It's challenging to share one's faith in an increasingly secular society, so Christian Vision has produced an app to help Christians talk about Jesus.
Everyone loves hearing good news. Whether it’s the birth of a child, students passing their exams, friends getting engaged, or family members landing a new job. One of the terms used most frequently in the New Testament to describe the Christian message is the Greek word euangelion, which means good news. It’s derived from two Greek words, eu, which means good, and angelos, which means messenger (from where the word angel comes from).
The apostle Paul refers to the good news in Romans 1:1: “This letter is from Paul…chosen to be an apostle and sent out to preach His good news.” If you haven’t read the first chapter of Romans in a while, can I encourage you to do so because it’s a wonderful summary of the Christian message. Paul explains that the good news is about God’s Son, Jesus, who was born into the family line of King David and shown to be the Son of God when He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Paul explains that Jesus is Lord and through Him, “God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey Him, bringing glory to his name” (1:5).
The privilege to tell people what God has done remains open to us today, and we’re invited to tell God’s story. However, telling others isn’t always easy, and we read in scripture that the early disciples faced opposition. Acts 8:1 explains: “A great wave of persecution swept over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.” As the believers scattered they preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. Notable was Philip the evangelist who was one of the first to take the good news outside the borders of Judaism. When Christians fled Jerusalem after the death of Stephen, Philip preached the good news in Samaria, Azotus and the Roman city of Caesarea.
"Without doubt Britain is an increasingly secular society and sharing our Christian faith can seem at odds with the prevailing culture."
Whilst we might not be facing persecution like the first-century Christians encountered, faith sharing in Britain today is still challenging. Earlier this week I walked into Waterstones bookshop and on the featured books stand was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Both are well-known works that argue against faith and set a secular cultural tone. Furthermore, the Church of England has witnessed massive decline in recent years with the number of people belonging to the church halving in less than two decades. In 2017 Humanists UK tweeted that “The non-religious are a majority in every age apart from the 65+.” According to the British Social Attitudes social research survey last year, 71 per cent of 18 – 24 year olds don’t have a religion.
Without doubt Britain is an increasingly secular society and sharing our Christian faith can seem at odds with the prevailing culture. It’s not easy to share what we believe with our friends and family members, let alone with those we don’t know. What is the solution? Well, the recent Talking Jesus research highlighted that 67 per cent of the population know a practicing Christian, and conversations with Christians are one of the most important influences in bringing people to faith. I work for a global ministry called Christian Vision (CV). The charity was founded in 1988 by Lord Edmiston with the ambition of reaching a billion people with the good news.
One of the resources that CV produces is a smart phone app called yesHEis. yesHEis is a free app available for download in the Google Play and App Stores, and it’s designed to make spreading the good news easier. It hosts a variety of video content including short testimonies and inspiring films which can be shared on social media. The concept is easy: watch some of the videos and if there’s one you think friends or family might enjoy, send it to them. The hope is that it will start a conversation about Jesus.
The videos are topically themed and cover a wide range of relatable subject matter. They can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp or text message. Evangelism can take place from the comfort of your living room. At the time of writing there are more than 300,000 active users of yesHEis around the world, and the app incorporates inspiring blogs, hints and evangelism tips to make faith sharing that little bit easier. Why not download the app and share a video today? Not only will that unlock all the free videos in the library, but it might just spark a life-changing conversation about Jesus.
The Rev Jon Turner is UK country manager for Christian Vision.
