The Speak Life Podcast. Sharing Jesus in everyday life.
SPEAKER_05Today on the live cast, we're thinking about how to make the most of Christmas. Well, I am Glenn Scrivener. And I'm Paul Feasy. And uh we are talking about Christmas because Christmas lights are being switched on in towns all across the country. Geese are getting fat and all that stuff. Christmas is coming. Five gold rings. I don't know any of the other words to that, but that's all you need to do. Mockingbirds, calling calling birds. I don't know. But you know five golds. Parches in a pear tree. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I heard someone talking that was Jesus.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's all very Christian, apparently. Yeah. All the twelve days of Christmas. Um homework for you at home. Can you can you Google quickly and tell us what the twelve days of Christmas mean? Yeah. And you get a price. You get to get a speak life t-shirt.
SPEAKER_04No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Can't guarantee that, but no. You just did. The toothpaste is out of the shoe. Alright, well, we'll have to come up with it. Does it have to say speak life, or could it just be a t-shirt that you can write your own stuff on it? It has Paul's scent. Dear. The healing properties of Paul's t-shirt. Um yeah, so let us know. Let us know about your favourite Christmas carols. Uh it is is is it currently okay to put up a Christmas tree, or is that of course not.
SPEAKER_04What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_05When okay, when is it okay?
SPEAKER_04December. You need to be in December, basically. Well, yeah, December 1st is fine, but no earlier. Okay, alright. Yeah, and no Christmas music. No Christmas music.
SPEAKER_05No, of course not. Man, you have you have not been around the office. Just call me Ebenezer. That's right. Well I've got one Christmas tune going through my head constantly. I can imagine I know which one that is. Yes. Yes. Um because do stay tuned. We are going to release one of our four Christmas films later on. Uh, and it is set to the Carol of the Bells. It's a musical comedy, and it is the most demented, deranged, and deranging carol you could possibly have.
SPEAKER_04I used to think I liked that song, but I've heard it enough times now.
SPEAKER_05It's one bar over. Yeah, yeah. And there is that. Uh but we have Will and Claire from Meet in the Nativity, who are our new stars, aren't we? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And it's it's a it's like a musical number, isn't it? So there's a musical comment. It's like a musical episode of Meet the Nativity.
SPEAKER_05It is. And uh there are a number of Speak Life people in it, including I I make a cameo.
SPEAKER_04So you're like M Knight, Shine Malan, just popping up in your own. Hitchcocking, I like to think.
SPEAKER_05But yes. And uh and also Pete Collison is in there. And he's giving a great skeptical chin. If you if you just if you spot if you spot Pete at about one minute 45 seconds, he's kind of, what's this? What's this? It's all about the journey of a gift that keeps uh getting passed around from person to person to person. And it was great because I showed it to my four-year-old daughter, and she kept saying, Why don't they open the gift? Why don't they open the gift? Which is exactly the very question you get. Uh, because at the end, you're left with this Christmas, open the gift. And uh we very much hope that people will from that video click through get a free book, the gift. Um and we very much hope that that won't be cheapskate Christians who are trying to get a free book, but we know who you are. Every year. We we know who you are, too.
SPEAKER_0416 copies of the Gospel of Mark that they've taken from various missions over the years. Right.
SPEAKER_05Sell them on down the road. Um but we very much hope that non-Christians pick up these uh copies of The Gift, a little Christmas book that I've written. And uh the last time we did a big outreach like this, we actually gave away 1700 copies of uh Four Kinds of Christmas when we did Meet in the Nativity. So we're we're very interested.
SPEAKER_04How can do we uh does it say anywhere how if you're like a church and you want like a load to give out the page, then you pay some money. Well I get that, yeah. But where where can they go?
SPEAKER_05The good book uh thegoodbook.co.uk slash the hyphen gift. Got that? Okay, good, yeah. Yeah, and then you can you can get a box of a hundred for a hundred quid. That's not bad, is it? Pretty good going. Go on, you know. Worth the investment. Yeah, Ruby needs new shoes, so please do go and get a hundred copies or more of the gifts. Um but we are talking about Christmas and how we can make the best use of Christmas, and I guess that's that's one way that we can make the best use of Christmas is online. Yeah. It is now acceptable to share Christmas videos uh because John Lewis John Lewis advert's out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I'll be honest, I've not watched it yet. Haven't you? No.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's it's got a dragon in it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. That was a bit meh. The year before, wasn't it a dog on a trampoline? Yeah, that was really meh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And then wasn't it the the polar bear waking up from hibernation and yeah.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. It the the la the one I remember being having a real impact was the Somewhere Only We Know one, the man on the moon one.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Which our own Dan Rackham did a brilliant parody of. It's out there. It's out there. Yeah, go and find it. Um that's it. And so we have thoughts about this year a a dragon. And actually, uh if you stay tuned, maybe next week. No, no, no, actually at the end of this week, we're gonna release uh There's a Dragon in My Nativity, which is another way of reaching out online.
SPEAKER_04Did you know there was gonna be a dragon in the John Lewis one?
SPEAKER_05If I had have known, I mean they would have they would have shot someone. It's it's the the the advertising company is called Adam and Eve. Right. And I know someone who works for Adam and Eve, and and like she would have known back in February what they were what they were doing, but she was like, honestly, it's not worth it wouldn't it's not my job as well. Yeah, that's right. I tried to tempt her, but she would not. She would not reveal the secret. Um we have already released a Christmas film. Have you guys seen the Happy Land Nativity? Um it's uh a charming 3D animation done via stop motion, and uh many of the people who made the video are in the room. Let me just ask, how many photographs? Kezia Hulse, how many photographs were used in the making?
unknownSo it's 12 per second.
SPEAKER_0512 per second.
unknownI'm reading mask, but it's about three minutes.
SPEAKER_05Okay, 180 times 12. Come on, Paul.
SPEAKER_04No, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_05180 times if you text us in, you get a free pair of socks from Paul with his scent on it. Um let us let us know. That's a that's a lot of photographs. Uh they did a great job. And should we see the finished products? Should we see the finished product? And let's watch the Happy Land Nativity.
SPEAKER_01The very first Christmas was long, long ago. A girl called Mary had started to grow. Inside she carried a wee baby boy, and an angel was sent to tell of the joy. That's what it's a story. I just don't need to look. Mary was speechless. She didn't know how. These things could have happened, but still she bad. The angel then made an appearance to Joe, who was worried when Mary had started to show. But Gabriel said, You may find it odd, just trust me, these things are all coming from God. Mary is carrier God's only son, the saviour of old, the long-promised one. So call his name Jesus, your maker is skin. It's come now to save all its people from sin. Meanwhile, the great Caesar Augustus have made it a clear. Return to your home. What are you doing? That's what the story. Arriving in the Mary was blue. But try as they might, no hotel would room in. They asked one innkeeper, Sir, are you able? The innkeeper said, Oh, go on, use my staple. So Jesus was born in a cold cattle shed, which was nowhere to lay him. A trough was at his bed. Wait, what? That couldn't be a story. I see it. You turn. Now out in the field, some angels appeared to the shepherds who came coward, and all of them feared. One angel said, Peace, I bring you good news to save your hearers born. So put on your shoes. The shepherds all hurried to all the bare feet. To worship the baby. They've been born for them. Away in the east, there lived some wise men who followed it. They knew it to worship the king. The gold into the It's getting crowded now. Do you think that's fun? Here on the baby, the world is invited. The strongest and weakest, they all are united. From wise men to shepherds, from angels to sheep, from shiniest heights to the darkest deep. So come to the manger. See God become small. The true Christmas story has room for us at all. It's bigger than Daddy Thought. Maybe it isn't the story.
SPEAKER_05So that was the big conceit of the Happy Land Nativity that uh you've got this little world called the Nativity, but you might think that rocket ships and pirate ships and you know London buses don't belong in the Nativity story. But actually, I I do think it's it's quite cool that the Nativity is a little microcosm that orbits around Jesus. And so you've got angels and animals, sort of the highest creation, the lowest creation. You've got rich and poor, you've got the wise men, and you've got the shepherds. Um, but everything kind of orbits around Jesus. And so maybe in this story there's room for rocket ships and pirates and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_04And for you.
SPEAKER_05And for you. Yeah, there we are.
SPEAKER_04And so is that actually going to be shown in the early learning centres? Because that was a con working together, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_05I very much hope so. Yeah. Yeah. And that's part of why we put um subtitles on it so that it can just go on screens all over uh early learning centres uh across the the country.
SPEAKER_04Because am I right in thinking the guy who owns Early Learning Centre is is a Christian. Uh he's the guy who owns all the entertainer shops. That's right. Because they're famous, aren't they, for not opening on a Sunday. Yes.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_04He's kind of Christian ethos.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. And God has blessed them. And um yeah, a great uh great organization, and they've gotten behind us and um yeah, they they like what we've done. So yeah, we're very happy to have collaborated on that.
SPEAKER_04And people can use it, can't they? If people want to use that, you can download it for free. You can grab it off YouTube and find a way to download it there. Some people struggle to download on YouTube, don't they? So uh are we gonna have a link somewhere that we try and do it.
SPEAKER_05We will, and people people can go to speaklife.org.uk and they can they can figure out uh how to get all four of our Christmas films. Because that's our 3D animation. We've got uh musical comedy releasing very soon, we hope today. Um Carol of the Bell's uh The Gift, it's called. We've got a 2D animation called There's a Dragon in my Nativity, and there's a poem video called The Coming. Cinematic Journey.
SPEAKER_04Brilliant. Well, I'm sure the Happy Land one will get used in plenty of um Christmas all ages in particular, other things. It is charming. It is absolutely charming.
SPEAKER_05So well done. Well done, interns. They did a fantastic job on that, and stay tuned for the other three. But um as well as that, how do we make the best use of Christmas? If you if you are perhaps a a church leader, how how do you think we make the best use of Christmas in terms of outreach?
SPEAKER_04Well, I guess you know, with uh coming up to Christmas now, you'd be thinking about asking your congregation or encouraging congreg uh your congregation to be inviting people along to things on the whole. Um and yeah, encouraging them to be thinking about who they can bring to what. Um I mean the thing about Christmas is it doesn't matter whether you're the most resolute atheist, but people come to things at Christmas. So I remember a guy at uni who I was in halls with and shared a house with later, and he was an atheist. His his religious beliefs on Facebook for a long time read Dawkins is God. Uh he hasn't really understood Dawkins then. And he he would come to the Christmas carol service, you know. So it's the most unlikely people will turn up at Christmas time through your doors.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely incredible, isn't it? And if you were to design an evangelistic campaign in which millions of extra people would come to church and sing, Oh, come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. And if you could organize for all these churches around you know the country to be united in this one evangelistic campaign. I mean, imagine imagine the political nightmares and the headaches and just try imagine the the expense. Imagine trying to get shopping centres to pipe the campaign songs into the shopping centres, and yet they do, you know.
SPEAKER_04And people want that as well. Like so sometimes there's been a uh an attempt, hasn't there, to you know, oh, the world's moved on a bit. People probably want something different at Christmas. Let's give them something fresh and new. Like what? To be honest though, you know, what people want is they want to rock up for your traditional carol service and they know the songs, yeah. Sing all the carols. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's totally it's it it is like that tweet that I I I keep on talking about. Last last year I saw a a tweet somebody said, I've just come out of the um the National Gallery and I've gone through the history of Western arts in an afternoon, and I can summarise it in seven words. It's a thousand years of crucifixions, then stripes. Which is which I think is I mean it's unfair and it's a broad brush stroke, but it's it's like you know, for a thousand years we've been concentrating on the Jesus story, and then to the degree that we turn our back on the Jesus story, just stripes, you know, which is pretty harsh on abstract art, but probably fair as well. Oh, absolutely, yeah. And to the degree that we turn our back on the Christmas story, I think what do you get? You you just get you know a dog bouncing on a trampoline. Thank you, John Lewis. Feels so Christmassy now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's profound.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. I I I think uh Christmas is one of those places where you feel um the post-Christian fallout, right? You know, there's there's all sorts of places where you feel the post-Christian fallout, but when you just celebrate celebration, it falls flat, right? If you you need something bigger than yourself to celebrate, you need the light that comes and dawns in the darkness.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because I think I mean like Christmas, you can think, oh, everybody enjoys a bit of Christmas because you just have a big party in a celebration, but actually for a lot of people it's not a very celebratory time, is it? Right. And so actually, what is what is the hope? Christmas is about family.
SPEAKER_05Oh dear.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so like light in the darkness, you know, people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Um I mean that's a that's a great way in a Christmas, isn't it? Because a lot of people can identify with the walking in the darkness. Right. But actually, the John Lewis advert isn't gonna offer much light, you know.
SPEAKER_05And especially if it's not the most wonderful time of the year, which is not, you know, family breakdown, and now you've got to all be under one roof, or you've got to, you know, live with the in-laws, and you know everyone's on blow up beds and you know, templates free and all of that. And you have to eat turkey. So like everyone I like a bit of turkey. No, you don't. Nobody likes turkey. So how much turkey have you had like this year?
SPEAKER_04Uh I eat uh I always have a daily portion.
SPEAKER_05How much roast turkey? My five portions of turkey. You don't like turkey. If you liked turkey, you would have had it at least once in 2019.
SPEAKER_04But you had I would have had turkey twisters in the past, but Jamie Oliver's got rid of all that stuff.
SPEAKER_05So look to your own heart. You know, you know the truth of this. I want to release you guys from Turkey. It's just it's just such a nonsense. You know, years of peculiar tradition have just blinded you to the the obvious. Anyway, um that's not why I brought you all here. Um so so yeah, invitation. It's the easiest invite of the year, isn't it? Um and uh I was doing some teaching, I was just in um Belfast over the weekend and uh speaking at the Irish Youth Convention on the Saturday, on the Sunday. I was with a bunch of churches that I'm going to return to in April, and I was trying to get them excited about inviting people to April. And uh my my two points on inviting, and I think this works for Christmas invitations, are put yourself into the invitation and bring them into the event. So you put yourself into the invitation, you don't just you know, you've got a flyer and you say, you know, we're we're doing something, I think it's on a Sunday, you know, and then walk in the other direction. I was I was just I was just thrusting the and then you hit them. And um, yeah, it's not a ah, it's a take it or leave it. Oh, we're doing this thing in church, but you're probably the wrong thing, you know. You say, um, ah, you you know I'm a bit of a Jesus guy, and um it would mean the world to me if you actually came to Carols by candlelight on Sunday night. It'll be fantastic, and but but putting yourself into the invitation means saying it would mean the world to me if you came.
SPEAKER_04You're not spurning the event, you're spurning me if you came to most to layer that on you guilt trip them into coming.
SPEAKER_05But it's uh yeah, but at that stage it is the quality of your relationship that's bringing someone, not just the quality of the mulled wine. Sure. You know, not just the quality of the of the publicity, but you know what what really brings people to these events is actually the quality of the relationship. So so why don't we do that more and say, hey, um, you know this is important to me, it would be important to me if you came to this. Um and remember I helped you move last summer. Yeah. You can add that if you want. Um so you put yourself into the invitation, but you also bring them into the event. Yeah. Um, so you know, because we've all we've all invited friends to things and it's a 7 30 event, and you get the text message at 7 28 saying and that's it. Whereas if you've had them over for dinner first, you know, you actually you lock the doors of the car and you Yeah, well lots of people do that kind of thing, don't they?
SPEAKER_04They say, Oh, you know, come around for mince pies and mold wine and then we'll go to the car service or come back afterwards or whatever. Right. Beforehand, you you know, if you do it beforehand, you can definitely get them there. But yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it does work. And you had a good tip earlier as well about the aftermath of the events. Um making making the most of that opportunity. Did I? Yeah. What did I say? It was it was so profound, it it passed, you know, from your mind into well, from somewhere into into my mind. The follow-up. The follow-up. So so make the most of saying, hey, you came along to the Carols by Cadillac. What did you make of it?
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. We're a strange bunch, aren't we? Us Christians. But what did you what did you make of it?
SPEAKER_04So the thing that struck me when you were saying, you know, you've been in Belfast and you're saying to these guys, let's think about inviting for April. I mean, so obviously Christmas is almost upon us, and I'm not saying it's too late. But but in one sense, or or in a in one way to think of it, is that in a sense, the groundwork needs to be laid for further in advance as well, right? So one big thing I think is an issue for some Christians is that they don't really know who to invite. So it's easy to be stuck in a Christian bubble and not really know that many non-Christians or have you have as is well, you have very close relationships with Christian friends as is understandable, and then not as deep relationships with some of your non-Christian friends, and that makes some people feel like they can't invite people to stuff. So I mean I I guess as well there's a challenge for us as Christians not to wait till the last minute and think like, oh man, now I don't know any Chr non-Christians. Right. You know, you're saying who should I invite for Christmas? Well I don't know. Like, you know, we we should have been out there in the world for and actually I I think, you know, maybe I feel that more acutely because actually for eight years I worked in the church and you are in a Christian bubble. I mean, so I'm always amazed when people who don't work in the church say that because I'm like, you literally spend you most literally spend your days in a in a workplace with non-Christians or whatnot. And and okay, maybe some people work far away and stuff, but neighbours or people at the gym or the tennis club or whatever, or whoever it is you know, wherever you go and the things you do. You know, if you've got kids, it's gonna be families of kids, friends, and stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um But is it is it that we fear being contaminated by the world that we don't actually throw ourselves into those relationships? Like why why why is it that we don't have those deep friendships with those beyond the church? Tell me, Paul. I don't know. I mean we need your answer.
SPEAKER_04Some I mean, uh there are there are the extremes, aren't there, of you know, we mustn't mustn't mix. Right. Um I think that's quite rare, isn't it? I think people feel like we've been contaminated. If anything, we've been contaminated by the the the spirit of the age of like, well, your truth is yours and my truth is mine, and I should never kind of impose my beliefs on you by even inviting you to something, because that may be offensive.
SPEAKER_05Right, right. So yeah, pinning your colours to the mast. And yet there are some things that you pin your colours to the mast on. So like I'll I'll support Australia no matter what, no matter how soundly we're being thrashed by the English, and I'll I'll you know, I'll walk through a public place with a wallaby's jersey on, you know, so supporting my team. Yep. And and people recognise that, but y wouldn't it be nice if we were like that with Jesus? You know. I'm a I'm an a thousand percent Jesus guy. Yep. No matter what people say.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so people will happily go hard for um you know Lib Dems or Tories or Labour online, won't they? As they're kind of like back this person, back this and don't back that. Yeah. But we we're more hesitant about backing Jesus openly.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, which is what Tom Holland said the other day. You know, I don't want to hear what bishops think about Brexit, but you know, so often what we hear from b bishops is is about you know Brexit and not about Jesus. Dear me.
SPEAKER_04Teach the weird stuff. That was his more weird stuff. That's what we need.
SPEAKER_05Totally. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so invitations, let's put ourselves into the invitations, let's bring our friends into the event, and let's make the the most of after the events and say, Hey, what did you make of that? And where where do you stand on all these Christian things?
SPEAKER_04Let's talk about that a little bit then, just because I'm sure you've been in those situations, or I've definitely been in those situations where you go, Oh, what do you make of that? And they go, Oh, yeah, it was good.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And and it's almost like pulling, you know, trying to get blood from a stone afterwards. And I just think like, you know, maybe you or or I might be a bit more kind of confident to push that goal, you know. But yeah, for a lot of people, they'll be like, Oh, what do I say now? That's the end of the conversation. Yeah. What what do you say to the person who just kind of seems a little bit indifferent? You know, occasionally you get someone who comes out and they're like, That was amazing, and you know, they're you know, clearly affected by what's been said, but a lot of the time people just kind of seem that was nice. That was nice. And now I'm gonna go back to my life.
SPEAKER_05I think we all know what to say at that point. Like we all know. So what do you make of Jesus? Like, do you have a faith yourself? Where do you where do you stand on Christianity? Like we we know that any of those three lines will do. Like, what do you make of Jesus? Where do you stand on Christianity? Do you have a faith yourself? Or a synonym. You use some kind of version of that. We we know that we could say that, don't we? It's just it's just we fear the tumbleweed that blows down.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if some people do. I wonder whether that's like it's so second nature now to you though. Maybe because this is what you do. Yeah, yeah. I think for some people they literally just think, I don't know what to say now.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So what do you make of Jesus? Okay, so there's there's three lines. What do you make of Jesus? Do you have a faith yourself? Where do you stand on Christianity? Yeah. Something like that. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, it's and and I guess like you listening in particularly to what's been said in the sermons, if there's something to draw specifically from the talk, you know, which is why you have to listen. Yeah. No switching off.
SPEAKER_05And what what I say when I do student missions, and and if I've got a prayer meeting first with all the students who are the Christians there, like I I I tell them after I've finished speaking, as soon as I sit down, I want you to turn to your non-Christian neighbor and go, controversial. Right. And it could have been the most bland. They didn't even need prompting.
SPEAKER_06They've just controversial.
SPEAKER_05And what's fascinating is that then the non-Christians like, was it? Oh, I suppose it was. And then they actually start to think about it in a different way. You're lost. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04You know, you're like a you're like a toddler. Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So yeah, I I do think it's important to follow up on that and say, So, yeah, what do you make of this Jesus stuff? And you you know I'm a thousand percent for Jesus. What about you? Um get into that conversation. And I love Rico's stuff on you know, if they go quiet at that point, you go quiet. You know, it's that you don't keep bashing on the door if they've if they've double bolted it in your face.
SPEAKER_04Um, as in like it's sometimes you just gotta let it sometimes you just move on. Oh, I thought you meant just like I'm not gonna speak till they speak. I'm just gonna I can s I can wait them out.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, if you if you if if you raise Jesus in that kind of sense, what do you make of Jesus? And they're like, uh don't bother me about that. Right. Okay, alright. We we'll just go quiet. Probably not best just to whatever, yeah. And you just sort of move on. You don't move on from loving the person, but you move on from from sowing the seed at that point. Yeah. You know, if they've closed themselves off to it. That's what's brilliant about the parable of the sower, you know, is that you've you've got one seed is hard to you, that's alright, you you've got another one. You just throw the seed. You've got another one.
SPEAKER_04You're not responsible in a sense for where it lands. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05We have good seed, there is good soil, you just keep moving on. Um so yeah, let's make the best use of Christmas. Um, let's be inviting people, um, and let's see what God does, because it's a phenomenal opportunity. Um, yeah. You you have millions of extra people coming in to sing, oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Yeah. That does that does something to people.
SPEAKER_04And you know, if you need a good kind of video that might help with some of these things, you know where to come to come.
SPEAKER_05You know where to come. Speaklife.org.uk. Speaking of wonderful videos that help you reach out, we are so privileged to have John Lovell from uh from the States. He uh lives in Texas and he works for Christian Vision, otherwise known as C V, uh, a wonderful organization that's trying to reach a billion um through uh online mission and uh and try to connect people from online into face-to-face uh discipleship and uh and reaching out in a really um really effective way. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna see one example of uh a video that C V have produced, and then we're gonna get to talk to John Lovell in the flesh. Let's have a look at this uh video called What is the meaning of life?
SPEAKER_02You know, one of the worst feelings imaginable is the feeling of being alone. This is why solitary confinement is one of the cruelest punishments ever in human history. And we were designed for relationships. The most meaningful thing in life is to be truly another person. This can actually be kind of scary too. I mean, what if I let people have? What if when someone learns who I really am, they'll realize that they have really loved mean? I mean, how are we supposed to really find meaningful relationships? So the final speaks to all of us is kind of created the world in order to figure with us really for us is to have significantly heart of families.
SPEAKER_03And when you realize how love you are by God, that he is not ashamed of you. It's hated everything. It gives you a source of love that it's not true.
SPEAKER_02The story of the Bible is calling us into the most important relationship.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's calling us to know and be known by the Creator God himself.
SPEAKER_05So here we are with John Lovell. Great to have you here in Eastbourne.
SPEAKER_00It is a pleasure of mine to be here, fellas.
SPEAKER_05So, uh, where do you live normally?
SPEAKER_00Dallas, Texas.
SPEAKER_05Dallas, Texas.
SPEAKER_00All the way overseas.
SPEAKER_05Okay. And you and you work for this organization, C V. Just give us a brief synopsis of of who are C V and why do they do what they do?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So C V is a Christian nonprofit whose mission it is to touch a billion people with the gospel and give them the opportunity to become a true follower of Jesus. So we do that through a variety of means and methods. Um, I'm more, and our team in America is more involved with digital efforts, a lot of media, a lot of marketing online. Um, one of the main strats we have sort of three main strategies we work with overseas. Uh the main one being CV outreach. That refers to when we have a uh a program through which a church can come alongside us. We market videos through their webpage, uh something online about the meaning of life. It could have to do with uh sadness or it could have to do with happiness or your marriage, things like that. Just general topics that anyone could search. They find it online, they find it on a church's website, and at the very end of it, there's just an opportunity to write a question, write something going on in their life. You send it in, and that comes through us that we can then route to the nearest pastor to them. So it's connecting people to the local church. It's sort of an opportunity for them to be online asking questions, watching videos, and we get quite a number of responses every month, several hundred, where just people are asking questions that they don't feel like they have anyone in their life that they can talk to about. So they kind of write it in online.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. People used to go to pastors with their questions. Now they go to the go to Google.
SPEAKER_00Yes, they go to Google, and they, I mean, some of the responses we get are just heartbreaking. People are going through tough times, tough situations. And it to me it's a little surprising. Maybe y'all can relate to this, that we have church communities, we have people in our lives who we talk to about struggles and things going on. So when I see someone who's searching online for that sort of thing, it's it kind of breaks my heart, but also it's a real opportunity there that they're actually searching for things online that we can just make a video about or we can just make some sort of media that relates to it, and then from there we say, and if you'd like to talk to someone, please do so, you know.
SPEAKER_05And so that was kind of an example we we just saw, like what is the meaning of life? I guess that's a that's a very Googled search phrase, yeah. Yes.
SPEAKER_00We have kind of marketing gurus who just do a ton of keyword research where we never really make well, occasionally we do, we'll make videos that are just explicitly gospel presentation, but more often than not, we just do a ton of research into what are people searching. And kind of some of the ones I mentioned, you know, uh meaning, marriage, uh sadness, there can be addiction. We just look up things like this and we see what people are searching for, and we make content based off of that. So that one, yes, that was meaning of life. Uh, we actually worked with the Bible project to produce that one. We have other ones that are very just sort of talking head, just here's a quick snippet. I filmed several of those myself where it's just about here's how you can deal with anger, here's how you can deal with, or maybe a biblical question. Real quick snippets. Then we have others that uh really are cinematically quite impressive, where they're just we've filmed a ton of different scenes of people living life in different ways, and we just bring Jesus into it. We have a guy who looks just like Jesus who we have on staff who uh does all the things. Is that you, Joe? Believe it or not, it's not me. Even more Jesus than I know in that sense. Yeah, we have like a ton of content like that, and then we do a lot of just sort of testimonies. We get people who can share their story and say, This is what I went through, and people dealing with really tough situations, and we and then they had their life completely transformed by the gospel. So then we find those people and say, you know, can can we film it? Can we tell people your story? And people relate to it online like crazy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I love with your stuff that um when you watch a video, the next thing that you're uh kind of prompted to do is actually connect with someone on offline, you know, face to face. Because that's that's a struggle that that we always have here, is that obviously, you know, we kind of live on YouTube and Facebook, and the next thing you do after watching a video is watch another video, and then watch another video, and then watch another video, and you've fallen down the hole and three hours have gone. Yes and you were just there to Google, you know, you know, how many frames per second is the Happy Land Nativity, and and all of a sudden you you've lost yourself. Right. But you're you're really you so you really seem to believe that online is a way of connecting people offline.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And you know, part of the reason we see stuff like that work is because uh, for example, you know, we can measure a lot of this stuff is just really measurable. And we we can literally watch um what sort of media people can relate to. So we we can track a video and see when do people tend to stop watching? How many of them made it to halfway through the video, how made it how many made it through 90, 100%. Um so we can really track what type of media is helpful to them, and then from there, yes, we don't we don't say here's just another video, or here's um the CV website. We really don't have any desire for them to know about us, so it's it really limits it to here's a video and here's your immediate call to action, which is come talk to someone. So it it's helpful. So if you go to our YouTube page, you you know that's not where you're gonna see the views. They they have 40 or 50 views each, but where it really takes place is on a church's website, and people will immediately have a and we we've we've finely tuned that process as well to like what do people like to see as soon as they're done watching a video? And it's just a question, and it's just some would you like to connect with someone right here? So it's cool because the people we have working on this, they just have massive brains and they just know how to best solve a problem, which is what gets people to click the next thing, you know.
SPEAKER_05Do you have some good stories about how this has gone?
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely. And there's sort of two personal favorites. One happened before I started working there, and one I've personally been able to talk with the pastor through. So the first one um is a man who was in California. He had been a uh a Marine, I believe he was a veteran, and he certainly had had certain struggles in life, but um eventually what happened is he was having fights with his wife. Um, and eventually she left. And it was just him with their two children, and he had nowhere to go. He had he didn't know what to do, he was sad over his wife leaving, he felt hopeless about how to raise the children by himself. So in his moment of crisis, he asserted my marriage is falling apart. What do I do? So he just you know Googled it, and believe it or not, he found a video that we had produced that said, you know, this is the meaning of marriage, and this is you know, divorce is terrible and and marriage can be so difficult, all these different things that we then at the end said, if you'd like to talk with someone, please do. And so it's funny because the man noticed that the video he was watching was based in like LA and he was up near Sacramento, Northern California. And so he writes in and says, My wife just left me with my two kids, I don't really know what to do. And the pastor says, I am so sorry to hear that. Could we meet for coffee tomorrow? Um the man said, Well, that's not gonna work. I see that this church's website says Los Angeles, and the man says, Oh no, that's just where the video was. Right. But I'm five minutes down the road, I live at this and this intersection. The man said, Oh, so they met the next day for coffee. Through the course of several months in discipleship, that man not only gave his life to Christ, but eventually went on to become a pastor who could then lead others. So he had his life completely transformed through literally searching in a moment of crisis one night at 2 a.m., uh, my marriage is falling apart. So then, and this is just one I personally love because I've been sort of front lines on it. Um, is there was a girl up in Ohio who was dealing with a lot of spiritual darkness in the home. She was dealing with depression, mental health issues, and just a lot in her life going on. And she had some familiarity with the gospel. But uh she wrote in to one of our pastors and they just started talking online just via email. And eventually things were getting very dark in her life, and she was talking to the pastor about it, saying, Man, I just don't know how much longer I can go. Eventually, her messages were so dramatic that the pastor sent over mental health care professionals to her home who then asked her if they're willing, would she come to the hospital with them? And she did. So she left, went with them, immediately was given just the attention she needed that she hadn't received at home, and the pastor met with her there in the hospital and he introduced her to women at his church who then took her under their wing. And over the course of a week, I believe they just met with her, talked with her, discipled her, uh, and she came to Christ as well. So she gave her life to Christ just this past September. And through this whole process, as she's been learning more and more about herself and about the Bible. There's still it's still a bumpy road ahead, but she's been coming to the church and she's actually been bringing along her family who are watching their daughter and sister who was racked with anxiety and depression and just a lot of issues, and they now see joy and they see happiness, and she's just invitational, and she's being cared for by women, and the pastor is sort of there now talking with the dad. So it's just sort of a whole family coming to know the church down the road, which we all know a church down the road, but not many people feel a reason to go speak to them about anything, they don't feel that need. So this is sort of saying if you'd like to talk to them, you might discover there's a reason that you can talk to them, and there's maybe something they have to offer. And so this whole family that's grown up just in Ohio, you know, Christian America, if you will. Like they you would think they they would have access and they did have access, but they didn't have reason. So this sort of partnership gave them reason.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. And people share themselves more online, don't they? They're they're more honest with the privacy of just me and the screen, just me and the keyboard. Right, right.
SPEAKER_00It feels like an online diary almost is how some of the messages we get.
SPEAKER_05Which is why so much of your content is kind of pastoral evangelism, isn't it? It's kind of taking those my marriage is falling apart issues and connecting those to the gospel. So that's yeah, that's a beautiful part of it. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we we definitely recommend to our pastors whenever we partner with them. We just give them little tips and tricks, and it's very it's even what you were mentioning earlier with the Christmas stuff. It's very put yourself in the invitation. Well, this is sort of putting yourself in your message where you listen to what the problems are bringing up and then you address that. You don't immediately shoot off, wow, that sounds really tough coming to my church. We actually highly recommend just staying very pastoral, and there's no guarantee that they have any interest in coming to your church. You know, like we said, like most people are just aware of it. So address the problem and address what they're bringing to you. And so we've just seen massive success of people whose lives get changed just through an online conversation where yeah, they were just willing to be honest, and once they took that leap of faith, we see them get results.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's that's brilliant. Because I'm I'm always saying, you know, you do you do outreach not to gain converts to get people to come into your church. You you do outreach to offer Christ. Right. It's that way, you know, into their darkness you offer the light. And exactly. Yeah. So how can how can um first individuals um kind of get the most out of C V and be blessed by the resources that you've got? And then we'll think about how can churches get the best out of C V.
SPEAKER_00So we we have a lot of different projects that, and it's a little bit different in the US versus the rest of the world. So um the main things I would recommend looking into involve CV outreach, which I mentioned, CV resources, and then yes, he is. So CV Resources is our main uh library of all of our content online. That's pretty much every video we've ever made, every gospel presentation, every testimony, every animation, every sort of thing is on there. And English, Spanish, German, French, we have all sorts of languages. And you can just access them. You literally sign up free of charge, and you just get access to this huge library, which churches can use for their social media, they can use it in their Sunday sermons, they can use it in a Bible study, they can use it however they'd like. That's sort of just a resource. Those same videos are what fuel CV outreach, which is what people can find online. So if you're a church or an individual, CV resources is a great option. If you're an individual who's interested not only in the media, but just maybe a way to get more plugged into a community of believers, is an app called Yes He is, which is a an app run by C V, which is all about equipping people to share their faith. So they can download the app and they get access to those videos and the ability to share them. And we're sort of there on the other side saying, hey, here are just easy wins, easy ways to enter the conversation. You can show share a video or you can share an article. We have comment boards about pop culture and stuff like that. Just ways for people to have a conversation. We say, if you're willing to, you know, just share this with your friends. Um so that's more for equipping individuals. And then if you're a church, CD outreach, which is just an easy way to have to meet people in your community. And most pastors I know don't pass up an opportunity to speak with someone in their community who's hurting or or who's just going through something in some way. So if you're a church or if you're an individual, um the videos are sort of useful for all. But if you're an individual, yes, he is just a great app where you can engage with the stuff. And if you're a pastor, CV outreach is a way to get people day to day that you can talk to who are going through something.
SPEAKER_05Right. You've you've also got some social media packs as well that will help you to what do you post on Facebook?
SPEAKER_00Ah, you guys can Yes, because social media can be pretty daunting, and engaging as an organization on the social media level is just not easy. And there's just tons of gurus out there who'll say, Here's how you get people to engage with your Facebook group or with your live stream or with your YouTube page, all sorts of things. And so we kind of wanted to help churches to work with that. So we create a program called the Social Partners Program. You can find it on the CV outreach website. It's basically just a program where we've packaged a week's worth of social media engagement, 52 weeks worth of just here's a video, here's some questions you can ask leading to the video, here's uh an image you can post on Fridays to get people ready for Sundays. There's just ways that we've packaged it. It sort of is taking videos from CV resources, but it's just a way to say, hey, we're gonna give you the schedule, here's how you post it, we're gonna post some stuff to your Facebook page that if you allow us the access, then we just set that up for you. So it's just a way for churches to feel less intimidated and to feel like online engagement can be doable. Because you know, and they they do, they see tons of engagement, they see people who will comment or people who will share it, and just as you guys have seen, just connecting with people online is a really valid way to start conversations and to at least get to know each other better and engage with the community.
SPEAKER_05So that's cvoutreach.io is that where they should be?
SPEAKER_00Cvoutreach.com.com. Cvglobal.co will show you the general organization. Cvoutreach.com is where you can find the CV Outreach Part uh Partnership and the CV Outreach uh Social Partners program.
SPEAKER_05Terrific. Yes, thank you so much. Absolutely coming all the way across the party here. Yeah, yeah, brilliant. Uh Paul, where can people go to catch up with all we're doing here at Speak Life?
SPEAKER_04Uh you can head over to speaklife.org.uk, you'll be able to find out uh everything that's going on there. But I guess most up-to-date stuff you'll find on our Facebook page, um, which if you search Speak Life UK on Facebook, you'll find it. And you can find all our resources, all the videos on uh YouTube as well. So head there and uh keep up to date with what's going on.
SPEAKER_05That's right. And sharing is caring. Uh so yeah, don't just share, share and like and comment. Yeah. And watch it as well. Yeah, watch it. Watch it. Yes, do watch it all the way to the end. It's good. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the live cast. Uh, this will be available as a podcast very shortly. Uh yeah. Until then, keep speaking live. Is that what we say? I don't know. That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_04You've been saying keep speaking live now, so you've got to keep going with it. Keep speaking live.