European Leadership Forum 6

Tuesday
This has to be one of the most encouraging days of the Forum for me. The sun was again shining as I took my breakfast in the open air with brothers from Northern Ireland, USA, and Denmark.


We then proceeded to listen to a scintillating exposition of Genesis as John Lennox tokk us mopre into the story of Joseph. The first part of his Bible reading looked at Judah (Chapter 38) which was shown not to be an irrelevant sideline, but at the heart of the plan of Genesis to prepare the way for the seed of Adam to come as the Messiah. His insights were both pastoral and theological. Then he went on to consider the suffering and rejection of Joseph. We all left the main conference room inspired, humbled, wanting to know more and wanting to come home to share the pearls of insight with others.

The three hours of morning seminars on evangelism which followed were divided into two parts. In the first part we looked at the way to deal with questions which people ask us. We honed in on one question which we might be asked by an unbeliever – Are you saying that I’m going to Hell? We split into groups to discuss (a) What could be the motive behind such a question? (b) What would be the questions that we would ask? (c) How would we answer the question? The insights different people had on this was very helpful in thinking about dealing with such a question. In the second session Michael Ramsden took us through a number of logical fallacies which we might come accross when we talk to people. It was a practical and enjoyable session.

The Book Stall
One of the benefits of this Forum is the extensive bookstall that is here. A great number of books are available, and they are all at a 60% discount. We might think this is marvellous, and indeed I felt like a child in a sweetshop looking at the tables. But there is another aspect which sobers those of us who come from the west. Some of the participants from the poorer countries of Eastern Europe could hardly afford even these. So a scholarship fund is set up to help them. One couple from Serbia were speechless when they were given a small gift of 20 euros. They had not been able to spare any money to buy books, but a little gift meant that, together with the scholarship they could have some quality literature to take home with them. How humbled I felt, yet how rewarded when I saw the light and joy in their faces.