The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scribbell. Have you ever done the podcast before?
SPEAKER_01I don't think I've ever done a podcast before. I'm new to these things, so ever wanted to? Very much so. And uh, you know, you're the you're the pro at this, so I'm I'm following your lead.
SPEAKER_00I listen to a lot of podcasts, but uh I probably only actually featured in two.
SPEAKER_01You're a gourmand, not a gourmet, is that the French phrase? If you if you love food, you're a gourmand. And if you cook food, you're a gourmet. See? See? So now we're now we're podcast gourmets.
SPEAKER_00Very good, yes, very good. Uncultured, see Glenn. Uh tell me what's been going on. You you were at Kingston University last week.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Kingston University. I was a guest of the Christian Union, uh, and uh a great Christian Union. They're they're about sort of 30 strong in a university of about 25,000. Um so you you sort of think they're kind of up against it, and yet they uh were so engaged in prayer, so uh so desiring their their friends and course mates to meet with Jesus, and uh they put on a great week of events, and I was the guest speaker, and uh and this little CU just sort of turned out in force for the prayer, turned out in force for the lunchtime events that they put on, and then turned out in force for the evening events uh that I got to speak at. So it was a it was a great week, really. Uh we saw people trusting in Jesus, we saw um lots of people sign up for uh a follow-up course, which actually today, the the 20th of March, um some of them will be starting that uh sort of follow-up course. So we can we can pray that those who've started to see something about Jesus will will uh will really trust him for themselves. That's my prayer.
SPEAKER_00How many people go to uh Kingston University?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like twenty-five thousand. So yeah, it's a it's a biggin'.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And what's the sort of religious makeup of the Well uh you talk to people and either you get atheists professed atheists, you push beneath that and they've never really thought about it. Um that's what I'm finding quite a lot in universities that people will self-identify as atheistic, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. You know, uh I was in uh Plymouth University recently and and there was one woman on on the Friday who said she was a staunch atheist. And on the Friday, uh she so on the Monday she was a staunch atheist. On the Friday, she was saying, uh, so how can I know Jesus personally? Um you know, you push beneath some of these things, and it's just kind of the air that we breathe that we are atheistic these days. So a lot of atheists and a lot a lot of Muslim uh a very uh high proportion um uh belong to the Islamic Society. The Islam Islamic Society is far bigger than the Christian Union at Kingston Union. They were about to have a uh an events week this week, in fact. So the the week after our mission, they they had an events week. So they they were very keen in sort of coming along to the Christian Union events and and asking various questions, and they were keen to have people come along to to their thing. But um so training the Christian Union in what is Islam and what do they believe and how can we interact with them uh fruitfully? That that was a big part of the week actually, and and and we saw the Christian Union sort of get a real vision for that and and hopefully be a little bit more better equipped in that.
SPEAKER_00Well how did sort of Muslims respond to you? What what what sort of things were they ask you about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the number one the number one question was always, you know, what about this Trinity thing? And and I think they thought that the Trinity was their silver bullet. I think they thought that bringing Trinity would stump the Christian. Um and I think the reason they think that is because in their experience that has been the case, and most Christians aren't very good at and haven't done a lot of thinking about speaking about Trinity, certainly in evangelistic settings. Um thankfully, providentially, God sort of has been laying that on my heart for for many years, and so I I uh I was sort of well prepared for that. So we we had some great conversations about Trinity and and obviously the the two main sort of differences, Islam and Christianity, is who is Jesus and what happened on the cross. So Muslims say, Who is Jesus? Well he's not the Son of God, he's just a prophet. Uh and Christians say, Well, if he's a prophet, let's listen to some of the things that he says, and some of the things that he says is I'm the Son of God and I existed before the world began, and you know, I'm the judge of the whole world, and I'm the way, the truth, and the life. So let's listen to him as a prophet. And when we listen to him as a prophet, we know that he's the son of God. And and then the other issue, you know, what happened on the cross, and Muslims say that uh Jesus did not die on the cross, another person was substituted in for Jesus, so that actually it ended up in on in the Quran, a bad man ends up dying for the good man Jesus. Uh, and it's the polar opposite of the Christian Christian message. The Christian message is that the good man Jesus dies for we the bad. So we had lots of fruitful conversations like that in Kingston and and hopefully it got some people thinking.
SPEAKER_00Do you find sort of students you know, you've you've been to several um sort of missions week uh universities. Do you find them generally quite open?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very. It's it's incredible to think that you can just walk up to a student and say, you know, we're doing a survey of spiritual beliefs, would you like to take part? And 90% of them say yes. I mean that's that's uh astonishing. You know, uh I'm quite used to sort of going out on the on the streets of Eastbourne and Andy, you you know, you you do that too, and and we go out there and if we ask people, have you got a minute to talk about God, um uh we find that no, people uh tend not to. But students uh they could they've got they've got more time on their hands, let's put it that way, and they are open to talking about the bigger issues. So that there is a great openness, but also an incredible ignorance, so that, you know, when people self-identify as atheist, you push beneath that, and uh and it doesn't it doesn't really amount to any thought that's gone on. It's they've just sort of absorbed it from the culture. There was one woman I spoke to last week who um after speaking with her for about ten minutes, she said, Oh, you are so different from all the other religious people I've spoken to. All the other religious people I've spoken to are really hypocritical and and I I said to her, Have you spoken to many other religious people about this? And she paused and thought, and then said, Actually no, you're the first person I've ever spoken to about this thing. But sort of in her understanding, she kind of thinks, you know, all religious people are hypocrites and bigots, without ever actually having engaged with the issue at a at any serious level at all.
SPEAKER_00I guess it's uh for many, you know, uh come away from home and uh this is the first time that they've come away from an environment they're very used to and you know, seeking in a way, you know, looking for for meaning and Yeah, standing on their on their own two feet, not just believing stuff because their parents have and they're being encouraged to stretch their thinking.
SPEAKER_01So it's it's a good time to be involved in mission and and uh and people are open, but as I say, pretty ignorant.
SPEAKER_00How many sort of missions have you done now? CU missions?
SPEAKER_01Uh Christian Union missions. Well, I uh in the last sort of few weeks I've done three, and then before Christmas I uh did uh Bristol Uni and that was fantastic, and uh uh the year before that did uh Plymouth. So I'm I'm I'm doing more and more.
SPEAKER_00So what what does your sort of your your day a day in the life of an evangelist if you like? What's your kind of day-to-day uh involve?
SPEAKER_01Um I suppose I I kind of see my role split into three. Um there's speaking, there's training, and there's producing stuff. So the speaking is stuff like going to universities and and this weekend I'm going up to speak at a training course in a in a church in Sheffield, and next week I'm doing a mission in a church in in Leeds. So that's sort of the the speaking evangelistically part of my job. And but then I also sort of I I read Ephesians 4 and I see that actually evangelists have been given to the church to equip God's people for their works of service. So if if I'm just the one who's doing all the evangelism, I'm not doing my job as an evangelist. Actually, I'm meant to be equipping God's people for their works of evangelistic service. So uh so for instance I've been uh training up churches in uh in doing evangelism as well, so whether that's kind of weekends away or Lent courses or just putting on stuff for church leadership teams in in how they can think more evangelistically and equip their people uh to be evangelists. So that's the the training part of things, and then thirdly, uh producing resources. Um so I am freed up a bit more to be able to to write stuff, perhaps, you know, do podcasts like this, do videos and that sort of thing. So so that's just the the third part of of what I do.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it it's always amazing to me. I walk past your office and I can I can hear the tap of the keys and the you know. I know that you uh uh you're gifted it with words. And you've you've written several books. You back in the I think it was 2011, the King's English four hundredth anniversary, you wrote the King's English book, mm-hmm, which was twelve phrases from the King James Version, and then that was like a uh an evangelistic book, mm-hmm. So it led people to Christ. And then you wrote a blog. That's right. Uh so you did one one phrase every day. Yeah. Three hundred and sixty.
SPEAKER_01I went back, I I discovered that I actually did three hundred and sixty-nine. Like somehow I I over I overdid it. Yeah. So th I I just basically wanted to show the impact that the Bible has had on our culture and just sort of identified uh you know, a year's worth of phrases that have passed into common parlance and just blogged every day.
SPEAKER_00There was the video that that uh where you r uh wrote a poem. That's right. Uh you produced a poem.
SPEAKER_01It's like you're about to say rap. It is not a rap.
SPEAKER_00Where you g challenge yourself to do uh a hundred phrases in in uh three minutes. That's right. It's got about forty over forty thousand views on on YouTube. So it's pretty good. Um and then you from from that blog you wrote uh the King's English Devotional. That's right. Which is like basically a year's worth of um taking all the the phrases and looking at scripture and takes you from Genesis to Revelation from in the beginning to allelujah at the end.
SPEAKER_01So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Good. No, you've been writing something new um in this past year or so, uh, called 321. Can you tell me a little bit about the background, what how you sort of came to three two one?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's basically a gospel outline. You know the way you remember it is three two one. Three is uh God is three persons united in love. So beginning beginning with who God is, and I think that's really important in evangelism, we we so often assume who God is, and then the w the shape of your evangelism, once you've assumed God, uh takes your gospel in a certain direction. But if we if we begin in the beginning, there were three Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, um then suddenly you've got a family, and and suddenly the offer of the gospel is come home to the family. So three is God is three persons united in love. Two is uh the story of the world is the story of two representatives. Uh Adam takes the world down to death and and curse uh Jesus, the second Adam, uh raises up the world to life and blessing. Uh and then the you know, the final point is one, you are one with Adam. Will you be one with Jesus? Um and so that that's you know uh as as someone is being taken through the gospel. What's the way into the family? Well, currently I'm on the outside, I'm in Adam, I'm part of this cursed world. And yet Jesus, the second Adam, has come, he's dying for my sins, risen up again, and he says, Come be one with me. And when I'm one with him, I'm invited into the family, I have his father as my father, I have his spirit as my spirit, uh, I have his brothers and sisters as my brothers and sisters. So this is kind of the uh the gospel outline that I've been developing. And uh a good friend of mine, uh Jeremy Poyner, uh, has done a fantastic uh job of animating uh a little five-minute video. Um and that's sort of gotten out there, and then people have said, Well, what's next? And so I'm writing on a writing a book and I've done a an evangelistic course based on it. I've also done some evangelism training as a course based on it. So I want to get a tract out there. Um merchandising thing. It's gonna be three to one the t-shirt, three to one the lunchbox.
SPEAKER_00And uh you and I went to this coffee shop of a friend and we filmed how you would show it to a friend at a coffee shop on a bit of paper using a pen and pencil. That's right. We we can give a link to that actually in the show notes and Gospel origami. Go on, say your joke, go on.
SPEAKER_01The benefits of simple origami are twofold. That's it, that's a joke. That's right. Right. Very good, Mike. Are you gonna splice in some laughter at that point?
SPEAKER_00The jokes are as bad as the bosses. Okay, well, that gives us a bit of a picture of uh of what we're doing at the moment, that gives a bit of an insight. So if folks are interested, they can go to the website and we'll give all the details of that at the end of the programme. Okay, well, thanks very much, Glenn. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Uh we'll catch up again soon, and so until then. Bye bye. Bye-bye. Again, thanks for listening to the Evangelists podcast. You can catch up with us on our website, revivalmedia.org. And to get to this episode and show notes directly, where we list Glenn's King's English website we spoke about, plus the 321 website and video, just go to revivalmedia.org slash TEP1.