Scattering seeds to get people thinking

HOW TO SPEAK LIFE:
Sharing your Faith in 321
By Glen Scrivener
10 Publishing. 176 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978 1 915 705 075

This is a companion volume to the Glen Scrivener’s How to See Life, which was released earlier this year and reviewed in the February edition of en.

In this book the author explores how we speak life to people today. He highlights two important factors to bear in mind:

1. The coming of Jesus into the world has changed the focus of our conversation about God: ‘Now all the questions boil down to a single issue: can I trust this man?’
2. The amazing possibilities evoked by the image used by Jesus in the Parable of the Sower to describe His word; that image is the seed. The author reflects on the dynamics of the parable, that describes how the seed lands in different contexts. He is honest about the fact that in his work as an evangelist his speaking is hit and miss, and mostly miss! Yet he also describes the power of the seed of God’s word to change the way that people think, believe and live.
   
   The main part of the book guides the reader through a series of seed-like statements that are designed to germinate into useful evangelistic conversations. The premise of this approach is that before we offload gospel answers, we need to help people think about why they might need or want those answers in the first place. The seeds to scatter are:

• What gets you thinking?
• That’s what I love about Jesus.
• Which God do(n’t) you believe in?
• That’s why I try to live differently.
• What gets you down?
• That’s why I have hope.
• What gets you through?
• That’s what I love about my church.

‘The church has one job: sow the seed. In other words: share the word. Speak life, you might say.’

The book concludes with some helpful FAQs and a fascinating section where the author masterfully sums up the gospel in 90 seconds, and finally with some suggestions for the way forward in seed scattering.

This is a readable and practical book, it is full of insight concerning the gospel message, brimming over with relatable stories and street-level suggestions for action. Engaging thought-provoking exercises are scattered through the book to encourage the reader to be more than a passive observer.

Near the end of the book, almost as if the author anticipates the charge that he might be writing with more than a little gift-projection, he humbly reminds the reader that: ‘… the power lies in the seed, and not in the sower. We just concern ourselves with scattering, the rest is in God’s hands. It’s the lesson I have been learning for a long time.’

Church leaders will want to read this book with a view to encouraging the members of their congregation to read it and be motivated to sow the seeds themselves.

Careful readers will pick up the Timothy Keller-like emphasis on what Tim called ‘Pastoral Evangelism.’ By which he meant that it was the gospel that both attracted unbelievers to Christ and nurtured believers in Christ. It was this philosophy that led Redeemer Manhattan to aim to evangelise and nurture in the same service. Glen Scrivener suggests that evangelising and pastoring are more similar that you think.

‘Really it’s the audience that’s different rather than the message or the tone. Here’s how I like to say it:

Pastoral care is evangelising Christians.
Evangelising is pastoring non-Christians.’

I think that this definition needs some finessing, but it would repay careful thought to think about what we are seeking to achieve when we scatter the seed of God’s word in our weekly gatherings.