Preach Magazine Issue 5 - Preaching to the unconverted | Page 15

INTERVIEW

Christian by the end of the week – it
was amazing. Often those questions
come out of honesty and if we can
walk with a person like that, it’s
wonderful to see them come through.
Obviously, one faces tough audiences
sometimes; maybe in a school and
people don’t want to laugh at the jokes
– that’s an interesting one, where they
take a while to warm up to the talk.
By and large through, if we expect
some hostility when the gospel is
preached, as well as people to respond
positively, and we emotionally
prepare for that in advance, then
it’s ok. I don’t take it personally, even
though they may be attacking me.
I’m going to do everything I can to be
gentle, respectful and loving, and to
show Jesus’ love in how I would even
respond in a situation like that. That
often then turns things around.

RJ On the flip side, what have

been some of the most encouraging
things about defending the faith?
Do you have a story where there’s
been a really positive outcome after
speaking?
Oh gosh – well there would be lots
of those! I try to call for a response
when I preach the gospel, and to
expect that there will be people who
will want to say yes to Jesus. My
experience is that, by and large, that is
the case and sometimes there are lots
of them, which can be surprising. One
example of a positive outcome that
I can give was when I was speaking
to a company in London, which I
probably can’t name, in a corporate
setting and gave the opportunity for
people to respond. There were more
people there than anticipated so
we couldn’t do what we usually do,
which is to allow people to feed back
in written form, so I didn’t know how
many people had prayed the prayer
of commitment. However, a few
weeks later, at another event, a lady
came and told one of my colleagues
that she became a Christian at that
event where I was speaking, and she
committed her life to the Lord in her
own workplace.

RJ Have you got any practical

advice for someone who really
wants to engage in defending
the faith? First up, in a personal
context, amongst friends or family
and then maybe someone who
potentially wants to step out in to
ministry and do that as more of a
vocation?
I would say that it’s a good
idea to get equipped, so to get to a
point of some confidence to begin
to answer people’s questions and
to ask questions too. We have a lot
of resources to help people do that.
Our team have written apologetics
books. I’ve written Why Trust the
Bible? and But is it Real? There’s
Vince [Vitale]’s book, Why Suffering?
and Sharon [Dirckx]’s Why? and John
Lennox’s books on science and faith.
Read around quite broadly. I don’t
think that has to be a really arduous
task. I think you can read five or six
of our resources and have quite a
good basic foundation to be able to
engage with people in conversation.
If you want to go deeper we have the
RZIM Academy where you can listen
to lectures and write assignments
and be part of a community going
deeper into these things. I think if
you sense a calling into a preaching/
apologetics ministry I would advise
taking the time to do some study,
maybe coming to the OCCA for a
year and exploring that calling. I
can’t overemphasise the importance
of being around leaders who create
opportunity for others. For me, it was
my dad who first asked me to preach
when I was a teenager. Pray that God
opens those opportunities too.
For leaders, be thinking ‘who are
the people around that I could be
developing and who have potential?
Often we see people who are like
ourselves, and most preachers are
male, so often my experience has
been that women aren’t necessarily
seen as potential defenders of
the faith or apologists and that’s
something we’re really trying to
change here at RZIM.

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RJ Have you found that being a

woman has been a hindrance in
the area of apologetics, which is
predominantly male-dominated?
It’s probably been a mixture of
experiences and things are different
from seventeen years ago, when
I started. At the beginning it was
probably harder as a woman, because
there’s a whole sector of churches that
wouldn’t have you preach. Even in
university evangelism there just weren’t
women missioners back then. But my
experience has been that where doors
have opened and people have felt that
what was delivered was good, it’s been
an advantage being a woman because
you break stereotypes. Creative inviters
might think ‘well people are going to
expect a man, so having a woman might
actually help us, as long as the level is
right’. In our organisation I was the first
woman speaker on staff internationally,
and I’m really thankful to Ravi for
taking that step. It wasn’t easy all the
time for him, that decision. Now, in our
organisation, I don’t think it is harder if
you’re a woman. I hope not!

RJ What are you most looking

forward to, both in terms of your own
ministry, and RZIM, but also globally
in terms of everything that’s going
on around the world to push forward
evangelism and apologetics?
One of the things I’m really excited
about is seeing the next generation rise
up. Reboot (reboot.org.uk) was born out
of the dream to equip young people, and
the realisation that young people are on
the absolute frontlines in their schools
and in those settings. Eleven and twelve
year olds are and can be and should be
doing apologetics! I think that’s really
thrilling and that’s something that we’re
seeing globally.
Ruth Jackson
Ruth Jackson is media officer
for