EQUIP Shorts: Tony Payne, 'How to Walk into Church'

For many of us, church is something that falls into the ‘motion’ and ‘routine’ of the week. Sunday rolls around which means that we hop into the car and head down to the ‘church’ building to sing some songs, hear a bit of the Bible and talk to some people before heading back home.

If you’re someone who’s finding church draining at the moment, have never really thought about what church is or how you can contribute; this is a great book that will point you to God’s picture of church and the generosity of service that flows out of it.

Tony Payne’s How to Walk into Church is a refreshing reminder of what’s at the heart of our church gatherings. He gently encourages us to think more about church and how we can ‘walk well’ as we participate each week.

Tony helpfully begins by outlining the Biblical foundation of what church is. In a culture that is increasingly consumerist, he points us to God’s word and what the focus should be; church isn’t about me, it’s about God and others.

So often our culture tells us that anything that we attend is measured by what we can get out of it. It’s only worthwhile if you get something from it. And this influences the way that we see church.

But God’s image of church is a thing of beauty and delight, a family that has been gathered by God. A community that cares for each other and isn’t self-centred or self-serving, aiming to ‘maximise the return’ for the time that you spend with them, but one that is generous, God centred and other-person focused.

One of the most helpful things he discusses is the importance of prayer and preparation before coming to church. Often I arrive at church without much thought, but if I’d reflected a bit beforehand and asked God to help me be intentional in my conversations, how much more could I encourage the people I meet with?! This is just one of the many practical ways that Tony encouraged me to ‘walk well’.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s accessible, practical, fun (look out for Tony’s ‘screen saver’ comment!) and so very helpful in encouraging me to rethink how I walk into church. It truly is a privilege to belong to God’s family of forgiven sinners and even more, a joy to be able to consciously build others up and demonstrate the gospel in action to those around us.

EQUIP Shorts: Helen Thorne, 'Purity is Possible'

Sex, porn, fantasy, erotica - words and topics that make most Christian women blush. Sisters, we need to get real with each other and change the conversation.

In the past years, I've spoken to more and more women about the taboo topic of females engaging with porn and fantasy. Amongst Christian women, one common theme emerges - they feel like they are the only ones looking/feeling/thinking these things. I hardly hear anyone talk about these things. Most sermons address men as the ones with the sexual urges, and women as needing to beware of the lure of an Austen novel when it comes to romance. While this might also be true, it leaves a lot of women who are struggling with fantasy and porn feeling trapped.

Enter Purity is Possible, an incredibly on point book by Helen Thorne. In this book, Helen deals quite frankly with the facts: 1 in 5 Christian women are now looking at porn. This book is more timely than ever. When women are obviously reading porn in public and when porn is being sold at the supermarket checkout, you know something is wrong with how our culture views sex.

This book is a joyful book. Helen reminds us that, even in a broken and sinful world, we can see true beauty in Christ. Helen deals with a topic that can so easily lead to a heavy burden of guilt and shame by constantly pointing us to the one who takes it all away - Jesus Christ. Helen is not writing to make her readers feel guilty. She is writing to make you aware of your idols, and to remind you of the truth: Christ accomplishes what your idols never can. Christ satisfies like your idols never can. Christ loves like your idols never can. 

Purity is Possible gets to the heart of the fantasy issue - idolatry. People are using porn to achieve intimacy, relationship, to alleviate loneliness, to experience what we cannot, to take control. But these are all false gods that will only ever turn our eyes away from the true and living God. Purity is Possible recognises the issues that lie within our hearts, even before we begin to fantasize, and tackles them head on.   

But I've never struggled with these things... 

Purity is Possible is not just a book for those who are struggling to escape the sexual fantasy trap. It is a book for all women. We have a responsibility as sisters in Christ to care for one another, to present everyone mature in Christ. Our churches and our bible studies aren't discussing these issues, but clearly there are women dealing with these things. Don't say "this isn't me". Read this book and prepare yourselves to care for your sisters in Christ.

Three Christian women were brave enough to share their own stories over on my blog here if anyone is interested: https://hereinthewaitingroom.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/the-secret-struggle-christian-women-and-porn/

EQUIP Shorts: Sarah Bradley, ‘True’

Call me superficial, but I first picked up True because I liked the cover. Through I noticed recently that the Good Book Company has republished it with a slightly different cover! 

It’s a great little book. Especially written for girls 10-14, it aims to help teenager girls be excited about living for Jesus in every relationship in their lives. I don’t think there’s anything like it on the market.

It’s a lovely mix of the Bible and earthy illustrations. Each chapter explores one Bible passage, and then finishes with seven practical ideas, a real-life testimony and a Bible study. 

True is a super easy read, but it deals with deep issues. You can tell that Sarah Bradley is very experienced in youth ministry as she politely gets right inside a teenage girl’s head. The material on body image, which it opens with, is insightful and grounded. I loved reading it with my daughter, as it was very easy to chat through.

True is perfect for Mums and daughters to read together, but it’s also a great gift for a niece or a friend’s daughter. It can be used in a girl’s bible study group or even youth group. 

Written primarily for Christians, it’s also very accessible for interested unbelievers.

Meet Sarah Bradley here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9SYnQkR784

EQUIP shorts: Andrea Trevenna, 'The Heart of Singleness'

(How to be single and satisfied)

The Heart of Singleness by Andrea Trevenna speaks sensitively and practically into a topic that can dominate our thought life, swamp our prayer life and hinder our ability to actually live the life God has prepared for us. She puts our hearts on trial and concludes that, “Our hearts need to be captured by something bigger and better than having or not having a husband.”

Trevenna begins by unpacking the term ‘the gift of singleness’ through the teaching of the apostle Paul. For many it is an unwanted gift, the kind that warrants a ‘thanks’ through gritted teeth whilst inwardly we grumble ‘but it’s not what I asked for’. Using Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, Trevenna describes how our hearts are desperately thirsty and long for the one who will quench that thirst. She explains how the gospel of Jesus does just that. Where we might use religion to distract and convince ourselves that we should feel content, the gospel warms and melts our hearts, changing us from the inside. When we question God’s goodness as he withholds marriage from us, Trevenna asks us to ask ourselves, “Am I really going to make the measure of his love whether he gives me a husband, instead of whether he gave his life for me?”

Two fictional single women accompany us on our journey through the book, Sally and Maya. One lives her life in joyless obedience, waiting for God to fulfil his promise to give her the desires of her heart. The other has taken matters into her own hands as God’s will for her life does not match up to her own. Trevenna likens the two women to the brothers in the parable of the prodigal son, one dutiful and resentful, the other impatient and wilful. She suggests that we may identify with either to some extent, and that the root of the problem is in wanting what the father can give us rather than the father himself.

This book is warm, personal, biblical, and pragmatic. As with all conversations like this, it can only go so far in reconciling what we know and what we feel; our sinful nature still urges us to dwell upon what we don’t have rather than what we do. But Trevenna reminds us that marriage is a picture, a precious picture, but a picture nonetheless, of the relationship between us and God. She traces this relationship history along the storyline of the Bible, and we can see that to long for a husband is to long for the shadow of something we already have.

By Ruth Schroeter

EQUIP shorts: Rico Tice, 'Honest Evangelism'

Evangelism can be like flossing

We all know that we should floss, but we don’t do it as often as we should. So when I picked up Rico Tice’s book Honest Evangelism, I expected to hear the same thing I hear from my dentist. I braced myself for the questions: “Have you been doing this regularly? No? Why not?”

But unlike a visit to the dentist, this book is not one long and expensive guilt trip. Rico’s book is excellent. It’s short, clear and engaging. Rico has a warm writing style and is happy to share many of his own experiences of evangelism with us in order to encourage and equip. Honest Evangelism is a refreshing look at not only how we can be sharing Jesus with others, but why we should.

As I read Honest Evangelism, I was both comforted by the things Rico said and incredibly challenged by them.

Comfort - we are all created differently by God, which means we all have different ways of evangelising. Rico observes the different people in the Bible and the way that Paul shares the gospel differently to Peter, who shares it differently to the blind man healed, who shares the gospel differently to the Samaratin woman at the well. God has made us all with different strengths, and so whether you are an intellectual ready for debate, or a storyteller sharing of the things Jesus has done, or a keen inviter asking people to come and hear about Jesus, you have what it takes to evangelise.

Challenge - God has made us all differently, but he has made us to all share the gospel with others. When we understand the glory of Jesus, the certainty of new creation and the grim reality of death and hell, we understand the necessity for all Christians to evangelise. If I am convicted that these are true, I am left with no other option but to evangelise.

After reading this book, I had to be honest with myself. Honest Evangelism caused me to ask some hard questions:

1. How much do I trust that God is sovereign? Do I trust that God has placed me in the networks and neighbourhood I am in for the sake of his name, and if yes then what am I doing to share Jesus with those around me?

2. How can I be more prayerful? Am I praying actively for opportunities to share God with the people I am surrounded by, and am I praying for conversations I have had? Do I make prayer a priority or am I trying to do it all with my own strength?

3.  How can I be sharing Jesus with people?

When it comes to evangelism, we are all on a spectrum ranging from super keen to scared. Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, Honest Evangelism will encourage you from God’s word that evangelism is worth it.

By Tara Sing 

Introducing EQUIP shorts: Jen Wilkin, 'Women of the Word'

In the lead-up to EQUIP conference 2015 we're going to review some of the books that will be for sale (plus some others mentioned at the EQUIP Ministry Wives Conference last month!). To begin proceedings Sarah Cameron has reviewed Jen Wilkin's Women of the Word.

We know that it’s good to meet with other Christian women to read the Bible, but how should we actually go about it? Do we look for a Bible verse that speaks to our current situations, like Matthew 11:28 when we’re feeling weary? Or do we look for a Bible passage to answer our current decision dilemma about that new job? Are we drawn to topical series after topical series? Or maybe we just feel more comfortable reading a book about the Bible and learn from someone else’s insight? 

Jen Wilkin helpfully critiques these, and other methods in the book Women of the Word: How to study the Bible with both our hearts and our minds. Instead, she puts forward a case for improving our Biblical literacy, where we not only know our Bibles well but are able to interpret and apply passages faithfully. Why? So that we would be equipped to love God more. 

So how to grow in our Bible literacy? Jen puts forward a model for studying / reading God’s word, with purpose, perspective, patience, process and prayer (don’t you love a good alliteration to something- easy to remember!). In a nutshell we’re talking about: 

• Purpose: Understanding how individual passages fit in to God’s overarching story of creation – sin – redemption – restoration that the Bible documents from Genesis to Revelation. 

• Perspective: Digging deeper into the passage at hand and seeing how its message is communicated to a human audience by a human author living in a particular time and place. 

• Patience: Improving our Bible literacy is not something that will happen overnight but is a long-term process as our hearts and minds are changed. I found this to be a particularly helpful reminder when I just want instant gratification! 

• Process: Here Jen provides some practical tips for improving our comprehension, interpretation and application of the Bible. 

• Prayer: Considers the importance of incorporating prayer into all parts of our study – before, during and after. 

We never graduate from needing to read our Bible’s well, so this book is helpful for Christian women at all stages of life and all levels of maturity in Christ. It’s not just a book for Bible study leaders either, as I found it helpful for thinking through my own personal quiet times and how I read the Bible one to one with others. Jen’s book is one I can see myself returning to over and over in times to come because of her simple and easy to understand explanations and insightful critiques of our Bible study habits.