FOCUS Mission Week

Themes: Canberra

This past week was a mission week for FOCUS at the University of Canberra. FOCUS holds a couple of missions each year. The aim is to take a bit more time out of our timetables to speak to friends and colleagues about Jesus. We are always trying to be involved in evangelism but Mission Week is a time for heightened activity and a bit more planning about the best way to reach people.
Mission Week is nearly always exhausting, it can sometimes (unfortunately) be a bit discouraging as well. Praise God, this year we have come through to the end of the week exhausted but encouraged and full of excitement about what God is doing among us.
In the past I have found it discouraging to see the amount of work put into running events, the emotional energy invested in having difficult conversations with friends, the physical tiredness from standing around in the middle of campus for hours each day, and the sheer amount of time, and often for what appears to be very little result. I’ve been challenged by this in the past, not least by Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 about God working in weakness to demonstrate the completeness of his power. It’s also true that we can’t always see the outcome of our witness to the gospel – God in his sovereignty knows how he will use his word to bring people to himself. I’m also encouraged by what J.I. Packer says in his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God: that we are foolish if we expect evangelism to be easy – in fact, in our own strength it is impossible that anyone would become a Christian, it takes a miracle of God. All of that is a bit of background for my mingled feelings of dread and hope when Mission comes around each year. I imagine that I am not altogether alone in feeling this way. I have even spoken to friends who come to the end of a mission time feeling depressed and doubting God because they have worked so hard and seen little fruit, or had a friend who came to an evangelistic meeting but went away with nothing. As I said, this is all in preface…
This mission week has been hard work. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we ran a stall in the courtyard at the center of the Uni. We wrote questions to stir people into thinking about truth and the claims of Jesus in chalk all around the campus, we created pictures out of bottle-tops that lay out the central message of Christianity and used the pictures to engage curious onlookers in conversations about the gospel. (for the philosophically minded – it always makes me think of Socrates, “the stinging gadfly” of Athens, who used to continually ask people to think about the difficult questions about Truth that they avoided) This year we also provided a free BBQ breakfast for the students on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. In our planning for the mission we talked about our desire to be clearly speaking the gospel to the campus, but also to be seen by the students as people who genuinely care for the Uni and are willing to spend our resources to help others. We want to be an attractive adornment to the gospel message. One of my prayers for the week was that we would be attractive people (I know you’re wondering how I could be any more attractive, and I thank you for the thought The BBQ’s were a huge success and set the tone for our outreach, we were able to have great conversations with people who were standing around eating bacon and egg rolls, we handed out heaps of flyers to our main talks, and one of the most satisfying things was to overhear a number of conversations in the cafes around Uni about the questions we were asking people to consider (the reality of truth, the possibility of knowing God, and the role of Jesus in all these things). Jesus used food a lot in his evangelism, I’m starting to see why. Food greases the social wheels (particularly bacon) and more importantly, it’s easier to share your hope when you’ve shared your meal.
One of the other very encouraging things was to see a wider circle of students being involved in outreach. Sometimes in mission week, the keen students jump into everything while the less confident people suddenly acquire a new study habit. Running the BBQ gave some of these quieter people a way to be involved. For some of them it’s a huge thing just to stand in the middle of uni and be clearly identified as a Christian.
God was very merciful to us with the weather. It’s always cold this time of year in Canberra – but mission this time last year was the coldest week of the year. I still have painful memories of standing in the SNOW!!! while trying to invite people to come to talks. This week has been mostly sunny, particularly Tuesday which was a glorious day to be outside. It’s much easier to interest people in standing around and talking when they aren’t in imminent danger of frostbite…
All the noise we were creating around the campus was basically designed to get people along to hear John Dickson speak at our 2 main public lectures. John is a great speaker with an incredible amount of experience in evangelism who in the past few years has completed a Phd in Ancient History and currently teaches a course in world religions at Macquarrie University. He has a lot of credibility with students and his talks were brilliantly pitched at the questions most students ask. His talks were primarily apologetic rather than evangelistic and centered on the historical evidence for Jesus and the illogicality of pluralism. They were thought-provokers designed to send people away to find out more or have a conversation with a Christian friend. I hadn’t thought about this before but it is a great approach for uni people. Most students, (probably most people of my generation) are skeptical and turned off by people who are trying to sell them something. We have been so heavily exposed to advertising that makes truth claims that we know are false and meant to manipulate. When people come to hear an evangelistic talk they often hear a sales pitch and all the normal skeptical barriers go up. John’s approach appealed to people to make the decision for themselves on the basis of the facts, all he did was give them the places to start looking at the facts. In both his talks he spent a considerable amount of time referring to sources that are hostile to Christianity and with the claims of other religions – encouraging people to look at this evidence as well as the Christian. It worked to reassure people that they weren’t hearing a sales pitch and that nothing was being held back. It certainly sent a lot of people away with a desire to find out more – and the greatest testimony was that at least one guy who came along to the first talk (lunch time wednesday) after being invited in the morning at the stall came back to hear John again in the evening on Thursday (a bigger commitment requiring him to turn up at Uni out of hours)
The Thursday evening talk was held at International House, part of the residential accommodation at UC. Our experience with evening events at UC has been pretty dismal. We have had some success with open forums but they tend to focus on the issues which people have against Christians rather than challenging students to think further for themselves. We decided to combine the talk with a dinner and trivia night – the advertising was “Truth, Trivia, and Tasty Italian”. The idea was that people would get into the mood of question and answering and also get into discussions with each other on the tables. It worked really well , praise God! The room we booked was full, there were lots of guests. I sat between 1 guy who was a confessed atheist, and another who was not a Christian but had been seriously challenged by the first talk. The trivia generated a really good atmosphere of fun and discussion, and I had a great conversation over dinner with one of the guys about questions raised by the talk. The students put heaps of work into the night. The questions were great and the format was really well organised. It was easily the most successful outreach event I’ve ever been to.
So that was last night…
Today we are trying to recover. W
e had a staff meeting with John this morning and had a great discussion over the content of evangelistic preaching from what we can read in the New Testament. It was helpful in sharpening us up in our thinking.
We have another BBQ tomorrow morning for residential students, but I think that will be a little more low key.
It’s turning out to be a busy weekend – I have a 21st birthday of one of the FOCUS students, in Young, which will be an overnight trip. John Dickson is speaking at UniChurch on Sunday night and I’m leading the meeting which will require some preparation.
Praise God for a great week! The gospel went out, people heard the news for the first time each day, I was there and saw it. Pray for the students that they would be encouraged by this and have joy in Jesus and desire to keep spreading this news.
I’m very tired, my personality seems to require plenty of time to daydream and have space and I have to override this need so that I can spend the time with people each day and provide leadership for the students. It takes its toll and eventually you have to pay the piper – either a few weeks of being depressed or preferably a softer landing and a few days of time to talk to myself. These times are always hard for Emma. Pray for the two of us.
It’s a beautiful thing to see the work of the Spirit in people’s lives – even your own. It’s one of the things God uses to encourage us and reassure us. It’s why we will struggle always and the gospel will never fail to triumph.

2 Cor 12:9-10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Comment and Share

A normal week (for once)

Themes: Canberra

As could be expected, the first week back for the Uni semester was a little chaotic for me. I drove to Sydney 3 times in the space of a week. First to visit with Grandma before she passed away, second for her funeral, and third for an AFES Board meeting. It meant that I spent very little time on the campus and missed out on my first FOCUS meeting for the semester. By the end of last week however, I was starting to get my head around the timetable and get a picture of the things I need to be doing each week to make sure we stay on track.
This past week has been much better. I feel like I’m settling into what will be my normal routine, and I’ve really enjoyed being back on the campus.
Monday afternoon was a little disrupted – I drove to Sydney for an AFES Board meeting. I enjoyed the trip however. It gave me a chance to listen to some talks from the 1979 AFES National Conference by Leon Morris on “Christians and the World”. I found a couple of CD’s that had remastered copies of old AFES national conference talks (1978 and 1979 with Dick Lucas and Leon Morris as the speakers) and took them up for the AFES national office to add to its online library of past talks. The Leon Morris talks were very stimulating and it’s strangely encouraging to hear someone preaching the gospel in a fresh and challenging yet faithful way from the year you were born!!
While in Sydney I was able to spend some valuable time catching up with Con Campbell (a mate and the previous staff worker at UC), it had been several months since we had chatted and the trip would have been worth it just for that. I had dinner with Michael and Julie Morrow, 2 other dear friends, and got to see their gorgeous daughter Alicia who seems to get cuter every time I see her. The AFES meeting went well, there are many things to praise God for in the way he has provided for our movement – both financially and in terms of amazing gospel servants. Apart from the early start on Tuesday to make it back to Canberra in time for work – it was a great trip.
The rest of the week followed the currently normal course. I spent some time catching up 121 with several blokes. I’m finding this really encouraging. Some of the guys and I have been meeting since they were in 1st year – now they are 11 weeks from finishing Uni. It’s brilliant testimony to God’s Spirit at work to see the way he has been working in their lives. I find that I’m learning a great deal and being very encouraged as we read the Bible together.
The highlight of the week, as it soo often is, was the Wednesday – the day when most of our ‘official’ FOCUS activities happen. We have an outreach time in the morning, where we encourage students to come and work a stall and engage people in conversation. Some days in winter it can be very hard work, in the cold, with people hurrying to get to the next class. This Wednesday we had heaps of conversations, and one guy had a great opportunity to share the gospel with a girl who came up to the stall with a lot of questions. We met quite a number of Christian students who are starting this semester.
The main meeting went really well, we had very good numbers of people, many of them new and who we met on the stall. One new girl brought a non-christian friend. We lost our regular meeting room from last semester, which was initially disappointing, however, we have got a team of students who reorganise the new room each week. We clear out the desks and bring the speaker out from behind the giant lecture podium. Everyone sits in a couple of large horseshoes of chairs and there is a much more intimate feel. It also make it more difficult for people to slip in and out without some one talking to them, as everyone tends to sit closer together. There was a great vibe on Wednesday and a lot of the new people commented on how much they enjoyed FOCUS.
The passage for Marcus’ talk was Rom 1:18-32, possibly one of the most difficult passages to hear (even though pretty easy to understand). It’s all about God’s wrath on unrighteous humanity. There was a definite sense of squirming when the passage was read for us. Marcus handled it really well and preached the sinfulness of humans clearly and sorrowfully, but then brought home the glorious news of the gospel strongly. It was a great talk for the start of a semester with new people checking out Christianity. Praise God for his word! The talks should be up on the UC FOCUS website soon.
Next week is our campus mission with John Dickson coming down from Sydney. Details of what is happening and when are all on the UC FOCUS website. Please pray for the students. Nearly all the organisation and planning has been done by the students, and it looks to be a great time. There are some really creative outreach ideas. We just need God’s Spirit to strengthen our hearts and give us the courage to invite people along to events.
This afternoon, I will be running a crash-course in understanding world-views for students who will be running the World View Survey on the campus next week. If you haven’t heard of this tool, its a great resource for encouraging people to think and talk together about what they believe. It was initially created by the UCCF in Britain and should still be available from their website.
My mother and aunt are coming to stay and visit with our Canberra-based family this weekend as well. They are finishing-up dealing with Grandma’s affairs in Sydney and will fly back to Brisbane from here. It will be a busy weekend and week ahead, but much excitement and joy in relationships with each other.
Here’s a passage I’ve read during the week. I’m currently on a joyride through the Minor Prophets (the 12 little guys at the end of the New Testament). I was struck by the beauty of this phrase in Hosea. It speaks of God’s initiative in winning us to himself. It is the greatest comfort when we feel dry and distant in our relationship with God. If you know John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV that goes “Batter my heart Three Person’d God” you can see where he gets the imagery.

2:14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

Comment and Share

A Focal Point Moment

Themes: Canberra

This is a live, on the spot report from Focal Point 2006. I’m not online so the post won’t appear until I make it back into town at the end of the week. But at least you will be getting my fresh, as it happened account…
Our first day at Focal Point, started with my usual morning explosion into action (ha!), I preached at UniChurch the evening before and all my thinking and preparation had been directed to the sermon, not much was left over for Focal Point. So, Monday morning I was running around trying to pack bags, sleeping gear, realizing I only had 2 pairs of clean undies to last a week (stay tuned to find out how that goes…), loading books into my book box, rummaging in the useful box for pens, paints, blutack, etc. Eventually I got it all together, a more than slightly ridiculous amount of baggage.
Part of the problem comes from leading seminars on Focal Point. The seminar times are the theological engine room of the week. It’s where people spend time following the topic (in this case “Grace”) through the whole Bible. It involves in-depth Bible research, synthesis and systematics, Biblical theology (tracing the development of God’s revelation from the Old Testament to the New Testament), and, of course, Arts and Crafts… The art and craft comes into it because otherwise people’s brains would explode with information. I can do without being covered in brain goop.
My experience of sitting in seminars is that tension, strain, and boredom are alleviated by allowing people to creatively express what they are learning. There are also significant learning benefits in encouraging people to translate information from one medium to another – for example, drawing a picture to express an idea forces people to work out what is most important about the concept and how it can be most efficiently communicated. The process requires a high level of comprehension of the subject matter.
All of the above leads back to me and my pile of baggage. My pile contains a portable library to help people who are wrestling with huge amounts of data, and a useful box full of random instruments of creativity. That’s before you even get to clothing and personal comforts.Oh, if you have all these things, one other is necessary… Lollies. If all else fails in a seminar group, at least no one will hate you if you can provide the jellies of sustenance.
Tim Rutzou collected my and the pile and after a bit of manly ‘boot-tetris’ we were underway. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any more luggage space in the car, and we still had one more passenger. Derek, the last to be collected, is also leading a seminar, so his pile was also suitably large. The solution was to lie underneath it all, for the short trip out to Greenhills Camp and Conference Centre.
You see, it was quite an effort just to get here…
Greenhills is a 20 minute drive from the center of Canberra. That tells you something about our nations capital… It doesn’t take much to get out of the city. The conference centre is well out in the bush, there is no mobile phone reception, the main conference facilities overlook the Murrumbidgee river. We are surrounded by high mountains. It is a spectacular place, but very cold.
My first task was helping to set up the sound system. There is a small amount of nostalgia involved here, I also ran the sound on my very first Focal Point – 10 years ago. I don’t do the sound very often any more, There are usually others who can do it, and I often need to be involved else where. Still, I enjoy running the desk, this week I’m also putting my new MacBook through its paces, using Garageband to record and mix the talks. The first attempt last night went very well…
The conference starting with a welcome and introduction session, then people split into small groups of 5-6 people to start studying the book of Galatians. These groups meet each day for 1 1/2 hours and work in detail through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, The first session involves reading the whole letter and then highlighting and dividing up the text on double-spaced printed copy. For most people, these groups are the highlight of the week. The detailed study of God’s word is deeply enriching, and different to the pressured, too-short study and reflection we normally have. The groups are also small enough for people to start to get to know each other well.
After lunch we got started on the Grace Seminars or ‘GraceShops’. Monday is the biggest day for these groups, we had 2 sessions back-to-back. That’s a grand total of 3 1/2 hours! In our first session we looked at every reference to ‘grace’ in the New Testament (we used the Greek root ‘charis’) noting the breadth of meaning and associated ideas. The aim was for people to have a solid foundation for understanding the Biblical usage of the term and for them to be able to write their own definition.
In the second session we began tracing through Biblical history from the creation through God’s dealings with his people in the OT, looking at the consistent themes, and the character of God’s action towards people (and people’s reaction to God).
Many issues are beginning to be thrown up by these discussions, some people are wrestling with the question of predestination, ‘Can God’s decision to act gracefully to some people be refused’, etc. I don’t pretend to offer people the answers to these questions, but living with those questions and asking them of God is a great thing for growing us in our faith and love.
The evening sessions are large gatherings, with a main speaker who is taking us through expositions on the topic for the week. This year the talks are being shared between Marcus Reeves (the ANU senior staff worker) and David McDonald (senior pastor at Crossroads Christian Church). Each talk this week is looking at the aspects of Grace as presented in various letters of Paul. Marcus spoke last night on “Riches in Ephesians”, tonight Dave will speak on “Freedom in Galatians”.
Emma came out to visit me and sit-in on the talk.. that was nice
I had a few good conversations over supper, and took some crazy pictures in Photobooth, before toddling off to hit the sack…

I think that Grace is the hardest doctrine to learn. I’m struggling to learn it again. It’s easy to know the information, even to teach it, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever master the learning of it… It continually surprises, offends, and becomes incomprehensible. I’m sure it is deliberately this way, a “glad struggle” because the joy of finding Grace again never dims.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
(Eph 1:2-6 ESV)

Comment and Share

Preaching through 2 Peter

Themes: Canberra

The past few weeks have been dominated by the preparation each week for the sermon at Church on Sunday night. I’m working on a series in 2 Peter. It’s a challenging book, both to understand and to apply. Yet it is very urgent, and the situation addressed seems very appropriate to modern Australian Christians. Peter is close to his death, he’s an old man, writing a Grandpa letter to his children in the faith. (This image came to me from my Grandpa Bill, who is always working away at his ‘jottings’). The believers who he writes to are established in the faith but are in danger of forgetting or taking or granted the realities of the faith. They recognise that Jesus is Lord but are in danger of settling into a life style that denies that practically in their lives, and most significantly, this shows up as a loss of faith in the second coming in judgement, of the Lord Jesus.
I have really enjoyed preaching through this series. I finished the 3rd of 4 last night. If you’re interested in listening they are available here. I have particularly enjoyed the refreshed perspective on preaching that I gained from the AFES Staff conference. I have spent much more time each week praying and thinking through how God is speaking to me through each passage; and then praying and thinking hard about how he is speaking to the various people in the congregation. I guess the change is that movement from simply seeking to understand the Word as a text, to hearing it as words for us. Keith Birchley’s phrase was somethings to the effect that we should stop thinking of the Word as a monument, but rather as a megaphone. I hope this sounds like something rather obvious to you, it should if you’re a Christian. But it’s amazing how easy it is to lose sight of the obvious.
As part of this I have changed the way that I try to assess how I went in my preaching. I am focussing more on my own personal conviction from the Word, and the conviction of the congregation, and praying or praising for that, before I move to pick over how I could have spoken more clearly, or explained something better. Keep praying for me in these things. I have one more talk this week on 2 Peter 3.
The other part of my time has been filled with preparation for the start of semester with FOCUS, and with the Focal Point, our mid-year conference. Focal Point starts next week. It is possibly the most important week of the year in terms of the impact it makes on people’s lives for the gospel. The whole staff and trainee team is working flat-out to get workshops, seminars, electives, talks, booklets, etc, finished.
I’m also working on some Bible Study Leader Training material for a Leaders Weekend coming up this weekend before Focal Point. The material is shaping up well but it will take a considerable amount of time to finish well. I’m trying to cover a lot of topics beyond simply ‘how to write a Bible study’. We are covering, evangelism, prayer, growing, training, pastoral care, how to co-lead/team work, etc. It will be worth the effort, but I could do with more time. Pray that students come along.
We are also getting into the book of Daniel with our UniChurch home group. I’m enjoying writing these studies, but again I’m conscious of the time pressures.
So it’s all happening…
Here is the passage I’ll be thinking about all this week, seems appropriate when life gets overly busy. It’s good to be reminded about the truth that we sometimes obscure with our business.

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2Pet 3:11-13 ESV)

Comment and Share

AFES Staff Conference

Themes: Canberra

After coming home from Victoria full to the brim with refreshment, we had the normal round of activities on Sunday, Emma with Kingdom Kids, and me with Church. The following week was back to work for Emma, and I headed off to Stanwell Tops for the AFES Staff Conference. AFES (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students) is the national fellowship with which FOCUS at the University of Canberra and the ANU are affiliated.

The AFES Staff conference was one of the best weeks of teaching and fellowship that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of in the past couple of years of full time ministry. It was a real privilege just to be there. My situation is essentially as a gap-filler for the position of Senior Staff worker at the University of Canberra. I’m more senior than a trainee, but I don’t have the theological training and experience of a senior staff person. The staff on the conference went out of their way to make me feel comfortable and I really enjoyed being able to talk freely with people about some of the unusual struggles and situations of full-time students ministry.
The programme for the week was varied across hearing from the Bible, prayer and report groups, seminars on work-related issues, and some theological discussion time. The Bible teaching was done by staff members from around the country. There was no set topic or book yet the talks fitted very well together and seemed to inform each other well. Funny how God speaks through his word… The AFES is blessed with some very fine Bible teachers, and the teaching time was really challenging and stimulating. It’s nice to have some time when the preacher has been thinking though the Word with a view to applying it to himself and people just like you. One of the pitfalls of ministry seems to be that the longer you spend doing it, the less you hear the Bible taught to people just like you. The challenge is to be teaching it to yourself, and applying it to yourself before you teach it to others.
The Prayer and Report groups were small groups of staff that meet together each year at the conference. When a new staff member joins AFES they will be assigned to one of the groups but otherwise the membership is very stable. These times were se aside for everyone to take a good sized chunk of time (around an hour) and talk through how they’ve been going throughout the year. We then spent some time praying for each other. These are special times for the staff, it’s not often in full-time ministry that you have someone sitting down with you who can identify with your experiences and who just wants to listen to you talk.

The Work seminars were pretty much what they sound like. We covered topics from OH&S to Fundraising, writing newsletters, dealing with intimidation, and a whole host of other things. I found particularly useful a seminar by Tony Rowbothan and Tracey Gowing on ‘being a team member’. It was designed for people who aren’t the team leaders in a ministry group.
The theological discussions were led by Keith Birchley from Brisbane. The topic was ‘the Word of God and Preaching’. Keith was keen for us to think again about the relationship between the Word of God, and the activity of the preacher in proclamation. It generated plenty of solid discussion. For me however, it wasn’t the rarefied heights of theology that were most challenging but the realization that I have been frequently forgetting the fact that God is living and active – that he didn’t just speak once, make sure it got written down, and then leave us to it. He speaks now to us. It has transformed the way I have prepared my sermons, and the way that I pray for myself and our congregation as we come to hear the word. I pray that God would speak. And I have been reminded also that he is powerful and capable of answering that prayer. It doesn’t depend on my tricks or slick presentation, I need to pray that he would speak and trust that he will to do. There was a lot more to it than that, but this was what I found most helpful.
The week also involved lots of football (soccer as its known when the World Cup isn’t on). A lot of the staff stayed up to watch Australia play Japan in the opening round of the tournament. It looked for a long time that Australia were going to lose – then we scored 3 last minute goals. All these normally reserved AFES staff were running around cheering and hugging each other. It was a sight to behold. I’ve included some pictures of the annual staff soccer tournament as well, known as the Kerry Nagel Cup. Tragically the ACT/WA team was knocked out in the first round. (we were the reigning champs).

It was a great week, I came back full of energy and ideas. Praise God for the fellowship we share with each other through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus!

“whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1Pet 4:11 ESV)

Comment and Share

Seek the Truth – the Da Vinci Code

Themes: Canberra

Well, I thought I was all done with talks for a while, but it’s never that simple. This week we decided to celebrate the arrival of the Da Vinci Code movie with a talk at FOCUS on the origins of Christianity and the claims made in the Da Vinci Code.
In the interests of research I went along to see the film last Thursday night, with members of our Bible study group. The film is ok – as a film. It drags a bit in places, but it looks pretty. We had a good chat over coffee afterwards about some of the claims about Christian history that come out of the film. The internet is awash with people ranting about the book and film, and there are also some great sites that take people through the history. Personally, I’ve just enjoyed sitting down with groups of people and having conversations about topics that most times we avoid. I’m sure that by God’s grace, these conversations are happening all over the world at the moment.
It was encouraging to see a number of visitors in FOCUS. People had brought their friends to hear a Christian perspective on Da Vinci. It shows that there is a genuine level of interest in the topic. It’s a testimony to the power of Jesus to continue to effect the lives of individuals and the sweep of history.
I’ve put the powerpoint notes I used up here. Some of the slides are from the presentation, the ones at the end I had prepared to used for answering questions. It’s saved in pdf format (and it’s still about 13MB). Feel free to use it in anyway you find helpful.
dan

Comment and Share