Introducing A Better Hero

A Better Hero is a pocket-sized evangelistic booklet which runs through four short passages from Mark’s gospel.  Each double-page contains a short passage and three simple questions for that passage, as well a ‘food for thought’ question which tees up the next section. There’s no commentary or explanatory text – instead the simple format allows the passages to speak for themselves and in doing so showcase the ‘Better Hero’, Jesus Christ.

Tom Heasman, one of the team at Dundonald Church in London who have created the booklet as part of their Something Better initiative, explains why they believe A Better Hero is filling a gap:

“1. The layout and structure of these booklets is different, in that there’s a  lot less content. ‘A Better Hero’ is deliberately designed to be as straightforward as possible – with just three questions per study, on a 2-page spread.

2. The aim is that these ‘mini-studies’ are a primer to a conversation on the Bible. When we launched these in December 2017, the line I kept repeating is that this booklet is designed to help start the conversation. They don’t provide all the answers, but they’re a launch-pad for a simple, straightforward conversation about the Bible.

3. They’re designed to not require any training in advance. You don’t need to have a ‘Leaders Handbook’ to guide you through it. It does what it says on the tin. You can just open it up with your friend, read the passage, and then ask each other the questions. For some people, the conversation might be over in 5 minutes; for others, it might be an hour. But conversations will be happening!

4. The design of the booklet is such that it can be done anywhere. You can have a couple in your back pocket. You can fit a bunch of them in your bag. And so you can read ‘Hero’ with someone wherever suits you – down the pub, in a cafe, at home, on the train, at work. And because it’s small, it’s cheap to print – you could order 500 and stick them at the back of church for members to grab whenever they want to start the conversation with a friend.”

Searching for a Hero

The ‘Better Hero’ title and hook frames Jesus as the fulfilment of our hopes. As the booklet’s opening text puts it:

I think this is really helpful. It captures the imagination with the biblical Jesus, showing that he is someone who can actually make a difference – the difference we long for, even if it’s not quite what we necessarily expect. Each of the four passages are then set out in relation to the hero theme: The Hero’s Identity (Mark 2:1-12); Our Problem (Mark 7:14-23); The Hero’s Mission (Mark 10:45 & Mark 15); Following the Hero (Mark 8:34-38). And so the reader is guided simply through an understanding of Jesus as God himself, come to rescue us from the problem of our sinful hearts.

Mark In A Nutshell

For those familiar with Christianity Explored’s seven sessions in Mark’s gospel, the four passages chosen will be familiar selections. Of course, one of the strengths of Christianity Explored is that, by working through one gospel, there is an emphasis on ‘letting the gospel tell the gospel’. What A Better Hero does is take that idea but boils it down to even fewer chunks. One of the benefits of A Better Hero is that it just has four parts. Compared to CE or the Uncover Mark’s gospels, this will have the attraction of seeming more manageable – especially if it seems someone is not ready for a longer-length resource. As Heasman says, we’re praying that “as people are brought to see the person of Jesus in the pages of Mark’s Gospel, they might come to see and believe that he is the Saviour of the world.”

I went back and forth on wanting to see the whole text of Mark’s gospel in the booklet. A Better Hero’s strength is its simplicity – both in terms of just four passages and just three questions for each passage. But at points I felt like somehow including all of of Mark’s gospel in the booklet would be an advantage, as people could be encouraged to read the rest of the gospel in between meeting up. But I realise this would make it a much fuller booklet, and there might be additional copyright complications for using the whole Bible text.

Heroically Designed

Produced in partnership with ninefootone creative, A Better Hero is beautifully set out, with an eye-grabbing minimalist red and white colour scheme and crisp fonts. In other words, it’s visually impressive and so giving it away or reading it publicly is more of a pleasure.

You can view an electronic copy of A Better Hero here.

Ninefootone are willing to let churches order their own customised copies of ‘A Better Hero’ with church logo, meeting times, and contact info for £0.72 per copy, plus £30 set-up costs. Costs per copy decrease the more you order. You can do that here.

Rico Tice, founder of Christianity Explored, has said that the future of evangelism in the UK is about every Christian being a Bible sharer. We’re not all called to be Bible teachers, but we can all be Bible sharers. At a time when fewer people are committing to evangelistic courses – and more legwork needs to happen before those few do commit to a course – we need to be ready to share the Bible with people informally in the context of a relationship. That can seem like a gear shift for lots of us. It’s out of our comfort-zone! But resources like A Better Hero are tools to make that more straight-forward.

Although we’re in a different context to Dundonald, it’s proved a useful tool to even just get us imagining sharing the gospel with others. At GCB we tied this into a four-week teaching series where we unpacked each of the selected passages from Mark to help give us confidence in then opening up those passages with a friend. We opened the series with a introductory talk using some of the Talking Jesus research and a call to be ‘praying for 5’. Going through each passage on a Sunday also allowed us to flag up points of cultural engagement and engage with questions about the passages. It’s been super-encouraging to then hear of people giving it away or reading it with friends or family members. Why not give it a go?

Are We Nearly There Yet?

Written by Alison Brewis & illustrated by Jenny Brake

It’s the classic journey-with-kids line: “Are we nearly there yet?” And so first-time author Alison Brewis is onto a winner by using this phrase to open up the Easter story:

A family is heading in the car to lunch at Granny’s, but the kids are getting restless in the back: “Are we nearly there yet?” In response the mother recounts how Jesus’ followers asked a similar question, as they too waited and wondered when Jesus would finally be seen to be King:

‘Are we nearly there yet? When will you be king?

Show them you’re the boss, in charge of everything!’

This repeated phrasing and simple rhyming style take us through the events of Palm Sunday, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion and Resurrection Morning and help young kids see the significance of why Jesus needed to die and rise again. As the disciples say after meeting the risen Jesus:

‘Are we nearly there yet? Well, now we understand.

Dying to forgive us was exactly what you planned.

We though we’d cry forever, but it was worth the wait.

Now Jesus is the real king, it’s time to celebrate!’

Jenny Brake’s fun characters and bright scenes give the book a modern feel, which will be familiar if you’ve seen her other illustrative work with 10ofthose’s ‘Every Child Should Know’ kids’ range. Brewis also provides a couple of pages of imaginative suggestions at the end for how you might discuss and play around some of the themes and ideas covered in the book.

And with a fairly small square-page and only 21 pages of story, Are We Nearly There Yet? is a brilliant format to give-away at this time of year. Whether it’s the lower years of primary school and early readers, or something for parents to read their kids at a toddler group, this is an evangelistic easy-win. In fact 10ofthose have a special deal for churches or organisations who will give the resource away freely: buy 50 and you get them at just £1 a copy.

By the way, look out for an accompanying Christmas journey from Brewis available later in the year.

Pick up a copy from 10ofthose here.

Goodbye to Goodbyes: A True Story about Jesus, Lazarus, and an Empty Tomb

Written by Lauren Chandler & illustrated by Catalina Echeverri

In hardback format and coming in at 32-pages, it’s no surprise that Goodbye to Goodbyes retails at double the price of Are We Nearly There Yet? and has more of a bookish feel to it. The award-winning Tales that Tell the Truth series has a strong portfolio, and Catalina Echeverri’s beautiful and intricate illustrations give them all a distinct and delightful look. This book is no exception: gorgeous colours and lettering help make Goodbye to Goodbyes a real treat to read.

And it’s not just a pretty aesthetic. Author Lauren Chandler takes on the account of Lazarus’ death and Jesus subsequently bringing him back to life, and powerfully shows how Jesus came so that we might be able to say ‘goodbye to goodbyes – forever’. Jesus’ compassion and his power over death are both wonderfully captured in the combination of prose and image. I was particularly struck by Chandler’s account of Jesus weeping, as well as how she describes him calling to Lazarus:

“Then he yelled, like a lion’s mighty roar, “Lazarus, come out!”

In the final couple of pages of the story, Chandler brings us to our own lives, acknowledging that “we all have to say goodbye sometimes”. Some of these goodbyes may be short, others may be long, but when someone dies, it feels like a “forever goodbye”. Yet for those who are “friends of Jesus”, there can be a reunion and a time when we say “goodbye to goodbyes”.

These issues are very real for Chandler, after her husband, Matt, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2009. As she says in the afterword, her family are “very acquainted with illness and the possibility of saying goodbye for what may feel like forever”. Thankfully the cancer was treated and Matt received an all-clear later on, but it’s evident from this book that Lauren is experienced at helping young hearts and minds come to terms with the reality of illness or death, as well as the fear and questioning their presence can bring.

Pitched at those in mid-to-late years of primary school, this book is a brilliant model of showing how Jesus’ resurrection power can shape how we approach these topics, topics that are often ‘taboo’ for adults but for which children often have a hungering for answers.

Pick up a copy from The Good Book Company here.

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of both of these resources from their publishers, but I hope these are still honest and fair reviews.

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.