Ian
When Romford Baptist Church ran ‘Talking Jesus’ online during lockdown, ‘people really caught hold of it’, said Ian Bunce, the church leader, when he spoke to Hope Together about his experience of the course.
One of their members found herself challenged to go out and pray for people on the street. She felt a nudge to pray for a small child in a pushchair who was wearing leg braces, and when she offered, the child’s mum said ‘I’ll take anything!’. After she prayed, the child got up out of the pushchair and began running around!
‘We don’t know the story beyond that,’ said Ian. ‘[But] the mum went away rather overjoyed about what had happened [and] the person who had done the praying came back to the church rather enthusiastic… We don’t know the continuing story, but the sense that… through Talking Jesus she had the confidence IN Jesus to do something like that was incredible.’
A course that catches the imagination of a diverse audience
Ian decided to run the course (which is made up of six practical, video-based teaching sessions with inspirational testimonies to give real-life examples) when his large, multi-national church congregation were thirsting for more after completing the Prayer Course during lockdown. He described how the course felt appropriate for his diverse congregation with representatives from 45 different nations!
‘So many Christian films are middle-class white people leading it. This one wasn’t – it felt like anyone could be leading it. From young and old, whatever ethnicity you are, whatever gender you are – you are part of this story and that meant people were able to engage with it - it felt an inclusive make-up.’
The course has ‘caught people’s imagination,’ said Ian. He described it as ‘a bit more grounded’ than some other courses
‘It’s about helping people to understand the world around them, understand the culture of the nation at this time and that there are people who are out there who are longing for somebody to talk to them about Jesus… It’s talking to people, it’s praying and the power of prayer through it, which got people’s imaginations… this isn’t something where you’ve got to be clever. I often tell the church, “You don’t win somebody to Christ by them losing an argument with you, you win somebody to Christ by showing them Christ!” and particularly the “Pray for five to win one” was a great thing that people really caught hold off.’
Natural, everyday faith-sharing
The course highlights research that found that one in five people is open to hearing and responding to the gospel, and encourages participants to identify five people to pray for and be intentional with. Each week of the course, people in the church would share their stories about encounters with one of their five – they were beginning to pray for people and share Jesus naturally with them.
Throughout lockdown, people that Romford Baptist Church was encountering for the first time online were responding to the gospel. Although Ian said they ‘can’t track directly’ whether these were people who had engaged with church as a result of members sharing faith after the Talking Jesus course, he definitely believes that ‘people from all walks of life have had significant conversations with friends who are now on journeys that they weren’t on before with’.
If you think running the Talking Jesus course would help your church grow in following the call of Jesus to share our faith, you can find out more here.