“How can you claim there’s only one true religion?’ You may be asked this question as you’re at the photocopier at work or at the bar buying a round. Here’s the second part in the apologetics series that will give you some ideas of how to respond when you only have five minutes.

1. People often liken religions to blind men encountering an elephant. The first blind man feels the stomach of the elephant and concludes it is a wall. The second feels the trunk and concludes it is a snake. The rest conclude it is a spear, tree, fan and rope, depending upon where they touch. The story purports to prove that all religions reflect the truth, but none grasps the whole truth. If people tell this story, ask them: ‘How do you know it’s an elephant?’ In other words, the story assumes the teller is as enlightened, objective observer.

2. People may say: ‘If you were born in Iran, you’d be a Muslim not a Christian.’ But the same goes for the pluralist. ‘If you’d been born in Iran, you wouldn’t be a pluralist.’ In other words, your belief that all religions are equal (or misguided) is as culturally and social conditioned as my belief in Jesus (more so since going to church is now a minority activity in our society).

3. Jesus claimed he was the only way to God (John 14:6). If all religious roads lead to God then Jesus was a liar and Christianity is false. In which case, not all religions lead to God.

4. People sometimes ask if you fully investigated all religions before deciding to follow Christ. Two responses: (1) You don’t need comprehensive knowledge before you can be confident something is true. You don’t read every newspaper and interview multiple eye-witnesses before believing a sports result. (2) I didn’t decide Christianity was the best religion; Jesus laid claim to my life.

5. Ask people to define religion. Jesus is not another religious figure, but the end or opposite of all religion. Religion is about an upwards movement of humanity towards God. Jesus represents of downward movement of God towards humanity.

6. Because Jesus is God’s initiative towards humanity, the message of Jesus is a message of grace. It is not dependant on human achievement, but upon God’s gracious and completed work. So Jesus alone gives assurance of salvation.

This material is adapted from a Porterbrook Learning module.

Iranian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani will remain in prison:

In late September of this year, he was given four chances to recant his faith in court and refused each time. His case then was referred to the ayatollah. The American Center for Law and Justice reported one of his court exchanges.

“Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?” Nadarkhani asked.

“To the religion of your ancestors, Islam,” the judge reportedly replied.

“I cannot,” the pastor responded.

There were some amazing statistics that came out:

• 4% of respondents do not believe that Christianity is the one true faith.
•   2% believe that the Bible is NOT the word of God.
• 3% believe that life evolved via a process with which God was not involved.
• 7% believe that God will grant health and wealth to those who have enough faith.
• 3% believe that it is not essential to follow the teachings of Christ in order to be a good Evangelical Christian.
• 4% say that believing in reincarnation is compatible with being a follower of Christ.
• 5% say that it is okay to believe that Jesus is NOT the only way to salvation.

This surprised me, given we had to be recommended by a national organising group, and then had to fill in a long questionnaire before we were approved to attend.  Why would you want to go if ?

I’ve been to countless seminars and read probably dozens of books on small group ministry.  For the past couple of decades, we have consistently heard that the right small group programs will grow our church, create fully-devoted Christ-followers, ease the burden on pastors, return us to New Testament Christianity, etc., and I’ve said those things myself.

Yet as I have tried to implement them, I’ve found that either it doesn’t work as well as advertised or there must be something wrong with me (which is quite possible!).  Sure, there have been many people helped through small groups, but the small groups have also been accompanied by frustrations.  Balancing fellowship-vs-study/accountability is always difficult; many people just aren’t ready for that level of intimacy and accountability; and it usually isn’t the ideal next-step for newcomers; and how do small groups do mission and grow?  On the other hand, the relationships built there are often very important to people. But now there’s a fresh answer to help make some sense of it all.

Joseph Myers’ The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups is a timely and refreshing look at what community really is.  He explodes some of the myths of belonging that we have often believed.  He helps us see, through research and experience, the four different “spaces” of belonging: public, social, personal, and intimate.  What’s more, he helps us see the value of each space, how relationships are carried on in each space, and how to balance them.  Bottom line, people can feel a substantial level of belonging to a church on many different levels.  Understanding people’s genuine community needs, and working with it and affirming it will get us a lot farther than trying to fit everyone into the “intimacy” mould.

Myers has an inspiring chapter on “Searching for a Front Porch” in which he challenges us to find ways to interact with others in the in-between land of social, neighborly friendships–not “out there” in the public world, but also not “in here” in my private home.  The book is probably worth it just for that chapter.

Not only are the principles in “The Search to Belong” applicable to church leadership, but understanding the four spaces of belonging goes a long way toward understanding our other relationships – in our marriage and family, neighbourhood, work, etc.  Good stuff; worth the read.

Ian Stackhouse The Gospel-Driven Church has some unpalatable medicine to hand out to the evangelical charismatic church.  The book starts with an unpleasant diagnosis: Falling short of its ecclesial calling in Christ, the church is instead going after “relevant” preaching; musician-led and emotionally fuelled worship; numerical growth at all costs, and what he calls “faddism” – the urge to follow the latest trend in the hope of bringing about revival.  Instead of being an alternative to the consumer society, the church is turning into a reflection of it.

To this, the author holds up a mirror of patristic orthodoxy: an incarnational theology as opposed to an ecstatic spirituality, and a sacramental and ecclesial experience of Christ as opposed to immediate individual encounter.  And so we come to his prescription: a return to liturgy, to the eucharist and baptism, to the daily office, and the “lost art of the cure of souls”.

Stackhouse quotes from Irenaeus, modern Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox theologians and popular theological writers. And he takes aim without deference, and his weapons hit home even when levelled at the Holy Cows of the evangelical/charismatic pantheon such as Alpha and the March for Jesus.

The line of his argument can wander at times, and you feel he is sometimes weighed down by the sheer quantity of his material. Nevertheless, with careful observation, deep thought and a rare detachment, he produces a series of lucid, pithy insights, set out within a firm theological framework. It is this that may deter people from reading the book; it comes across at times as being academic and bookish. This is a pity, as the style might alienate the very readers Mr Stackhouse would most like to persuade.

Don’t think, though, that the book is a polemic; the author is far too generous for that. He is careful to point out the many strengths of the revivalist tradition, and the ways it has benefitted the church. Indeed, he seeks to find a way of mixing the best of revivalism – the liveliness of the worship, faith in the work of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit – into his patristic prescription.

I am not fully convinced by Stackhouse’s conclusions but the book carries a vital message and a timely challenge for anyone seriously thinking and praying about the future of the evangelical church.

Developing Your Prophetic Gifting by Graham Cooke is the best, most balanced guide to prophecy and the development of the gift in individuals and the local church I have read to date.  It’s hard to single out any one aspect but I especially appreciated discussions around the prophet working with the pastor and teacher, the evangelist and apostle to build up the body and bring glory to Christ.

The book provides ample encouragement and guidance for individuals seeking to develop their gifting, and an extremely practical set of guidelines and suggestions for churches wishing to create an environment for God’s voice to be heard in this way.  Conversely, much damage has been done by misuse or mishandling of prophecy; Cooke sounds a warning (in love) for those situations where ‘prophetic’ ministries are being exercised in an unaccountable and uncontrolled manner.  We should not treat prophecies with contempt, but we should also test everything (1 Thess 5:20-21)

One very minor point is that it’s written with a US target audience in mind, and as a result some of the narrative was longer than necessary in an attempt to contextualise some of the anecdotes.  That said, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wishes to grow in this area – it’s without doubt one of the most significant books I have read this year.