Dr Paul Allen

It’s not easy to initiate gospel conversations in a secular age. There can be various reasons: perhaps unhurried interactions are rare, the vibe isn’t conducive to profound moments, or we fall into relational and conversational ruts that make the thought of going there seem painfully awkward. But what if the reasons for our silence go deeper? One way to become reinvigorated for a task is to reflect on what keeps us from doing it in the first place. Here, then, are three common reasons we keep quiet. 1. We ignore our context. In a post-Christian age, we can’t presume any basic assumptions in those we’re trying to reach with the gospel. So we must lean in and listen well to climb into our neighbour’s way of seeing and inhabiting the world. Otherwise, we’ll speak about terms—even biblical ones—that’ll be misunderstood or rejected outright. “God loves you” is great news but meaningless if you don’t understand the nature of God (or, for that matter, love). “You are a sinner” is true, but me...

Christians have often been troubled by the question, How do we rightly read the Old Testament? Thankfully, the book of Hebrews provides us with important directions on how to interpret the Old Testament rightly, now that Christ has fulfilled all things. However, the history of theology and the history of the church demonstrate that there are disastrously wrong ways to read the Old Testament. The first major error made in approaching the Old Testament comes down to reading it as if it is a book that does not belong to the church.  This way of reading the Bible assumes that the Old Testament belongs to the Jews, whereas the New Testament belongs to the church. Sometimes the way we describe our congregations can unintentionally lend to this type of understanding. For example, Protestants are very concerned about ordering their church life so that they are legitimately a “New Testament church.”  By this, we mean that we are seeking to follow the ecclesiology modeled ...