A reflection on how the good news of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection spread in the early church and how we can take up the challenge of Jesus’ Great Commission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.




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In these uncertain times, many people are understandably feeling a mixture of emotions including fear and anger. For many, the things that they find security in like health, work, finances and comfortable living are being taken away. It's easy to panic. It's easy to react by hoarding tins of meatballs and packets of loo roll. But how do we as God's people respond? Here are 3 very simple things that I have found helpful:

1. Remembering that God is still sovereign. This is not a surprise to God. Th...

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One way to initiate conversations about faith is to share and discuss video content. There are some really innovative Christian ministries, filmmakers and musicians making thoughtful Christian media which you can share with your friends.


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This weekend I had the privilege of speaking at the Bountiful Women's conference in Sevenoaks. My workshop was entitled 'Transforming others through our gifts' and we looked at some key biblical principles regarding gifts and well as women using their gifts in mission from the early church in the gospels and Acts, through church history to the present day. We also looked at practical and creative ideas to use our gifts in evangelism and social action.

Listen to the workshop here


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In May I did a series on 12 apologetics sites and apps. You can see 1 - 6 here and 7 - 12 here.

Here are a further 6 resources that are helpful for people exploring Christianity, or helpful for Christians who want to have robust answers to difficult questions.

(1) Christian Apologetics Alliance
The CAA is an evangelical, non-denominational Christian ministry. It concentrates on a robust defence of the central claims of Christianity, rather than secondary issues about which Christian may disa...

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Coming up in February is the Agapé MOVE Weekend - a celebration of 50 years of ministry in the UK and a chance to be envisioned and equipped for sharing the gospel. It will also incorporate the Fireseeds annual student gathering. I would like to invite you to come along and here are 5 reasons why I think you'd love it:

• There will be a real atmosphere of celebration and some truly inspirational stories of God transforming lives.
• There will be some great teaching and workshops on how to share ou...

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Snapshot

Over the Freshers’ period, we have been running a photo project called Snapshot, inspired by the ‘Humans of New York’ blog. Snapshot is a fun and simple way to meet new students, capture a snapshot of who they are and give them an invitation to the Student Life society.

We took ordinary packs of playing cards and stuck a different question to each card. Students were invited to pick 3 cards at random and answer the question that most appealed to them to be featured on the Snaps...

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At church today we were reminded that as saved children of God we're all on mission. Our church banner says "Word, Community, Mission" to remind us that sharing our faith is an integral part of living as Christians in our world.

So here are 4 thoughts about the privilege and responsibility of sharing our faith:

1. Evangelism stems from our own walk with God.
   Peter of Rheims, a French Dominican friar, said "Anyone who is not burning will not be able to set anyone else on fire."
2. We're all qualified fo...

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In my line of work, I'm often asked for advice about resources to help with evangelism and discipleship. I've collected together some really useful tools over the years and I thought it would be good to collect these together on this website for the benefit of more people.

On my new tools page you'll find evangelism tools, articles, gospel outlines, small group studies, video and audio.

I hope you find these helpful. Do get in touch with comments, questions or suggestions for more resources ...
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The latest edition of Move magazine is out and it's a cracker! It's all about how to live out and speak out our faith authentically in our communities, our families, universities and workplaces. There are loads of great ideas and conversation starters. Look out for the stories of two students from the North East, as well as the 'Word on the Street' feature where Emily and I had great fun talking about God to people on the streets of Newcastle!

Here's how Communications Director Danielle introd...
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In our modern world there are lots of different ways of taking in information, and video is becoming increasingly popular. Online video now accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic and 78% of people watch videos online every week*.

There are some great sites and apps to help us share interesting and thought-provoking Christian videos online, so I thought I’d collect together some of the best.

Global Short Film Network

These short films are intended to raise spiritual questions and provide a s...

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I have just discovered a brilliant free app for iOS and Android called Table Talk. Table Talk is described as 'A Game of Conversations' and is designed to help groups of friends to have meaningful conversations about the big questions of life (as well as some hilarious banter along the way).



The app is free to download and there are 12 packs within it, all of which can be downloaded for free. They are:

1. Table Talk for Friends
2. Table Talk for Forces
3. Table Talk for Uni Students
4. Table Talk for Scotland...

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I recently did a seminar at the annual TfT conference on the topic of sharing our faith with our gay friends. One of the things that I'm particularly excited about is sharing my faith in community, so here are some thoughts on that.

Evangelism is a team sport. There are three key reasons why sharing our faith together is important:


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My colleague Duncan has been working on an exciting project to help tell the gospel story through a series of 4min videos, all shot with the gorgeous backdrop of Newcastle and the surrounding area.

God's Big Story gives an overview of the story of the Bible in 10 parts and helps us to reflect on our own life in light of it. The videos take us through Creation, Fall, Patriarchs, Exodus, Kingdom, Exile, Messiah, Church, Judgement and New Creation.

There is an accompanying handout with the script,...
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Recently, we've been doing a lot of thinking as a team about our model of ministry and how we do evangelism. Duncan has helpfully come up with a diagram that illustrates how we've been trying to move away from an 'Us vs Them' approach to evangelism in the way that we run Student Life.

My own personal conviction and approach to evangelism has changed over the years as I've grown in my faith and sought to help others come to know Jesus personally. I was definitely guilty in the past of taking qu...
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Details have just been released for Agapé's Move weekend - a chance for staff, supporters, student leaders and church leaders to enjoy fellowship, evangelism training and worship together. I'll be going and would love to be joined by friends and supporters. I think it'll be a really exciting time to hear stories of how God's at work and gain practical help with sharing our faith in our circle of influence, so why not check out the details and pray about whether you'd like to come?


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As conservative evangelicals we sometimes criticise non-Bible-teaching churches for being ‘just a social club’, but isn’t there also a danger that church sometimes isn’t enough of a social club? Part of church should be really enjoying being together, having a laugh, sharing experiences, eating together, catching up on news, caring, praying, crying and celebrating together. There can be a danger that we make church too academic - listening to a lecture on Sunday and studying the mat...

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The new Student Life website is live and is a great place for people who want to explore the big questions of life, or just find out more about what Agapé Student Life does on campus.

There are articles exploring Biblical wisdom for student problems, real life stories about how Jesus has changed people, and information about Student Life groups around the country.

My favourite feature is the Think Box - a photo game to spark spiritual conversations and create opportunities for you and your fri...
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At the weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at Kelvin Grove Church in Gateshead. I shared some thoughts about the Great Commission, and thought it might be useful to summarise them here.

Matthew 28 is one of the most exciting chapters in the Bible. The preceding chapters have been an emotional roller coaster - Jesus has had the final meal with his friends, was betrayed by one of his closest followers, was arrested and dragged before the high priest. Then he was disowned by Peter, who had p...
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