South Asian Forum of the Evangelical Alliance Newsletter
Issue 27: June 2017
The South Asian Forum (SAF) is a grouping within the Evangelical Alliance, it was set up to provide a place for South Asian Christians in the UK to encourage, support and equip each other for mission, and to represent their concerns to government, media and the wider Church. With the support of both individual members and church members totalling more than 20,000 people, SAF is steadily growing. Visit saf.eauk.org to get involved in supporting this wonderful
S outh As i a n F orum of the
Evangelical Alliance
connecting, uniting, representing
ministry by becoming a member of SAF. Once you become a member, you will receive idea, the Alliance’s bi-monthly magazine, as well as regular newsletters from SAF detailing our progress. If you are already a member of the Evangelical Alliance you can add SAF to your Alliance membership at no extra cost. In this instance please send an email to saf@eauk.org
Listening well when sharing faith A while back, I was sitting in a very nice coffee shop with a Hindu friend who has very strong opinions of conversion; he was eager to tell me why it is so wrong. He is someone I’ve got to know over the past couple of years and with whom I have had many robust and honest conversations. I am pleased that our mutual respect for each other has enabled a good friendship to form. ‘So why do you Christians want to convert everybody?’ he asked, ‘Why are you all so arrogant to think you have the only truth?’ I gave him the reply I have given to many friends of different faiths; I explained how I love being a Christian and I think it’s the best thing ever! It gives me hope for the future, it offers forgiveness and comfort now, and it is hugely enriching and fulfilling. Consequently, I’d love others to also experience this and that is why I tell them about Jesus. But there’s no compulsion for anyone to convert, it is an offer not a demand. In the past, my friends have appreciated that answer and it has led to further conversation. In this instance, he looked at me and simply asked, ‘why do you assume I haven’t got all those things in Hinduism?’ I have to confess that his answer surprised me, and not wanting to upset him or prove his point that I was another arrogant Christian demeaning Hinduism I replied, ‘I didn’t say that. I don’t know what you’ve found in Hinduism, what I know is what I’ve found in Christianity and it’s that I’d love to talk about. If you’ve found all those things in Hinduism I’d love to hear about that too’. I don’t know what he was expecting me to say – but it wasn’t that. That encounter encapsulates so much of the fun and challenge of ministry amongst people of different faiths. Jesus spent a lot of time sitting and chatting to people of different backgrounds and, for me, being a disciple of Jesus means following him into those places too. It means being willing to sit and eat with friends who hold different views, being willing to talk about my faith in Jesus but also being willing to listen to them. So often we encounter people of other faiths who may have opinions of Christianity borne out of previous encounters with Christians or through things they’ve read about Christians (which may or may not be true or kind!). Once I would have found some attitudes to Christianity deeply challenging and even troubling, but I’ve come to see that
patiently listening and spending time with people like my Hindu friend can start to change their attitude towards Christianity, and my attitude towards them! I have also come to appreciate that the Good News of Jesus needs to be shared with deep love and patience trusting him to do a good work, rather than me manipulating a conversation to get the outcome I want to see. When I started this kind of ministry over 20 years ago I wanted to do all the talking and control the conversation towards an opportunity for people to hear the truth and convert. I discovered that not many people respond to that sort of encounter. I have had to re-learn what Jesus meant when he said the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbours. In essence my journey of sharing faith has been about trying to work out what that unconditional love looks like in real life so that people like my Hindu friend can encounter it for themselves and decide how they want to respond. At the heart of this love is taking an interest in people and that means listening wholeheartedly to their views on faith, however different it maybe to my own. Canon Dr Andrew Smith Director of Interfaith Relations for the Bishop of Birmingham