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Going Public with Your Faith - Becoming a spiritual influence at work (Book Review)

From autumn 2004 - Going Public with Your Faith - Becoming a spiritual influence at work (Book Review) : (p21)

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Going Public with Your Faith - Becoming a spiritual influence at work - William Carr Peel THM and Walt Larimore MD - Zondervan 2003 - £9.99 Pb 215 ISBN 0310246091

I have heard it said that there is one thing that Christians and non-Christians have in common: they both hate evangelism. At first it might seem a strange thing to say, but on reflection many of us will agree with this. Have you ever felt uncomfortable about how to witness, or felt that people are trying to get you involved in evangelistic efforts that make you cringe inwardly, but you daren't say anything for fear of being considered a second class Christian? If so, there is hope for you in this book.

From a biblical perspective and illustrated with many stories from their own and others' experience, Bill Peel (pastor and theologian) and Walt Larimore (a doctor now working with 'Focus on the Family') demonstrate that evangelism is a process, not an event. They go on to show that not only can we get involved without feeling like a square peg in a round hole, but that there is an essential role for each one of us. The church's goal should not only be to get the community into church but to get the church into the community and that's where the ordinary working day comes in.

Taking a farming illustration that Jesus used, they help us to see that a prolonged but essential period of cultivating and then sowing may be needed, before the season for harvesting comes in a person's life. Little by little as we get to know people in our daily work and as we pray for them, we can see what God is doing in their lives and be able to help them to take the next step towards a relationship with God.

This book is readable, full of biblical teaching, and will encourage you to believe that God can use you. Much of its practical application for Christian doctors and healthcare workers is found in the Saline Solution conferences that CMF is taking around Britain, but Going Public with your Faith is for all Christians in every walk of life and I plan to give several copies away as presents this year.



Article written by Kevin Vaughan

More from triple helix: autumn 2004

  • Government consultations - It is our duty to be involved
  • New DFID paper on sexual health - Foolishness on a grand scale
  • Leslie Burke v the GMC - Good news for vulnerable patients
  • Poaching health professionals - A growing injustice needing urgent solutions
  • Is Sexual Orientation a Myth?
  • The Mental Capacity Bill - Gateway to Euthanasia?
  • Working Abroad
  • Facing the Obesity epidemic
  • Herbs in Medicine
  • Serving, Not Being Served
  • Employed by God
  • Building a Spiritual Team
  • How I'd Handle it - Tired and Stressed
  • Eutychus
  • Handbook of Religion and Health (Book Review)
  • Touching the Ends of the Earth (Book Review)
  • When Life Hurts (Book Review)
  • God, Medicine and Miracles - The spiritual factor in healing (Book Review)
  • Going Public with Your Faith - Becoming a spiritual influence at work (Book Review)
  • War Against the Weak (Book Review)
  • Make Me and Mould Me?