David Illman was recently made co-director of Christian Heritage, Cambridge
Christian Heritage works to train Christians in communicating and defending the gospel.
David Illman, its new co-director, is passionate about helping the church to engage with secular culture. EN spoke to him about his vision and his work.
en: What is Christian Heritage?
DI: Christian Heritage is a community of thinkers who take Christianity seriously. We seek to engage with our culture and to equip the church to do the same.
We believe deeply in the Lordship of Christ over the whole of life. This means that we want to integrate Christian thought into every area of existence, and to demonstrate that it gives the best answers to life’s difficult questions.
We are based in the Round Church, a stunning 12th-century building right in the heart of Cambridge. It’s a prime location from which to speak back into the culture. Within a beautiful, historic university city known for its academic excellence, we function as a kind of apologetics and evangelism resource hub. We run a visitor centre, walking tours, annual summer schools, regular evening events and a year-long apprenticeship scheme. Through our diverse activities we aim to have an impact on the church and our community, both locally and nationally.
Truth to a sceptical world
en: How did Christian Heritage start?
DI: Christian Heritage began with Ranald Macaulay. Ranald, along with his wife Susan, had worked for many years at L’Abri (a fellowship started by Francis and Edith Schaeffer). When they moved to Cambridge, Ranald formed Christian Heritage with a three-fold vision: commending the truth of Christianity to a sceptical world; promoting appreciation for the influence of Christianity on Western civilisation; and equipping Christians to demonstrate the reasonableness and transforming power of their faith.
en: How did you become a Christian?
DI: I grew up in California, where my father was a church planter. My parents raised me to understand the Christian faith as something which is open, honest and full of life. Their own walk of faith was challenging and difficult at times, but it was rich and real. Within our family, faith involved being honest, asking questions of the Bible and demonstrating the love of Jesus in practical ways.
However, my own coming to faith was a slow and gradual process. After high school I left home to study at a Christian liberal arts school called Covenant College. I immediately felt that I didn’t fit into the dominant Christian sub-culture. Many people seemed to be hiding behind a ‘squeaky clean’ pretence and I became increasingly disenchanted with the whole enterprise.
Perhaps surprisingly, I went on to study at Covenant Seminary – but not because I wanted to become a pastor! In fact, I can’t honestly say that I was a true Christian when I started at seminary. From the beginning I knew I wanted more than a theological education: I wanted to get my questions answered. Most of all, I wanted to get my head around the idea that I could have an intimate relationship with a transcendent God. I wanted to investigate the person of Jesus and how I could relate to him personally.
Reasoned defence for the faith
For me, the whole experience of seminary was less about essays and more about growing as a person. The professors – Jerram Barrs, Richard Winter, Hans Beyer – were great at seeing you as more than just a brain. The more I learnt about grace as an intellectual concept the more I understood its relevance for my life. By the time I left, I was utterly convinced that Christianity was true and that I was going to dedicate my life – and my career – to Jesus.
I began to gain confidence in articulating my faith. I started teaching apologetics in US high schools and seminaries, explaining to young Christians how they could give a reasoned defence of their faith.
Then I heard Ranald speak and his approach immediately resonated with me. He invited me to Cambridge to see what Christian Heritage was doing and, in 2008, my wife and I did just that. We were sweeping the floor, doing the photocopying, whatever it took to be able to listen to Ranald and learn from him.
I had read a lot of Francis Schaeffer while studying and was desperate to discuss it further with Ranald. I also felt that Christian Heritage, in the middle of Cambridge, was at the cutting edge in the marketplace of ideas. We knew we had to return and so, in 2011, I gave up teaching so that we could move to Cambridge permanently, to work with Christian Heritage.
en: Christians are often called to ‘engage with the culture’. Why should we do that?
DI: We should engage with the culture because it is biblical! Jesus himself didn’t just stay inside the temple walls. He entered the ‘gentile-infested waters’ of Galilee, Samaria and beyond. He challenged the spiritual leaders of his day for shutting themselves off in a safe religious cocoon and ignoring the world around them.
If truth is truth, it is relevant to all of life and everyone needs to hear it. Jesus’s early followers understood the significance of this fact – we read about Peter and Paul debating in the synagogue, the marketplace, anywhere they could find listeners. Acts could almost be called ‘the book of apologetics’.
Personally, I grew up in a sceptical culture. I am still a sceptic in many ways; it is only by the grace of God that I am a believer. I am still drawn to other sceptics and here in Cambridge so many people have honest questions – they just want honest answers. I love discussing and debating with them, and long to lead them to the truth of the gospel. I also want to help other Christians make the transition that I made, from conviction to confidence.
Learning from the past
en: What can we learn from Christians from the past about how best to engage the culture while staying definitely Christian?
DI: After Jesus himself, Paul was the original apologist. When Paul spoke at the Areopagus he riled people, not by talking about Jesus, but by talking about his resurrection. It struck at the heart of the philosophical assumptions that formed the foundations of his society.
Walking around Cambridge, I am faced with daily reminders of others who followed in Paul’s footsteps: James Clerk Maxwell, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and William Wilberforce. For each of these great leaders, it was their theistic convictions that led to their revolutionary ideas. Their engagement with culture – be it through academia, science, philosophy or politics – did not shake their faith. It was their faith which shook the culture, and continues to do so.
In the 20th century, Francis Schaeffer is a great example of someone who has demonstrated how we can speak truth into our culture. He is a great inspiration to me. He was both orthodox with his faith and liberal with his love. L’Abri, the fellowship which began with Schaeffer, continues to practice his life-affirming conviction that ‘love is the final apologetic’. We hope to do the same through our work at Christian Heritage.
en: What is your role at Christian Heritage and how can we pray for you and the work?
DI: I am now the co-director of Christian Heritage, working alongside Martin Lown. I will be focussing on building the apologetics ministry, while Martin will concentrate on expanding the work of the visitor centre.
Please pray that I will continue to learn how to be a good husband to Sarah and a good father to my three children. I hope that our family life can be an example of grace in action.
For Christian Heritage, pray that we will be unrelenting in speaking the truth to the culture and the church. Pray that we would continue to welcome discussion and debate, that we would always build the kingdom and not our own reputation, and that we would maintain a focus on serving and equipping the church.
