Third part of a transcript of Gavin Calver’s introductory keynote at the EEA General Assembly 2021. Read part one here  and part two here. 

3. Compelled to share

So, our God is all-powerful, Christianity cannot be swept away, and finally for us, we are compelled to share the message. The Sanhedrin was convened [Acts 5:21]. […] The Sanhedrin in the Jewish Council [was] proper wealthy, proper intelligent, proper smart, and well-dressed […].

The Sanhedrin sat in a circle, and they sent for the apostles. The messengers came back and told them, “They’re not there!” So, the Sanhedrin asks, “Was the door open I know?” “No!” “Where the walls of the prison broken?” “No!”

“Could you see any of them anywhere?” “No!” “Where are they?” “Don’t know.” What a moment, friends! We have got this Jewish council of geniuses stuck around trying to work this out; the apostles went missing and no one knows what to do.

I grew up in a family of geniuses. My dad’s an absolute genius. I am one of four kids; the other three are really clever. I did not get the brains; I got the looks.

And growing up with geniuses, I noticed in my family that they could solve any conundrum or theory known to mankind but did not have a lot of common sense.

They could not put a picture on the wall, but they could solve any theory. I think of the Sanhedrin a bit like this. They sit around, their brains the size of the solar system are rotating to try and solve this problem. “What could possibly have happened to these apostles?”

No one knows what to do. Smoke starts coming out […] until someone looks out of the window and says, “Surprise! They’re out here!” “What are they doing?” the Sanhedrin asks. “What you put them in prison for.”

You see, when the gospel of Jesus gets in your guts, it just pours out to everyone around us. We are compelled to share. […] We as the Evangelical Alliance, as people of the “evangel”, of the good news, need to encourage every Christian to share the hope they have in Jesus.

Grains of sand look similar from a distance, but up close, they are entirely different. It is a bit like people. It is going to take every person to fulfill the Great Commission.

We need every Christian witnessing. We have done some bad things, certainly in the UK. We have made evangelism a personality type. We have made witnessing a job, when actually every Christian is a witness or an imposter.

And here is the thing: People like me can be a bit much for some people. We need introverts, extroverts, and everything in between. We need all to witness!

I met a passion expert, because I am concerned, I might not be passionate enough. And she said to me, “Do you know how you can tell what people are passionate about?” I said, “Yeah! By what they spend their money on.” She said, “No, what you spend your money on is entirely socially conditioned.

There are two ways you can tell what people are passionate about: Firstly, by what they spend their time on; there is nothing more precious than time. And secondly, by what they talk about.

It’s impossible to have a half-hour conversation with someone and not hear out of their mouth what they’re most passionate about.” So, the question to us as leaders and to the people we are leading is “Are we in love with Jesus enough? Are we caught up in awe and wonder of the Lord enough that we can’t help but talk about it when they are gathered around us?”

You see, our God is all-powerful, Christianity cannot be swept away, we are compelled to share, and right now, [when] talk[ing] about building the kingdom of God in Europe, the greatest opportunity is right now.

In this season of pandemic, we have seen all kinds of change and growth: Alpha online exploding, online church and [other] things taking place. But what we have really seen throughout Europe is a growth in mortality salience.

Mortality salience is an awareness of your own fragility as a human being. It is an awareness that you might die, and therefore you might be in need of something greater than just the self. It is normally reserved for a warzone, but in [these] last 18 months […] we have all been living with mortality salience, not in a warzone, but on our sofas.

The news, many nights, has excess deaths on it. People who never thought about death are now thinking about death. We have been answering the questions the world was not asking for many years.

Now they are asking them, we need to make sure we answer them. So right now, I believe, the ground is more fertile for evangelism than it has ever been in my lifetime. And in a year’s time, if we do not make the most of this now, culture will have moved on.

But right now, as things unlock and open up, there is a mortality salience in the culture. What we need is to step out as a brave and kind church, to love those struggling, to make some bold moves for the kingdom, and to not miss the moment.

For many years, Europe has been dry and not open to the gospel; right now, it is more open than ever before.

Let us build the kingdom of God in Europe. Let us take the opportunity right now. Let us bring hope because people are looking for hope. I debated with two secular humanists, and they offered no hope.

They came to me at the end and all I said was, “I bring hope into what feels like a hopeless situation. Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.” We are carriers of hope and shares of hope.

Our God is all-powerful. With him nothing is impossible. Whatever may happen to us individually, Christianity cannot be swept away. We need to encourage the whole Church because all Christians are compelled to share.

Let us make the most of this moment we have, with those around us asking the questions we have been answering for years when they were not asking them.

Let us reach out to our friends, our workmates, people we have not seen for years, the prodigals, the barber, the person at the local restaurant, because right now people are looking for hope.

They are asking questions, and we know hope. His name is Jesus. […]

God bless you all.

Gavin Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance United Kingdom (EAUK).

This article was first published by the European Evangelical Alliance and re-published with permision.