’ in such approaches. Strange is particularly making the case that a ‘presuppositional’ approach best reflects the Bible’s account of humanity. In essence, humans are not neutral beings who can impartially evaluate evidence, and so rather than simply present ‘proofs’ of Christianity, we instead need to operate at the level of presuppositions. This means confronting people at the level of their underlying convictions, because it’s through these convictions that each of us views the world. And so we highlight both the ‘unworkability’ of a non-Christian perspective and we appeal to the truth, beauty and goodness of the Christian worldview, which in some fragmented way they are already likely to recognise in part.

Along the way Strange engages with some of his critics, both acknowledging that sometimes presuppositionalists haven’t necessarily presented the method in the most compelling light, and noting the impact of the likes of Tim Keller and Ted Turnau in ensuring we’re engaging at the level of the heart and the imagination, as well as dealing in the economy of hope. Given that the general knee-jerk view of apologetics is simply ‘answering the world’s hard questions’, it is quite a paradigm shift to hear that, actually, when done well, apologetics is more akin to ‘asking hard questions of the world’. As Joel Garver has put it,

“the goal of apologetics, then, is not to win an argument, but to commend the Saviour as the one in whom human life, personal relationships, and knowledge can find rest.”

Exposing Soup Posing As Steak

With that essay providing much to chew over, Matt Peckham does church leaders a great service by digesting and commenting on four recent books on apologetics and cultural engagement, including the hugely engaging Popologetics by the aforementioned Turnau and a recent offering from William Edgar. Peckham then makes some sharp observations, decorated with some especially neat little phrases: an unbeliever trying to operate without any Christian presuppositions is like “a fork in a world of soup”; the gospel is “panoramic good news” that speaks to all of life; and in exposing and speaking into one’s affections and hopes, we are communicating on their “heart frequency”. One of the points Peckham establishes is the inevitability of cultural engagement, because all life and culture is ultimately a response to God. This is important not just for how and what we communicate to the world, but also for considering that we’re influenced by the world in more ways than we might expect.

For Primer’s historical section, William Edgar (Westminster Theological Seminary) provides a guided reading of a portion of Blaise Pascal’s (1623-1662) Pensées, which, speaking for myself, I had little appreciation of beyond a few soundbites and a second or third-hand understanding of his infamous ‘Wager’ argument. As Edgar shows, Pascal has much to say to a culture that often exerts that human reason is all sufficient. I think these guided readings are one of Primer’s real strengths, giving one confidence in turning to ‘old texts’. Edgar’s commentary exemplifies this; in particular he does a brilliant job of showing how Pascal’s ‘Wager’ is much less “a cold business calculation,” as it is “an impassioned plea for a soulful decision”.

More Than Just An Occasional Topical Talk

Next up is Jonathan Leeman (Editorial Director, 9Marks) on the place of the church community in apologetics. This is a challenging article and an urgent call to not over-look the gospel being “church-shaped”. His powerful image of the church as a ‘time machine from the future’ (hence Jonathan Bennett’s fabulous artwork below) that displays what Jesus’ rule looks like. For those familiar with 9Marks this won’t necessarily be a surprise, but his practical and far-reaching considerations as to the church’s relationship (corporately and individually) with the culture around it give much to think through. This article has also been released as a free downloadable taster to whet your appetite for Primer.

Gavin McGrath takes us back to a broader reflection on the purpose of Scripture. Rather than imagining a clear division between ‘normal preaching’ and ‘apologetic preaching’, if we’ve understood that the Bible is a hugely subversive piece of communication then this should lead to preaching that he describes as ‘thick apologetics’:

In many ways this is representative of the the wide-angle view of apologetics that this edition of Primer seeks to establish. It reminded me of a long-form piece by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra from the back end of last year. As one of the people she spoke to, Collin Hansen, put it,

The final section of Primer embodies this approach in real ministry situations. A collection of church leaders from areas of varying demography are interviewed about the major apologetic challenges that they encounter, and explain how as a church they’ve sought to address these issues in evangelism and discipleship. I always found it hugely stimulating to hear others talk through their ministry practice, unpacking the thinking and cultural observation that has gone on ‘under the bonnet’ to shape this. Two further interviews are freely available on the Primer HQ site as an Appendix for download.

The Ministry Team’s Friend

I sense that most of are aware of how different the general culture of the UK feels compared to even, say, 5 years ago. And many of us instinctively feel that these changes should be shaping our ministries in some way. Yet we also want to be faithful heralds of the gospel and not simply pander to the needs, desires and idols of our culture. We know the gospel doesn’t change, and so we feel we face a supposed quandary.

This is where this edition of Primer is the Ministry Team’s Friend. This is a taster of a wide-angle view of apologetics, showing it to be inseparable from gospel proclamation, inseparable from faithful reading of the Scriptures, inseparable from understanding humanity and the culture around us. And so if you’re currently wary of apologetics because it seems too academic, too compromised, or too artificial, then Primer: Show & Tell will be a re-assuring and challenging read. Re-asssuring because the various authors are suggesting apologetics need not be any of those things. But challenging because it then invites us to re-think our ministries and to engage as the authors would suggest. Thankfully the applied format, complete with discussion questions for each piece, make it the perfect tool to begin that conversation.

Pick up a copy of Primer for you and your leadership team here.

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this resource from the editor, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.

According to author, evangelist and medical doctor, Sam Chan, we face a crisis in the Western church. It is the crisis of seemingly deaf ears: people are increasingly apathetic or hostile to the Christian faith. We present our best arguments, yet people often appear disengaged. No one seems to care anymore whether or not there’s a ‘case for Christ’. As Don Carson puts it in the foreword to this book,

“Christians who share their faith, and the people with whom they are sharing, live in different worlds… even brief conversations about religion feel a bit like two ships slipping past each other in the night, neither quite comprehending that the other is there.”

And whilst we always need to rely on the Spirit of God to regenerate hearts, how do we respond when the ways we’ve historically presented the gospel don’t seem to quite connect as they once did?

Textbook Evangelism

It is into this apparent predicament that Chan has written Evangelism in a Sceptical World. Scooping up Christianity Today‘s 2018 Book of the Year award in the category of Apologetics/Evangelism, it has the feel of an evangelism textbook – part theory, part method – to help the Church take some forward steps in our thinking and practice on communicating the gospel in our changing context.

But for many of us, Chan’s premise involves facing uncomfortable questions. By conviction we want to be faithful to the gospel entrusted to us – and so we are wary of changing the message in order to soothe the itching ears of the world. Yet Chan argues this can sometimes stop us doing the necessary work of evaluating our methods of communication – and more than that, evaluating the way we’re framing the gospel itself. As he says,

If we don’t use the language, idioms and metaphors of a person’s culture, then our message will be meaningless. But if we do use the language, idioms and metaphors of the person’s culture, we may be understood, but we also risk syncretism with their culture. I believe this is a risk work taking.

Naturally some will be more hesitant about Chan’s posture than others. But he argues that to avoid these questions by all too quickly defaulting to an approach of ‘just give them the gospel’ is a failure to recognise and own the communicative and theological decisions we’re already making. As he says, evangelism is “an event where the gospel is communicated,” but “there is no single method of communicating the gospel”.

Resonate, Dismantle, Complete

In many ways, Chan is arguing that we can communicate more effectively by working harder to show how the gospel existentially resonates with our listeners. As an Australian Asian who was born in Hong Kong, studied in the US, and now lives and ministers in Australia, Chan adeptly analyses the ‘storylines’ of these cultures and demonstrates how these shape how he might present the gospel. He uses the language of ‘points of entry’, arguing that in God’s common grace, people have God-given, legitimate, existential cries: “let’s hear these cries. Let’s understand the storyline and show that we empathise with it. Then let’s show them how Jesus is who have been looking for.” That’s not to say that we change the gospel, nor its necessary response of repentance and faith, but rather that we need to think through how this gospel connects with our listeners.

For example, he charts out how “the Bible gives us different ways of explaining sin to different audiences and different people.” Therefore we can “cautiously appropriate the language of brokenness for our evangelism”. This isn’t all we say, but it might be where we begin. He encourages us to evangelise in a way that resonates with our listener’s story, before dismantling the false hopes, and then presenting Christ as the story’s fulfilment. This is what Chan does regularly in his popular blog, Espresso Theology, taking you to the gospel through the lens of a cultural item in 30 seconds. Readers will recognise his approach as very similar to that of Tim Keller or Dan Strange’s model of ‘subversive fulfilment’ (though I wonder if someone like Strange has a clearer emphasis on the confrontation of the gospel).

You Gospel The Way You Were Gospelled

One of Chan’s observations is that we largely evangelise the way that we were evangelised. We get used to one style or one outline and confuse these with the gospel itself, unconsciously privileging one approach over others. Chan’s background is Sydney evangelicalism, and so he takes time to analyse a number of popular gospel outlines, including Two Ways to Live and Bridge to Life. Some of the critique is a helpful reminder that every outline will inevitably miss things out, and therefore we’d do well to consider how these absences may lead to ‘imbalance’ or just how they may be perceived – particularly as culture changes.

Evangelicals have always highly valued the notion of propositional truth. The question we face is how we communicate such truth in a culture that appears to prize feeling over fact. One approach Chan commends is to use the lens of story. Chan is not the first to point this out – and he acknowledges that he is largely borrowing from the work of cross-cultural missiologists. It’s also something that was picked up in 2017’s Evangelism Conference: A Better Story, and the popular Life Explored resource.

Those familiar with Keller will recognise Chan’s focus on plausibility structures (the “accepted beliefs, convictions, and understandings that either green-light truth-claims as plausible or red-light them as implausible”) and the way in which these are subconsciously shaped by community, experience and evidence. Being aware of these will help us ‘know the ocean’ that we and our audiences swims in. This ‘contextualisation conversation’ has been played out in the context of British evangelicalism elsewhere. Chan also weaves in an interesting and perceptive emphasis on hospitality and community, not dissimilar to Ed Shaw’s book, The Plausibility Problem. None of this is a framed as a ‘silver bullet’ – just as ‘just preaching the word’ can’t be seen as magic either. Instead, we’re to be dependent on the Spirit of God working through the gospel, but proactive in how we articulate and apply that gospel.

The Place of Speech-Act Theory

Part of Chan’s argument is based on his PhD thesis on speech-act theory (published here), where he argues that ‘word of God’ in the New Testament can be legitimately read to mean the apostolic gospel message, rather than the canon of Scripture as it had then been received. Without having read Chan’s earlier work, the likes of 2 Thessalonians 2:13 would support his argument – and he’s certainly not the first to make this point (see Bullinger in the Second Helvetic Confession). The significance of this point for Evangelism in a Sceptical World is that Chan argues that to ‘preach the gospel’ is something we can therefore do “in expository or topical form,” as the word of God [i.e. the gospel] is still being proclaimed. The ‘speech act’ is therefore located in the preaching of thegospel: “Topical preaching, as well as expository preaching, can both perform the speech act of the gospel. If the locution is the gospel message, and it is accompanied by the apposite illocutionary force, then Christ crucified has been preached.” There will be consequences to locating the desired speech act in something determined by the evangelist, rather than in the authorial intent of Scripture (however one understands that!), but hopefully our gospel ‘illocution’ (i.e. the desired or directed response) is still in some way determined by a set of illocutions given by God in Scripture.

Food for Thought

Like most books, there will be quibbles to push back on. There are evidently vexations residing within reformed evangelicalism that Chan feels work against effective evangelism. To my ears, sometimes these felt over-egged, but then again I’m inhabiting a different context to the author. Take for example his critique of the ‘traditional expository Bible talk’, which he describes as “a product of Western, logical, linear, Enlightenment and inductive communication”. As one pastor-theologian pointed out to me, what one understands as ‘traditional’ here will inevitably vary. I would argue that the principle of exposition as ‘saying what’s in the Bible’ is something that is of inestimable and timeless value to the church, and yet inevitably our different subcultures of evangelical Christianity will sculpt out their own versions of what this ‘traditionally’ ends up looking like. It’s some of the latter that I think Chan has a problem with – and so to be challenged as to whether our ‘normal practice’ is actually ‘best practice’ for our cultural milieu is fair critique.

A Comprehensive Companion for Mission

This is a rich and stimulating tome, and its textbook format makes it a handy and comprehensive tool. I put it straight on the reading list of a Mission & Apologetics module I’ve been involved in. Some of the later chapters are particularly practical, including those on talk preparation and story-telling – and Chan even includes a useful list of questions to ask a bride and groom to give an evangelistic wedding sermon.

The critique the book is likely to get is that Chan steers too close to making the gospel palatable, not simply understandable. I’m not convinced he is guilty of this, but then again we do want people to see Christ as glorious and attractive. Our reformed evangelical inclination probably is to under-adapt, and just ‘stick to the gospel’. As Don Carson says, “the gospel is still the power of God that brings salvation, and Sam helps us recover that confidence.” I remember hearing UCCF’s Richard Cunningham say that good apologetics will make the offence of the cross more obvious, not less, and I think Chan gets this right. Whilst holding to reformed evangelical convictions, Evangelism in a Sceptical World invites us to engage with questions we might not otherwise face up to. And ultimately Chan does so for the sake of the lost, for which he should be commended.

Pick up Evangelism in a Sceptical World here. Zondervan have also created an accompanying video series featuring Chan.

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You can watch Chan get interviewed by Aussie pastor Dominic Steele here. Just as Chan isn’t afraid to raise big questions, Steele isn’t afraid to question some of Chan’s ideas. The two discuss whether or not the book’s approach ’empties the cross of its power’, and whether an over-emphasis on engaging with shame could undermine the biblical notion of guilt and atonement. I was encouraged by the conversation.

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but I hope this is still a fair review.

Poached Egg and Smashed Expectations?

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if you’re as big an avocado fan as I am (and since before they were cool, I might add), it’s hard not to feel drawn to Is This It?

Written by Rachel Jones, it’s described as “a personal journey through the challenges of adulting, revealing the difference Jesus makes.” And as well as a corker cover, the book is also an early contender for best subtitle of 2019 with “The Difference Jesus Makes to that ‘Where-is-my-life-going-I-hate-my-job-I-have-no-real-friends-Is-God-even-here-Will-I-end-up-alone-I-wish-I-was-back-at-school-Will- this-ever-feel-like-home-Am-I-failing-at-life’ Feeling”.

Did you get that?

“Nothing was really wrong, but none of it felt quite right.”

Pitched at those navigating their twenties and thirties, Is This It? picks up on the notion of the Quarter Life Crisis (QLC), “the dawning realization that you’ve reached the age by which you assumed you would have it all figured out, only to find that you don’t”. To an older reader all this talk of millennials having a supposed “crisis” may seem like an overreaction. But as Rachel says, “We might be. But don’t dismiss the phenomenon out of hand. At least, it tells you some helpful things about what the 20-somethings in your church are feeling, what discipleship challenges they’re facing, and how the church can help.”

Adulting Accompanied

In truth, Is This It? isn’t really one book. It’s more like a rich treasure-trove of twelve mini-books, with Rachel boldly taking on a dozen of the most pressing realities of life as a twenty-to-thirty-something living at the back end of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Sharing her own struggles and conversations with friends, she applies biblical truth to each one in turn.

There’s the issues you’d perhaps expect: dissatisfaction (“Has everyone else got it better than me?”), self-doubt (“What if I fail in front of everybody?”) and singleness (“Why is everyone else getting married?”), but she also astutely covers areas I’ve seen very little written on from a Christian perspective: decision paralysis (“What should I do with my life?”), loneliness (“Who are my friends anymore?”), and even nostalgia & regret (“Remember that time when…?”).

This means that the book covers a considerable variety of situations and feelings, and is thus jammed pack with gospel insight. In fact, once you begin to read through a few different chapters, you realise this is a cumulative feast of practical theology. I found the chapters on doubt, rootlessness and marriage particularly useful. Unashamed in bringing the Bible to bear on these issues – and unafraid to look below the surface of our hearts, Is This It? is both empathetic and unshrinking in the way it calls the reader to immerse themselves in the radical gospel of Jesus Christ.

Buzzfeed, Bridget and Bible?

Without meaning to be derogatory, the punchy and chatty chapters of Is This It? give it something of the feel of a series of Buzzfeed articles (not least because of its opening ’31 Reasons You Might Need This Book’ quiz). Rachel is witty and honest, often in a self-deprecating way, delightfully sprinkling her inner thoughts and anecdotes kind of like a millennial Bridget Jones (again, a compliment!). Combine this with bucketloads of gospel wisdom and an evidently perceptive pastoral heart, and you have a fairly unique Christian book that is eminently readable.

Oozing authenticity, warmth and insight, if you’re looking for something to accompany you in the millennial complexities of your third and fourth decades – or to recommend to someone who is – then, this is it.

Pick up a copy of Is This It? from the publisher here.

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this resource from the publisher, but I hope this is still a free and fair review.