Curious about Christianity: A tool to help build relationships

Saffron Jenkinson (Mission Resources) introduces an evangelistic leaflet to help continue faith conversations and share the good news.

What is Curious about Christianity?

It’s an evangelistic leaflet that serves as a natural extension of an initial encounter. It’s designed to facilitate conversation – to further relationships and help make people feel more confident in conversations about Christianity. You don’t have to panic about having all the answers. If a person scans the QR code on the leaflet, they are taken to salvationist.org.uk/explore-christianity, where they can explore further. It leaves them with autonomy and relieves you of a moment of pressure – and no one wants to make someone feel pressured accidentally.

What led to it being created?

We realised there was a growing desire from corps leaders to have this kind of resource. Our prayer is that it resources not only people to share the good news, but also leaders to equip their congregations. We hope it will spark conversations and help that equipping process. There was a leaflet used in the past that was quite information-heavy – this new leaflet is designed to be shorter and snappier, to come earlier in someone’s faith journey. We have also developed four discipleship resource webpages, which are linked to from the Curious about Christianity webpage: building community, building devoted lives, building biblical knowledge and building bold witnesses.

We can forget that evangelism and discipleship are connected, can’t we?

When we think of things in our lives we’re excited about, even a new TV show, we naturally bubble up and talk about them. Sometimes we have to reignite the spark, to get back to a place of ‘yes, this is good news’. Speaking to people who are curious about Christianity benefits them, but it also sparks a curious heart within you. It can lead you to think about or defend your faith in a way that’s exciting. When we talk about Jesus in a conversational, relational way, it’s mutually beneficial.

That makes sense, because sharing the good news is about building relationships, isn’t it?

Yes. It’s also about being led by the person – they’re not just there for us to go out and convert. Each conversation is an encounter, an opportunity to be more open about your life and beliefs. A book I’m reading at the minute called The Familiar Stranger explains that, where before people wanted things to be proven intellectually, now people are seeking experiences. Someone can’t really debate your own experience, can they? That’s a really powerful thing. What’s exciting about sharing the good news person-to-person are those relatable moments where people can see for themselves. Jesus would say, ‘Come and see.’ That’s essentially what we’re doing: ‘Come and see. Come to our corps. Here’s a leaflet that can show you more.’

Why do some people find sharing the good news scary?

I think we can get caught up in how we will be perceived or insecurities about our own knowledge. Yes, it is important in the sense of people’s salvation, but we want to help get rid of the fear of this being a huge thing – we want to help make it part of your everyday conversations and an overflow of your life as a Christian. That then allows the Holy Spirit to move through you in a natural way.

Where can people use Curious about Christianity?

Everyone’s at different stages of evangelism in their lives, so they can use the leaflet in different places or bring it with them to an event for a specific person. Maybe they’ve been speaking to their neighbour and this leaflet is the next step!